It took about two hours to reach the Badin bus stand in Hyderabad where I needed to catch the bus to Umerkot. From there, the bus had trouble starting and I marinated in my sweat with all the other passengers as we waited for an hour. Eventually we were on our bumpy way, and I got to Umerkot hours later feeling pretty dirty.Once there, I contacted Faazal sahib. He said he would be by. I waited a while, then called back after standing with my bags in the street for 20 minutes. He told me he was trying to find someone’s number to have me call. This happens a lot. There is a communication gap and it’s not a language thing. I asked him where he was, and just hopped on a rickshaw to get there. I sat down, met him and a few other people.He didn’t seem to know what I was looking for and as Fatah sahib had not told me what he had discussed, it was unknown to me. It became apparent that he only knew that I needed help with something. I told him about my search for puppeteers, and he made some calls. I was connected to Juman sahib, a well respected, elder in the community, connected to all things culture and literature. He had kindly opened his doors to me and agreed to see me.I was whisked down the way to him. We ended up spending the evening in a little room/shack with several people dropping in, including his sons. I asked about puppeteers. Everyone agreed they had no idea about that. Everyone discussed many interesting things about the local culture and community for hours. We enjoyed some food and then once again, it was confirmed that there was no knowledge of puppeteers, but based on the bits of info Fatah sahib gave me, that I shared with them, they would ask around.They put me up for the night, and his sons took good care to make me feel at home. I slept on a charpoy in the desert, under the stars, with dogs fighting around me, but the night was beautiful and I had no idea if anything could be found. I did not hear back from Fatah sahib, from whom I hoped to get a number of someone who knew a former puppeteer who now worked at a shop in Salamkot, which it turned out was another 120 km or so from there.