A good day is winding down. For those of us here in the Bay of Bengal, life is good. We spent most of our hours out on two boats – exploring, fishing, snorkeling, and learning about what makes this place so unique and at the same time representative of India as a broader whole and the issues of the world today. There is so much to consider thinking about.

Ozzy – I thought about diversity of experiences. We think we’re different than other humans, but when you look closer at the place we were today, you actually see a really different world than our own. Here, I imagine being a fish living in a reef. I imagine the diversity of fish and other life and the struggle for survival. It’s so different from our own addiction to comfort.

Lillian – the geographical phenomenon in this country is actually insane. on my first trip, we stayed in the mountains the entire time. The climate was so different from here. The way the people lived there was impacted by the environment around them – the mountains and the cool weather. Here, people clearly live off of the water. Off of fish. But in Agora, it’s just a vegetarian diet. Seeing this other side of the subcontinent – even in the same country as the mountains – real diversity seems to be shaping people’s lives. In the US, we like to say that we’re a melting pot, but we have less diversity than what I have felt here. The people, the food, the climate – it’s a completely different lifestyle out here. Because people depend on the environs around them, the different geographical phenomena truly changes the lives. In the US, whether you’re on the coast in California or the mountains of Colorado, the norm is to live a controlled life. People are so connected to what’s happening.

Reverend Farrington – here, I think about abundance. You can eat as much fish as you want. Everything is so healthy and uncontaminated that even people without resources can get as much as they need. It’s evidence that there’s a different relationship to the environment here. Back home, we have such industrial farming that there’s an inevitability to run-off and contamination. There’s no direct sense of the connection between that and the water and the fish. We don’t see the wholistic reality of life that seems so obvious here. And that disconnection of decision making and healthcare means that we have so many sick people. I think about Westmoreland Country, where we don’t have a single doctor but have so many unhealthy people. Here, the world is so obviously connected and interdependent, that I sensed people respecting what they needed.

Via – I was thinking about my conversation with Will Flagg about dolphins and why I find them so annoying. I personally don’t like them because they take advantage of other animals. Will doesn’t like them for some personal reasons that you should, umm, ask him about. So what does this have to do with everything we did today? Well, are we sort of like the dolphins? Are we the dolphins of the land? We seem to smart for our own good. We seem to be taking advantage of that. Going snorkeling today, seeing all the bleached coral, I thought about how we seem to have bullied the life out of the world. We don’t seem any better than the dolphins, and I really don’t like dolphins.

Ryan – today was surreal in the best kind of way. Coming here, I expected this place to be unique. But everything overwhelmed me. Even the way the port was laid out. The way people were working and collaborating. Everything was amazing – really awesome. I didn’t even think about checking my phone. Just a desire to learn and be part of the place around me. That sense of surreal was so universal that it kept me engaged and curious all day.

Flagg – Similar to Via, I thought it was going to be a lot harder to get along with the group and the locals. But, being here and spending a day with Suman, Bobby, and Hari really opened my eyes to the reality of the world. We are all a lot more similar than we are different. Being out on the water, the divisions disappeared. They lost their logic.

Brady – when Via said the thing about the dolphins, this made me rethink tourism as a whole. The places we go – Guatemala, Senegal, and Spain – seem like unique parts of the world. Is it good to visit them? How do we really appreciate them? What should I make of the fact that some of the buildings and lives here are less “nice” than hours? People have to work hard here to make a few dollars. But they have food and a nice environment to live in. Tourism seems to be on the rise because of the rise in AI. Being on the water made me think about the reality of life – of working hard, of needing to survive. How is it possible that the most populated country in the world can make me think about bounty?