Increased Awareness of Strengths and Areas for Growth
- Through my experience, I have gained awareness of some areas where I am strong and others where I still need to develop. My experiences taught me my abilities to communicate effectively despite language barriers and cultural differences, my ability to adapt to unusual experiences, and my curiosity to experience new things. My areas of weakness were a lack of patience, discovered during the lengthy and uncomfortable journeys in Sri Lanka due to infrastructure damage from the civil war, and poor preparation skills, discovered from a realization that my research prior to the trip did little to prepare me for the wonders I was going to see.
- In both countries, there are countless examples of globally important issues that I was able to personally witness. In India, one key issue was population density and poverty, with Delhi being a prime example of how this results in begging, chaotic traffic, poor living conditions, and residential crowding within and around the city. Another issue related to India is water supply and purity. Even in hotels, we were still unable to drink the water. We also saw the issue of water in Sri Lanka, where the dry season caused many of the river banks to recede or dry up entirely. An issue I experienced in Sri Lanka was the effect of warfare. Throughout the country, the effects of the civil war were present with a lack of infrastructure and in the animal population with many elephants orphaned due to being disturbed during the war. These issues of water, warfare, and population density/poverty are very applicable globally, and my first hand experience of this helped to open my eyes to the effect of these issues.
- Throughout both countries, the issue of beggars was a constant ethical issue that weighed heavily on me. One option was to give to the countless beggars who stood alongside the road (many of whom were children) and feel that hopefully my money would be used to benefit their lives. The other option was to not give, due to the consideration that the money may end up in the hands of a ringleader who would use the money for drugs or to support gangs and the quite real possibility that I was contributing to a continuous cycle of begging preventing these people from having the initiative to further themselves through education or work. In the end, I decided not to give. I'm still not sure what the correct answer really is.
