Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
have passed for a child from Lijiang. The majority of the inhabitants
were the result of centuries of bedtime mergers among Han Chi­
nese, a dozen Yunnan tribes, and over the ages, British opportunists,
European explorers, passing nomads, and fleeing Jews. The popu­
lace was an unplanned and lovely mix, no two ever the same, just
like art.
It was a thrilling, vertiginous run—the smell of morning fires,
steaming cauldrons, and fire-snapping grills, the awesome snowy
peaks. “Coming up behind you,” they would shout, and then pass
successive clusters of Naxi women with their crisscross halters to
which were secured ninety-pound loads of pine needles pressing on
their backs.
Our early-morning risers spent forty-five minutes aerobically seiz­
ing their lungs at an altitude of seven thousand eight hundred seventy-
four feet and a temperature of forty-eight degrees, then chanced
upon the perfect place to breakfast. What luck: there they were, sit­
ting among the locals on long benches, gulping down with proletar­
ian gusto bowls of thick spicy noodles and chives, a breakfast that
well suited them, since their confused stomachs had been crying that
it was time for a flavorful dinner and not a bland breakfast.
At nine, the nip in the air was gone, and when the hale and hearty
returned to the hotel, they were ready for more adventures. They
rang up the others, gurgling over what delights were to be seen while
running about in the fresh alpine air as opposed to dozing in a dreary
room. Soon everyone was in the lobby, so that they could meet up
with the local guide and be on their way.
Bennie announced that there had been a slight change in plans. He
quickly assured them that it was all for the better. He had had a
phone call earlier that morning from a man who told him that their
guide from yesterday, Mr. Qin, had experienced an unavoidable
problem. (The problem was that another tour leader, who knew of
Qin’s merits, had, with a few dollars pushed into helpful hands, pi­
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