arthur richards

Sarah and I are outta here in less than 32 hours. We're off to Guadalajara, Mexico to work on a grassroots media project to document community struggles with water scarcity.

Our project, Adapting to Scarcity, has been in the works for a year. And now, we're making our final preparations to head south.

Today we packed our bags full of documentary equipment and pulled together the rest of our gear. Checking things off our to-do list, an overwhelming sense of excitement and anxiety settled in. It's a bizarre and restless feeling - a feeling I haven't felt this strongly since I packed a truck to head to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

I suppose it's inevitable - paring down your possessions and mentally preparing to plunge into the unknown is by no means trivial. At the moment, it feels strangely paralyzing but deeply enlivening. All of my senses are heightened but decisive action feels out of my reach.

After our initial blitzkrieg packing, Sarah took me out for a run to settle our nerves. Being relatively new to the sport, I've struggled to find it cathartic. But today, controlling my breathing and concentrating on the cooling, comforting autumn mist, I found solace. As the road we ran on faded from my mind's eye, the road ahead of us came into a fierce focus. I regained a sense of control and purpose, ready and eager to set foot in Mexico.

While we'll be blogging about what we're up to with our project at adaptingtoscarcity.org, I'm going to try and keep a personal travel blog alive right here. We'll see if I have the discipline to keep this thing alive, but I hope it will be a nice way to keep loved ones abreast of our adventures. Stay tuned and catch you on the flip side!