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Across the Equator
Namani
was rapidly approaching the equator, and we had a party to plan for day nine. Hav-
ing never crossed that milestone by sea before, we were all pollywogs, as per naval tradi-
tion. Therefore, we assigned the role of Neptune to Nicky's stuffed animal, a monkey
named Frodo who was “born” in Indonesia and had therefore presumably crossed the
equator at some point. Frodo made a solemn Neptune who presided over the pollywog tri-
als, accusing each of us of dastardly crimes. Those were formulated in secrecy the previous
night, each crew member writing one accusation for each of his crewmates: heinous mis-
deeds along the lines of leaving Lego for the barefoot night watchman to find the hard way.
During the trials and subsequent punishment, Nicky got a little carried away in smearing
the guilty parties (including himself) with shaving cream, and all of us sported silly
headgear. Finally, each crew member dutifully sacrificed a piece of his or her celebratory
brownie to Neptune. From then on, we could call ourselves shellbacks and note our latitude
in degrees south, a rewarding feeling to say the least.
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