City City City

I am back in the city now, where it is much cooler than the desert. There were a few rain drops yesterday and my brothers and I went running out to splash in them, but it stopped after probably 10 drops and turned into a terrible and blinding dust storm. Oh well, at least it cooled off for a bit with a nice breeze during the night.

Trying to accomplish even the simplest of things, like booking a bus ticket or mailing a postcard are like wading through glue. They require super-human patience and persistence. That makes it easy to prioritize; if I want to do something bad enough, I'll muster up the patience and get it done. I have realized that the hardships I am facing here (not being able to stay in the desert because of the heat, no growing on the farm and the school closed) are tiny and almost unimportant obstacles in comparison to what the people living here are facing during these hot summer months. Waiting for the water tanker every morning, scavenging for food, trying to stay cool, bathing once a week, hunting for work...the list goes on. My having to return to Jaipur is nothing. My roadblock is not a roadblock, simply a miniscule speed-bump slowing me down.

I went this morning on a whim and unannounced to visit a contact I had made last October, a Rajput farmer who owns numerous hotels and farms in the state of Rajasthan. He welcomed me back graciously and offered to take me to his farm tomorrow. We will pack a lunch and spend the day there, as it is 2 hours away, we'll leave in the morning and return at night. He was just starting up the farm last time, and I am interested to see his progress. As he is a Rajput and has much more money and resources than most of the other farmers I have encountered, he claims to be doing quite well. He has invited my homestay family to his hotel for dinner tonight. It feels good when being proactive pays off.

I have made plans to go to Delhi for the next week or two. I'll be staying in an area I know, and from there I can fly, train, bus, or taxi to anywhere else in India, as Delhi is the capital and "hub" of the country. We'll see where this takes me. As they say: "seb kuch milenga," all is possible.