Now it's my turn to be 20!

It's been 13 days since we wrote to you.  Our followers.  Our precious...es.

Well yesterday was my birthday.  I have been here for two decades.  It's surreal.  I am still young, but time is going by so quickly. 

17/1/2010:
Today was a good day.  Better than most days.
After breakfast, which was fried (?) nuggets of white flour (with the consistency close to that of pie crust), spicy cabbage, and oiled chillies, we were confronted by a pan chewing gentleman.  We were on our way to Uperkot Fort in Junagadh, Gujarat, when we heard a man yelling at us from behind.  Instincively, we did not turn to look.  What was once a voice far behind us in a different world, materialized into a man on his motorcycle stopped to our right.  He spit the red juice of the pan, and motioned for us to get on.  Confused, thinking possibly he was offering us a ride, we pointed towards the fort, and tried to figure out where he was going.  So in answer to our question, he motioned for us to get on once again.  I looked at Chance, unsure, but when our eyes met there were no need for words.  We understood eachother.  They said, adventure.
So we got on.  Since he came in the same direction we were walking, I figured he might continue that direction.  But don't kid yourselves.  We are in India after all.  So he turned around, and continued in the direction from which we came.
Where we were going?  I didn't know.  All I knew was I wanted a motorcycle.  After a few minutes, we parted from the road, and joined with a quaint alleyway.  He pulled off to the side and stopped the engine.  Suddenly four guys came around the corner with chains and bats and knives and killin things, so we turned to run.  But of course, another four had come from behind.  We were stuck.  We had no weapons, only our bare fists.  So we turned back to back ready to do... something, what exactly we didn't know.  And right when they began to move in on us, our driver said, "this my house," and he invited us in.  So here we were.  In his house a couple km away from where we wanted to be.. hmmm.. is he going to take us back?  Eh.. probably not.  So we sat and spoke about things in broken english (if you can even call it that) until the topic of breakfast was raised.  We told them we had already eaten before, so they nodded and brought us breakfast 10 minutes later.  It was the same breakfast as before, except we had roti along with it.
More broken english until the topic of lunch came up.  We accepted their offer for lunch (in four hours) expecting Kishan (our driver) to drive us back.  But of course, as you all probably could have guessed, that was not the case.  Instead we sat and spoke as more family began to arrive.  First Suni (the eldest son), then grandma, then Samir, and last Kishan's sister.  But eventually, conversation petered out (much later than I expected due to the total lack of understanding between eachother) and the television was turned on.  Conversation would come and go, until it was lunch.  We had Mutton Biryani, a rice dish.  This was the first time we've had meat in India, by the way.  It was good, and it didn't stop coming, even though we begged it to because we were so full.  Our pleading for mercy was met with another serving of food.  Oh India..
Eventually, Kishan offered to take us to his farm house.  6km later, we entered a huge lot of sand and dirt,  About 1/3 of it was being used to grow peanuts!  I miss peanut butter.  Then the rest was dirt.  Then we were put inside to sit through some ear defening music until it happened. Yes.  It.  The best moment ever.
SHOWER TIME.  When he first offered,  I wasn't to interested.  After all, I only showered 5 days ago.  I'm squeaky clean!  But then the water began to flow, pumped from a well through a large hose, burning hot.  I gladly rinsed my nasty black crusted feet, still not interested.  And then the water cooled.  Hoo man.  I was sold.  It felt amazing under the desert sun.  Kishan sat on the ground wrapped in a towel, throwing the perfect water over his head.  I envied this man.  More than I thought one could possibly envy.  So I stood rinsing my feet, salivating over the rushing water.  I watched as Chance found himself a towel and joined him.  I cringed. The envy grew ten fold.  How could this be?  I could hardly contain it!  It took every ounce of self restraint no to rip off my clothing and usurp the holder of the hose to have it all to myself.  But I waited.  So long.  Years. Decades.  Centuries.  And then it happened.  I grabbed the soaked towel in a heap on the floor, used and soon to be abused.  I ran inside, tore my clothes off and introduced the towel to my private parts.  I ran outside, a bucket of perfection, lying wait for me to desecrate.  I poured it atop my head.  Yes.  Ecstasy.
Sadly, I soon finished washing myself and began to dry in the sun.  The whole process was so refreshing.  I sat with an overwhelming calm, feeling as if I floated out of my body, and envied its relaxed state as I hovered from above.  Perfection.

Love,
Josh