With 20 days left to go before I leave for India I’ve had to work with my first minor setback.

As I mentioned earlier, I had decided to try making one of my goals during my research trip to speak with Indian street artists about how their work could be used to enhance the dialogue around waste management. I contacted several artists but did not receive much interest back. Because of this, I’ve decided to leave that goal for now, in favor of putting all of my energy into the various groups I’ll be speaking to and making a documentary about their work. The role art plays in communicating ideas about waste in India is still within the scope of the documentary though, because many of the street and spot cleaning crews in India use paint and other beautification to revive a space once it’s clean.

So what’s left to do?

Most of what I need to do before traveling in finished. Between now and when I leave I’ll be reading as much as I can from online resources and hoping for a response from Mr. Modi’s offices. All the technology I can currently afford for my trip has been purchased, thanks to generous donors through my GoFundMe campaign. Purely travel related details like flights and reservations are made. I’m as prepared as I’m ever going to be I think 😉

Will we hear from you while you’re in India?

I won’t be making any blog posts like this during my two months abroad, so if you don’t see anything going on here for two months don’t worry. In order to cut down on weight, distraction and unnecessary liability I’m not taking a laptop with me. I’ll have an unlocked phone in India and will also be able (when possible) to update my Twitter account. So if you want to keep track of me that way, follow the link.

Much of my journey will be documented the old fashioned way – via notebook and pen. I’ll be typing it up here once I get back. Also, the film and audio I’m taking while in India will probably take several weeks to edit once I get back, but that will also be uploaded.

So in short, contact with me and from me will be very limited, but I will try to do it a few times a week at least.

It’s coming up really fast and at the same time I’m eager to be underway!