Page 89 - Life's Outtakes 9

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 cookstoves built to

insulate the heat away from the reeds.

They showed us how they made the

islands from stacking reeds together.

They also 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