One word that comes to the forefront of my mind when I think about this trip is contrast.

India is full of contrasts, incredibly full of them. Tremendous wealth is often displayed in the face of extreme poverty. It was so stark that I would regularly wonder how the Indian people could be so accepting of it. How could they be proud of a magnificent wonder of the world such as the Taj Mahal when right outside crippled beggars or street vendors are struggling to make a living? But then I would again realize the hypocrisy in that thought, that it is not just the people of India who accept this. People all over the world are hurting and in need of help. Even in the States there is tremendous suffering, maybe not in the form of the extreme poverty you would see in India, but suffering nonetheless. Yet because we are used to seeing those types of suffering, sanitized against them, we find it more comfortable to remain self-absorbed and no longer care or seek to find ways to help others. It doesn't bother us as much because we become calloused against it. May the experience of new cultures never cease to bring us to greater realization of what we have come to accept as normal in our own cultures!