Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
I, too, thought she was an ideal guide. She had an aura of assur­
ance matched by competence. This is the best combination, much
better than nervousness and incompetence, as in the last guide. The
worst, I think, is complete confidence matched by complete incom­
petence. I have experienced it all too often, not just in tour guides,
but in marketing consultants and art experts at auction houses. And
you find it in plenty of world leaders. Yes, and they all lead you to the
same place, trouble.
For Bennie, Lulu’s no-worries and no-nonsense demeanor was as
good as two prescription sedatives. Suddenly, devising a new sched­
ule did not seem overwhelming. Her English was understandable,
and that alone put her legions ahead of Miss Rong. Poor Miss Rong.
He still felt guilty about that. Oh, well. In addition to being fluent in
Mandarin, Lulu claimed to speak Jingpo, Dai, Cantonese, Shang­
hainese, Japanese, and Burmese. “Meine Deutsche, ach,” she went
on in a self-deprecating manner full of good humor and mistakes,
“ist nicht sehr gute.” Her hair was cut into a short flip. Her glasses
were modern, small cat’s-eye frames with a hip retro fifties look. She
wore a tan corduroy jacket, drab olive slacks, and a black turtleneck.
She certainly appeared to be competent. She could have been a tour
guide in Maine or Munich.
“The Chinese border town has very excellent hotel,” Lulu went
on. “That is where you stay tonight, in Ruili. But the town is quite
small, just stopping-off place where tourists are eager to leave, so not
too much for sightseeing. My suggestion is this, so listen: We stop at
a Jingpo village along the way.” Bennie nodded dumbly. “Later, we
do a bicycle trip to a market, where selling the foods is very exciting
to tourist who is seeing the first time. . . .” As Lulu ticked off various
spur-of-the-moment activities, Bennie felt waves of relief. Lulu was
doing an admirable job, God love her.
Lulu stood at the front of the bus, counting heads before she gave
the takeoff signal to the bus driver, a man named Xiao Li. “You can
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