Well...

I'm not particularly eloquent nor prolific. But I am trying my best to give people a taste of what my experience is. I am in Jaisalmer in the Thar desert, on the western side of India. I have been here for a while and i might be here for the rest of my time. 6 days ago, just as I was contemplating where to go next a strange thing happened: I was sitting in the shade of the first fort gate, everything is a monolithe and this was no exception. My backpack was on and I was waiting for 2 friends I had just met. We were planning to go and play frisbee down by the lakeside. The lake itself has massive catfish in it. You can feed them bread and they go crazy! Anyways, I was sitting there, wondering how I was going to get back into the desert.
I just finished a camel safari 2 days before, it was a blast. But I had the idea in my head to truely get out. Out to the nomadic people who wander all winter, moving from place to place with their goats. The other idea was to head north, to Punjab. I hadn't made a decision but I was ready.
A man approached me and began talking, before I knew it he was offering to take me into the desert. For only 300 rupees a day. But for some reason, when a friend of his showed up on a motorcycle he passed me along to him. We exchanged a few brief words and then we were off. On the back of his motorcycle. He took me to his house, which is where I am staying now. I am learning, albeit slowly, the local language: Marwari and Hindi, learning two languages at once sucks, but I can't convince Tara, the man whose family I am staying with, to teach me one or the other. Since the first day, I have been on to many adventures to count. I went to see a gypsy village, took part in the wedding ceremony for his cousin, helped another one of his cousins out on his farm. It included working until 1 in the morning using a giant threshing machine to process the harvest, and we went lizard hunting.
I am safe and in good hands :D I know some people might worry, but everything is fine. Tara took me into his home because as he told me, it was gods will that we met at the time that we did. His family doesn't have much. But enough to share their home with me. it is just like being on exchange again. I am here because I want to sink into the culture and learn what it means to live in this desolate place. As a tourist, hopping from sight to sight, I only could glaze over what was actually happening. Now I am taking the opportunity to really sink in and learn from another culture. I am not commited to anything, but so far everyone in Tara's family has been so kind to me. His youngest son is just starting to get over me, until today, he would cry every time I walked within 20 feet of him...
Who knows how it will pan out. Tara's family are desert people, like everyone else. Tara speaks English because he used to be a camel driver who took people out on safaris. His family has a farm out in the desert, in a town with no electricity where the houses are made from dung, sand and stone. This is the India that I have only seen from a distance, but I hope to live it. I will do my best to keep everyone informed about my adventures. I am even worse at taking pictures. but even so all of my photos are on flickr.com under alexlandt. You can search me out and check the photos out!
Thank you for reading!