Hello everyone!

Yesterday we had a beautiful ceremony that marked the half-way point of our journey across the Atlantic Ocean. First of all, one of the Africans on board did a libation to remember the slaves that went through the middle passage. Then, we had a minute of silence for the ones that never made it. Afterwards, we rang the ship's bell 54 times (in honor of the 53 Africans of La Amistad and one for all the slaves). Then we laid a basket with lots of different objects that represent this trip and all the Atlantic crossings during the slave trade on the sea. The basket contained coins from different countries (including Brazil), sugar cane, bananas, beads, and notes that everyone wrote about the middle passage.

Of course I photographed the ceremony more than I participated, but that is just the way I like it. Some of the pictures are going on the Amistad website, and others I will publish on my Flickr, called "Destino: Cabo Verde". Everyone was very emotional about the ceremony, and I think it had a great impact in the group. It really brought us together and made us remember the real purpose of the journey. It was a very good day, although I ended up pretty tired because of all the different activities (and I had been on watch from 0300 until 0700 that morning).

We are now very close to our destination and time is passing very fast. The wind came back and in the last 24 hours we had the best speed average since Cape Verde. If we stay this lucky maybe in a week we will see land. The sea is full of irregular waves, and the captain explained it's a result of a storm that happened in North America. Isn't that funny? She said that the waves go on forever. something to do with physics. Another interesting thing is that the sea temperature is rising, and we finally caught a fish! Those are both signs we are getting closer to the American continent. Isn't that exciting?
 

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