A breath of fresh air

I originally wrote this in an email several days ago, but in the interests of making good on some of my oft-repeated blog promises, I've decided some cutting and pasting is in order. So, here goes:

Moments ago I was sitting in a dark Internet cafe, but the electricity in town just went back on, so now we have a fan and fluorescent lights and blaring devotional music in addtition to an ancient computer (which itslef runs off a generator).

This is perhaps one of Isaac's worst days, as his phone, his electronic lifeline, has broken down and it's possible that nothing can be done about it until Singapore. Also, we've been fumigated for the second day in a row by a man pumping a toxic mosquito supressant through the streets of Gokarna. Last night Isaac spotted him and his billowing fumes from at least 100 feet away, and so we had time to run down a side alley and in the opposite direction, towards the beach.

Unfortunately, the boats we had planned on taking home had stopped for the evening, and so we climbed into an autorickshaw which, predictably enough (at least in hindsight), soon drove straight into the cloud of pesticide. Of course visibility was near zero, and you can't run over cows or pilgrims (we're in one of South India's holiest towns), so our driver had to display uncharacteristic caution as he navigated the noxious mess. Tonight we returned to town to email and just as we were ordering our masala dosas, the fumigation man walked right by our window-side booth. Isaac pulled his entire shirt over his face and didn't emerge for several minutes.

Unfortunately, this is but a fraction of the crap we've inhaled into our delicate first-world lungs in the last two weeks. The day we arrived at our bungalow in Om Beach they were burning plastic ten feet from our bed; they've been burning plastic, at greater or lesser distances, for all of our stay. We havn't been witness to too much grinding poverty, but we have seen countless acts of environmental sabotage.

PS: The Nokia Customer Care Center in Mangalore fixed Isaac's cell up right. He also got his pants hemmed for 50 cents, so he's much happier than when we last heard from him.