The last four days, Dan and I have been pushing the limits of our Hindi language skills. That's because we have been breaking things and need lots of specialized words. In a few days, we broke one camel nose peg, two nose peg string loops, one saddle, and one shoe. All have required creative fixes and help from local people.

Fixing the nose peg was the most dramatic. This had to done, as a camel without a nose peg is like a car without a steering wheel. The reins are affixed to this peg. This requires the insertion of a peg, which looks like the bishop in a chess set, into a hole in the camel's nose. It is not pleasant for the camel. While I took on the role of camel head holder, Dan played camel doctor. I'm not very good at camel wrestling. Sam, the camel, picked me up off the ground and slammed me on her back. I got bruised ribs for my effort. Camel 1, humans 0. We then enlisted the help of four village boys to help hold the head. This resulted in four boys being thrown around. Camel 2, humans 0. That's when we brought in a knowledgable village elder. He fashioned a halter out of a car tire, slipped a beam into the halter, and had two people stand on the beam to hold Sam's head on the ground. The peg was inserted with a lot of roaring from the camel. Camel 2, humans 1.

Each time we've needed help, we use our Hindi or use a notebook to make drawings to get across our request. Each time, the Indian villagers have taught us what we need to know. We've crouched down with village elders while they have taught us to weave special ropes for nose pegs, a metal worker has pounded out a metal sleeve to splint a broken saddle bar, and everyone wants to show us how to pack our camels, though Dan and I have gotten pretty good at that.

We are now making our way to Sikar by following railroad tracks. The road is too hectic and dangerous. I write this in an abandoned railway station. We are camping on the verandah overlooking two Nim trees where we have our camels tethered. They are eating 60 kilograms (over 120 pounds) of camel fodder. Every day we have to find a local farmer and buy camel food. This evening the farmer who provided our camel food gave us a special kindness. When we tried to pay him, he refused the payment and said in Hindi, "Your God is my God." We've had many such kindnesses from the Indian people.

One thing we didn't anticipate is that we are bringing lots of luck to the areas of desert we pass through. It seems that wherever we go in the great Thar Desert, we are bringing rain with us. It has rained seven times in the areas we have been in. This has slowed us down considerably. The saddles' leather and hay filling would be damaged by the rain, so we have to find a place to pull over and wait out the storm. Of course, local farmers love the rain for their crops. So it looks like Dan and I will stick out today in the train station, as big black clouds are dumping rain.

In our next journal entry, we will tell you what we discovered about turbans. We had no idea that they serve a purpose other than head wear.