Just a quick update:

For those of you interested in following the #OnePiece  Photo Project, I’ll only be updating those on my twitter account (@DHCH_Project) from here on out. I’ll be reserving the blog space for longer, in-depth articles.

-Ashley

We’re still shacking up in a hotel while we wait for all our worldly possession to find their way to the  Bay Area, but until then I decided there was no reason why I couldn’t start back up with the #OnePiece photo project.

My initial impression of the Bay area is that it is by and large well taken care of in terms of litter and waste management. However, even here, with the high population density, there are areas that are a bit neglected or forgotten. Our hotel is in a business park and on a stroll today around the area I saw only two trash bins which were full already. I walked down a scenic lane with hedges and trees on both sides. From far away these look lovely:

But as I walked down this lane I noticed far too many pieces of litter tucked under and even IN the hedges. Some of it can be blamed on the wind, but a lot of it had to be purposely placed their by other pedestrians who just didn’t want to hold onto their trash until they could reach a trash bin:

On one level, I can understand that an area is bound to be more littered if there is no place to put that litter. On the other hand, I don’t know why it’s so hard to hold onto the trash you make until you can get home at least.

We’re in this hotel for another 9 days and I may just informally adopt this little section of my walk and clean it up. I think a year ago this sort of thing would have gone right past me and I wouldn’t have even thought about it. So I can appreciate why it can go unnoticed.

Now that we’re in the Bay Area I was thinking about starting a social club that’s based around cleaning small areas of the city that seem to be neglected. I’m inspired by groups like Bunch of Fools and similar groups in India that have sprung up all over the place to fill the gaps left by municipalities.

My itinerary is slowly coming together for my trip in September. The project has grown much larger than I initially anticipated, with many individuals and NGO’s graciously agreeing to meet with me during my two month stay.

Initially, I had planned to keep the focus narrow – I only planned to speak with contacts located in the New Delhi area. This was to keep myself from getting too scattered and maintain focus. I figured this would be the first of many trips, so I should start smaller and work toward a broader focus.

However, as the goal of my initiative has evolved and my understanding deepened, it became clear that I couldn’t go all the way to India for two months and only explore the waste management challenges that existed in Delhi, because the story varies thought the country and so many people from different places have offered to help me understand the complexities of these issues.

So, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to expand my original itinerary to include locations in Southern India as well as Mumbai and Pune. Below you can see a graphic of the planned itinerary as it stands now.

On Sunday night I will be speaking with a representative from Hasiru Dala in Bangalore. I am eager to learn from their experiences.

It may have been quiet around this blog for over a month but I’m hoping to update you all soon on all the work I’ve been doing behind the scenes over the last few weeks in preparation for my trip to India.

So what’s been the hold up? Since my last entry I’ve been balancing my study with a lot of  local volunteer work. It’s related to my work as an Illustrator and Designer and I had a lot of long nights and short deadlines to meet. While I continue to do my #OnePiece work with every walk around the neighborhood, I have neglected to take my camera with me. I plan to restart that soon.

Also, in other art related news, I had to re-photograph about 30 paintings because I misplaced the SD card with the original photos. (Several back-ups have been established this time around!)

The big update delay is actually due to the fact that my husband accepted a new job in California and we’ve been running around like crazy trying to take care of things around here before we leave. It’s a lot of organizing, donating, and throwing out we have to do. Luckily we’ve found homes for a lot of the things we can’t take with us. We also have to prep the cats for their first ever flight, which has meant getting all kinds of health checks, and special paperwork.

I have a few articles as well as a 400 page doctorate thesis to finish reading and review here, so realistically, with our expected move date being somewhere around the 17th or 18th, a new update might not be in store until the end of June. However, if I can get the reading done before that in between move related errands I will.

Things I have been doing that are related to my research are: keeping tabs on NGOs and Waste Management Professionals via Twitter and Facebook, reading about their projects, accomplishments and challenges. I’ve also been slowly filling in my interview schedule for my trip to India. While I tried to keep most of my work in the Northern cities of Delhi and Varanasi I’ve met so many amazing individuals in the south that I will be a lot more cross country travel than I originally anticipated.

Thank you all for your patience while we finish our move. There’s definitely more to come here, so stay tuned!