April 2 (4:30 am New Delhi time)

Sorry, I lied. My first post wasn't March 31, but instead April 2. Now I am terribly confused. We left March 31, 1:00 pm, and arrived at 1:00 am, April 2. We missed april fools day completely. Bummer. How that's possible, you do the math. 

Well, I'm in INDA!!!!!!!!!!! It's such a drastic change from the USA, it really is on the opposite side of the world. The first thing that hit me was the smell. The second we landed and the airplane door cracked open, the smell rushed into my nostrils and took them by surprise. It smelled damp. Like a damp towel was left on the hanger and someone was smothering you with it. Damp, with just a hint of plant. Not pleasant, but certainly not unpleasant. 

Just the air port was a shock. So many different people, who all looked the same. When we got outside, a man hired by my dad's job to drive us to our hotel came and greeted us. Outside, you couldn't even tell that it was night. Street lights everywhere, the sky hardly dark. My face, along with my brother's, was plastered to the window of the cab, while in the front seat my father's colleague chatted with the driver in Tibetan. Out the window we saw such intense poverty. Stray dogs with their ribs showing, barely alive, limping in search for any kind of food. Stray people, homeless, lying on the ground, looking very dead. Posters plastered on every surface were ripped and barely readable. Then, as we rounded the corner, there it was. A stunning difference to what we had just seen. The Radisson hotel. Big, fancy, beautiful. One of the most visually pleasing places I've ever been to. Spectacular. 

Now I'm in my hotel room, lying on my deluxe king size bed while my brother sleeps on the floor. It's incredible to see the drastic contrast between the rich and the poor. Outside of my hotel room you have the view of a beautiful pool. Exotic trees, a spa and lounge chairs. Then there's the Wall. A 12 foot high cement wall, with tall iron spikes at the top. Directly on the other side of the wall is an empty lot. Empty meaning no buildings. But people living under makeshifts tents, sleeping on the ground, children begging for food, mothers begging for milk for their children and babies. Oxen being herded by men and boys.  Two so different worlds, only a few feet apart. It makes me feel so incredibly lucky, being able to stay in a place so decadent and luxurious. Even just a roof over our heads. But it also makes me feel so greedy, and that the system so unjust. We say in this amazing place, yet they have to beg for food and starve on the ground? It doesn't seem right. It isn't right. I feel like something must be done, but I don't know how to start. It seems like no matter what we do, what I  do, they're still outside begging, and I'm still lying on my king size bed.