We spent 30 difficult days in the beautiful but impoverished country of India. Prior to the trip we made a small attempt to acquaint ourselves with the Indian culture and prepare for the shock of visiting a third-world country. Neither of us had traveled overseas before. We came to the conclusion (after the first day) that this was something that had to be experienced to comprehend, and reading a few books, watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel, or listening to others speak of their experiences while visiting the country did not do the job. Knowing a second language is always a plus while traveling, and we tried to learn a few phrases in Hindi (what we thought to be the national language) but discovered that each state had its own language. Impressively, many people were fluent in English and we always found someone to communicate with.