I've only just begun

 Being on the go has been a rollercoaster ride and I both love it and hate it.  It is so amazing to see how one adapts to things very quickly.  Before leaving the U.S. I was used to a hot shower, clean clothes, clean bathrooms, fresh fruits and vegetables and Peets coffee.  Now, it is rare when I get a warm shower, and if I do it usually comes in a bucket.  Squatter toilets are the norm here and my western body is not made for this.  Fruits and vegetables are rare here and when I do get my veggies they are dripping in heavy oily sauce.  I don't mind though.  Slowly I have adapted and learned to accept that I will not get the luxuries from back home.  Especially in India where everything is turned completely upside down.  India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true.  It's rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful and all of this comes to you at once.  Currently, I am lucky enough to be staying with my friend and his family and I have seen another side of India.  Not everything is chaotic, dirty and shocking.  Family is family no matter what part of the world you are in.  Indian families are united, hard working and very important in the culture.  I would like to end this short story with a quote from the book, A Fine Balance by an Indian author, "You cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them.  Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success.  You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair"(231).  This is what India is all about.