As our time in India wraps up, I thought I would write a bit about our experiences and impressions. Before we came here, everyone who had visited told us, “you’ll either love it or hate it.” And we agree that since it is, in many ways, so different from our home cultures, we all had a pretty strong reaction upon arriving. And I wouldn’t say it was all positive.

But after being here for four weeks, there are so many positive aspects. The Indian people we have met have been respectful, helpful and kind. There is a “live and let live” attitude that they extend to each other, to street animals (be that dogs or cows or goats) and to the vehicles that go in every direction. They are also always hustling, trying to figure out how to get by, as evident by the copious amount of motorbikes delivering everything from food to phone chargers at the drop of a hat, the fact that we have never waited more than 5 minutes for an Uber and the little stands/whole in the wall stores on every block selling fresh vegetables and chips and random toiletries. Anything you might need! We saw men with barber chairs on the side of the road, offering up a clean shave and haircut to those coming by. There is also a strong service industry with just the right amount of attentiveness. It is surprising the number of employees in any given store or restaurant, waiting to help in any way possible but not overbearing in any way. Also there were gentle reminders all day everyday that people are people, doing their best with what they have, running their errands, waiting outside the school gates for their precious children, getting a coffee with a friend, all those everyday things we all know too well. We also saw some amazing architecture, most notably the Taj Mahal but other amazing sites as well.

There are also challenges. For us, the hardest part is seeing the extreme poverty everywhere. The children begging, the babies clearly malnourished and the living conditions of many was almost unbearable. This was especially difficult for our girls to see. Also, as we are all adamant animal lovers, it was hard to see the condition many animals were in and hard (for Luisa) to understand that she cannot approach the street dogs. Another challenge was the weather–the extreme humidity of monsoon season was much more difficult than I imagined. Having lived in Central America and being a self-proclaimed gecko (i.e. a lover of hot climates), I arrived with a confidence that was quickly destroyed. After 5 minutes outside the sweat would be dripping down our backs, we would be dehydrated and exhausted. It made it very difficult to wander around and take in our surroundings. I asked one of the teachers at the school if we should have come in the winter instead and she said that the pollution is so much worse then because there is fog and it just sits in the city. So maybe monsoon season was the right choice? I actually think that October or May might have been a better choice, but it is what it is. And our last week there, the weather had improved. I believe monsoon season was wrapping up. I would say the last big challenge was the amount of garbage everywhere and the smell that emanated from that garbage as it baked in the sun and steamed in the rains.

India was a challenging country to start our adventure (we all view our time in Greece as summer vacation before the “real” trip started LOL) and to do it without a tour group was a feat. But we learned a lot about ourselves, our resilience and flexibility and a lot about India. We are all glad we went, even if most of us don’t plan on returning. Hannah did say she enjoyed it and would like to go back one day.

When we left Delhi, we had two small goodbyes that were heart-warming and sweet. First, Luisa’s school had a very nice party for her complete with cake and drawings from her classmates. (The green gates are outside her school.) Second, Olivia made a thank you card for the women at Starbucks and they were thrilled. “This really means a lot to us!”