24th of February, 2023.
Hitchhiking in India.
Mnis is a bit hangover due to a wedding last night but he needs to go to work, his boss is calling him and inquiring where is he. Laugh. We stop in a gas station where he washed his face, change shirts, and try to look more presentable and awaken. He is a Sikh but he doesn’t use the turban and he shaves his hair. He is a nice man afterwards and I share my snacks with him while we drive. He drops me off somewhere in Bikaner.
I need to walk outside the town, where I can finally start to hitchhike again. A senior man sees me and offer to drive me there. He definitely saves me a lot of walking but I still need to keep walking a bit further after he drops me off.
Then everything goes nuts! I’m standing in a quite busy road, with many tuk-tuks passing by and people too. Everybody keep stopping and inquiring me about what I am doing and trying to give me advice. If they only knew! I get a bit stressed with this because every time I have to explain again and again that I know what I am doing, many cars pass by and I might be missing a good chance of getting to Jaisalmer. I know they just want to help but it’s inevitable to also feel a bit frustrated.
A little angel comes to help me. Manoj is just a boy but as many other boys in India, he seems to have already the responsibilities of a man. His eyes are of an incredible beauty, just like the tigers eye stone. Manoj can understand and speak some English, so after I explain everything to him, he keeps on helping me by telling anyone who tries to approach me that I am fine. How sweet!
After a long time waiting, I decide to take my chances and cross the bridge right ahead of me in this same road. I was afraid that it would be worse on that side but by now I don’t care anymore.
On that side, many people keep offering me to pay for the bus. Groups of people who want to share the cost, and sometimes business’s man in fancy cars. I keep refusing and asking to the universe to help me to get to Jaisalmer by hitchhiking, so I don’t need to bother these lovely people who just want to help.
It is near 5 p.m. when I finally decide to accept one of the offers. I am just about to speak with the man offering, when a car stops. Lokalpan, with his younger son and his brother Loki are going all the way to Jaisalmer. They are coming back from a wedding, and the rest of their families are split among other cars. I come with them.
They offer me different food and sweets which they have brought from the wedding. Lokalpan can speak English so we are talking and he is very surprised about my travels.
We’ll get quite late in Jaisalmer, clearly too late for me to find out where my Workaway host is, so Lokalpan offers to call a friend of him who runs an NGO for Women Empowerment: Sambhali Trust. They arrange everything so I can spend the night in their branch in Jaisalmer (they have other branches in Jodhpur). Once there, I meet a wonderful lady, Arunima, who is living and working in the building, being the office also located here. She helps me with everything I need and also gives me some dinner. We talk for a while and she tells me more about the NGO and herself. I am so happy to meet her, such lovely young woman, and also to know about this project. They also accept volunteers and need support to keep helping other women.
*** Get to know about them here à https://www.sambhali.org/
Next morning, I walk towards Trotters Jaisalmer.
10 Years Around the World 