India

On my trip to India, I experienced much joy and saw the pain of others. A group of teenagers, including myself, and a couple of adults arrived at the Orlando air port before the suns decide to show. We all loaded up into the first plane to go to the John F. Kennedy air port in New York. After some time there, we got on to another plane to go to an air port located in Moscow, Russia. We watched the snow fall there, while planes were delayed. Once the flights picked up again, we finally got on the plane to go to India. When we landed, we were greeted with an air of curry. Natives of India greeted us and drove us to the rooms we were to be staying in. During that car ride, I saw the streets were crowded with cows and goats. When we arrived to our rooms, we saw that we were just going to be staying in an apartment. Our beds were large mats on the floor with a pillow. The bathrooms weren’t much different than our own. There was a normal sink, a toilet, and a place to bathe. No tub, or shower though. Just a water spic and a bucket. Luckily, we found a place to buy toilet paper. During our time in India, we visited temples, slum towns, and took part in a traditional wedding. The temples were magnificent. The ceilings were jeweled with crystals and mirrors. It was important for your hair to not be showing. Feet had to be bare before walking inside. In the temples, statues of the gods were presented on the walls for people to come in and pray to. In the slum towns, children and animals were running around and playing. The building were made from mud and built closely together. For the education of those children who were not wealthy enough to afford a private school, they sat in the ground and wrote in the ground with sticks. A week before Christmas, we went on the roof on the apartment to fly kites. In India, kite flying is a competitive sport and can also be fatal. On Christmas day, we spent the day in one of the slum towns to help build homes. We stayed there after we finished setting up to play with the children and sing some Christmas songs to them. On New Years Eve, we attended a party. During the last day of our stay, we attended a wedding. A parade is taken down the streets or a few blocks with people dressed in festive outfits. The bride and groom are not able to see each other before the are married. As we left, we were all sad. I cried because I knew I would miss the people I met. Everybody there was very sympathetic.