After 35+ hours of travel, three flights and a four hour taxi ride, Kevin and I (Jeremiah) finally made it to Jaisalmer with Merid. This is easily the longest I have ever been en route to any place and India is unlike any place I’ve ever been. It’s 8am and as I sit on this terrace, cows fill the marketplace square, dogs are chasing a boar, a woman tends to the goats on her rooftop and the sound of car and motorcycle horns are starting to fill the air.

We’ve been in Jaisalmer for 15 hours now and had the chance to meet some of the other teams last night. It was great to encounter a group who had on t shirts with the state of North Carolina (my home state) on it. They’re northern transplants there but still we bonded over discussions of the area. There are about 50 other teams from what I gather from around the world, primarily Europe and Australia. They all have unique stories about what brought them to do something like this. One team is a mother/son pair. The son has done this before and his mom was so intrigued, she decided to do it herself with him. Another team consists of a couple who have been on a two-year traveling honeymoon and this is another part of that story. They have a friend with them, the “third wheel” they said because a rickshaw has three wheels. The people doing this are almost as interesting as the country. All of them seem interested in what brought these three black guys from America on something like this. We are the only black folks doing this which comes as no surprise to us. I’m very curious to see how that plays out as it always seems to shape my experience a bit differently than others.

Just so we are clear, I’m very nervous about what we are about to do. Kevin and I had some rickshaw driving practice yesterday and I learned that I need lots more practice today. Remembering to release the clutch slowly as I rotate the handle to switch gears is not easy to grasp. If you do it wrong, the vehicle shuts off, not something I care to do on the highway in front of a truck. In about 24 hours we will be on our way and we have a lot of ground to cover to even pull out of the parking lot effectively. That being said, our rickshaw will be beautiful stalled out on the highway if that does happen. You’ll see pics of her later. The best way to describe her is even if the skies were gray she would rub you on the back and say “baby it’ll be okay.” Shout out to whoever caught that. If you didn’t, you’ll get another chance to try later. The driving here is insane. Lines in the road mean nothing, roads (if there is one) meant to have two lanes manage to squeeze a third lane at any driver’s time of choosing and animals stand in the road daring you to hit them, especially the cows. Don’t hit the cows.

Sickness is also a concern. I got a couple vaccines before I left and have one last typhoid pill to take. Yes it’s a little late to be taking it since I’m here already but we can’t go back in time. Even if we could, I wouldn’t take it on time. I’d bet everything on Villanova smashing Oklahoma and win huge then worry the way I am now because I wasted two opportunities to get my vaccines on time. You’ve heard about the state of sanitation in many parts of India. If not, Google it. It’s real. The 5 second rule does not apply here. I’ll try not to tempt the gods but I imagine I won’t have much choice.