Rice Harvesting

In October of last year a major typhoon went through the Ga’dang area and destroyed much of their rice crops.  We thought that it was going to be a more challenging year for the people as they were short on rice.  We have learned throughout the last couple of months that in a normal year, most harvest enough to last more than a year.  This has helped many to have rice to eat until this years harvest.

Chuck has been out several times to harvest rice this season but I had my first opportunity to go help just a couple weeks ago.  I was amazed to see people still going out to harvest after a heavy rain the night before and off and on rain that morning.

Thankfully Chuck was willing to take me out to this field.  I wasn’t sure where it was and was told that it was “far”.  So off we went in the fun slippery mud.  It took us about 1 hr to get there and we had to cross the same river about 5 times.  I tried desperately to not get water in my boots but in one spot I thought for sure I was going to get water in.  Thankfully we managed to find shallower water and got across.  As we walked several people came up behind us…heading to the same field…and kept walking.  I think we were a little slow getting there.  We knew we were on the right path though as we could see the muddy foot prints of the people who went before us.

Soon enough we arrived at the bottom of the hill that was being harvested.  It was a rather steep climb getting to the top.  My friend Analyn was surprised to see me there because of the rain.

Analyn was so nice as she took me over to the rice and showed me how to hold the cutting tool, grasp the rice and cut all with the same hand.  It is quite a trick…for me anyway.  (I laugh at Chuck as he has cut himself several times in that last couple of weeks while harvesting!) I was amazed that I didn’t cut myself.

Analyn also showed me how to tie the bundles of rice also.  There is some co-ordination in spinning the bundles around too.

This is one of the men twisting/spinning the tie around the bundles of rice.

Here is some the rice that was harvested.  The darker is sticky rice, used for special desserts.  The lighter coloured is their everyday eating rice.  They place them together in groups of 8 and then count them after that.  There is special counting system for that.  Later they will stack them in a special way and there is a way to count that too.

I was so happy to be able to experience and learn so much from my good friend.