Page 18 - Publishing Inspiration Christmas Card 2015

was a singular sensation. It was like stepping

onto a waterbed made of reeds. The feeling is

hard to describe.
We looked at how they cooked food in clay

cook stoves built to insulate the heat away from

the reeds. They showed us how they added
more reeds to the top of the island while the

ones on the bottom gradually rotted away.

Through an interpreter, they told us they lived
mostly on fish and birds from the lake, along

with money from tourists.
On this particular island there were five

small reed huts, each about ten feet by ten feet

in size. I asked if the island’s occupants were
all members of the same family. An old

Peruvian shook his head. He said they got

along better if they weren’t related, so as
children grew older, they would often find a

different one to live on, or start their own.
For a price, those living there would tell or

show us anything we had an interest in, so I

motioned that I would like to see what one of
their huts looked like on the inside. One of the

younger men held out his hand and said, in

broken English, “For dollar.” I pulled out a

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