"Don't go into the kitchen," warned Dan. We had ordered chapattis from a roadside stand. Dan, knowing my concern for cleanliness, thought it would be better if I didn't look. He was right. Flies buzzed over the open food, birds perched on the mixing bowls, the floor was littered with food waste. My first thought was, "No way I'm eating here." Then I studied the kitchen more carefully. The oven was built like a blast furnace. No pans were used for cooking the chapatti dough. It was plastered directly on the rock sides of the oven. Hot metal tongs were used to pick up the cooked dough which was then dropped onto a plate I carry with me. I made a judgement call. The heat would kill anything in the dough. I ate chapattis.

When you think of adventure, you often don't think about everyday things that can make the difference between success and disaster. One of those things is hygiene. Many of the hygiene standards we are used to don't apply in India. You have to learn to deal with local customs and at the same time stay healthy. For example, you don't use your left hand when eating. This is a local hygiene standard. In a country where toilets and toilet paper are not a tradition, people defecate (poop) in the fields, along the road, and at the entrance and exit to villages. Instead of toilet paper they use their left hands and water. For this reason, the left hand is not used for eating. But, if you are a lefty, you can tell people it is your skilled hand and then you avoid using your right hand.

Yes, the hygiene standards are different. But as Dan pointed out, some people say we smell. "You just use a piece of paper. We at least wash ourselves." They've got a point.

Our biggest health concern is probably water. Water can carry all kinds of problems. Much of the water in the desert is collected in giant earth funnels about 12 feet across that collect rain and direct it into a cistern, an underground storage chamber. There is nothing to prevent these cisterns from also collecting bird droppings, the occasional rodent, or debris blown by the wind. We have also watched women dip water from a hole dug in the sand and filter it through their saris (dresses) for drinking. Dan and I are particularly cautious about the water we drink. We treat our water with a Miox water purifier. It uses electricity and salt to create a chlorine solution that kills harmful organisms. Judging from our health, it seems to work. In the desert, we are drinking 6 to 8 liters of water a day. Any less and we suffer from heat exhaustion. We've covered about 150 kilometers at this point. It is not easy. We've had to learn about camels while riding them in difficult conditions. In our next entry, we will tell you what happens when we hire a man who teaches camels to dance.