The second week of the trip allowed for us to become accustomed to most of the unusual practices that India has shown us. The challenges from the first week of the trip seem minuscule as we began to grow from each encounter and reflect on how it impacts our understanding of life. While we still struggle with the recent challenges, not a single person in the group hesitates to try and confront India’s complexities.
The group has become a family. As we continue to walk on this journey together, all of us had our moment to shine and express our concerns and care for one another. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve bonded and made sure that not a single one is left behind. We laughed and cried together and this experiment wouldn’t be the same with these wonderful people.
India showed us what true peace, love, and happiness looks like but it has also displayed how corrupt a society can be. The beautiful interactions with the villagers thought us that being happy is simple. That we don’t need wealth or luxuries. That all we had to do was to remember our worth and our basic needs in order to survive as a community. Yet the country is focused on accumulating wealth, and while it is not our place to judge or to try and remedy the qualms, these interactions has opened new ideas of how to fix our problems at home.
For many of us, the journey has made us thankful for what we have at home. It was a eye opener to see how a civilization can thrive without the things we deemed necessary in order to live. Thus, we also adapted some of the life styles that we encounter. Our complaints have become almost nonexistent while our eagerness to go further beyond barriers of differences has increased.
It is both exciting and sad that we are halfway through the trip. All contributors to the experiment has left a mark in our books, the people we’ve met along the journey shaped our understanding of the human spirit, and with that we are more than ready to face any challenges that we will encounter in life.
“My eyes are opened more and more each time to the vastness of India. No matter how much time I spent here I find myself increasingly confused – a never ending collection of people, stone, cultures, languages and lands. But isn’t home the same way?” – Anonymous entry from the group journal
Students at the Taj Mahal with group leaders
Shopping in Bapu Bazaar, Jaipur
Rickshaw in Jaipur
