Memorable experience harvesting RICE

Harvesting rice was definitely a new experience during my journey in Vietnam.  Treading through mud filled with little critters and other things I don’t even know, it was intimidated at first.  I did not realize how incredibly hard it was to walk through the muddy rice fields to harvest the rice until now.  Every step I took, it required an immense amount of effort to remove my foot from the knee deep mud.  I easily lose my balance when I try to shift directions.  Through this experience, I can’t imagine how difficult for farmers to harvest their crops in this traditional way and the amount of time it would take.  Luckily for us, we had a lot of man power to finish the job in an orderly and timely fashion.  Most of us were busy harvesting rice with a small machete like knife while others were transferring the piled up rice onto drier land to be transported to a designated area where all the rice stocks are stacked up and ready to be put through machine to take the rice from the stock.   It was very systematic which speed up the process; nevertheless it took us 2-3 hours to finish a small field of rice. 

The experience on the field harvesting rice was very challenging in the mud but I think our spirits were high and we were focus on the task at hand –harvesting the rice!  We conquered! The mud were very difficult to get off and we had to rinse ourselves in a river/lake which I was surprise.  I suppose it would waste too much water if 25+ people washed themselves in our host’s home.  I did not realize how scratched up I got from harvesting the rice until I return home and the next day I found innumerous cuts and tiny infected bug bites  all around my legs! How disgusting it looks but I have to take in perspective that farmers had to endure similar experience all the time.  I only wish I had thicker skin or less sensitive skin so my legs aren’t so inflamed with bites and cuts all over it. 

Set aside the post experience with harvesting rice, I would probably do it all over again because it was pretty awesome treading through the rice fields with my friends.  It was a memorable experience overall, especially talking with some village people about their lives and experience with ‘development’.   We talked with two women who are from Tuyen Quang, a mountainous village, but they moved into farming village to work.  They are perfect examples how ‘development’ forces or encourages people to migrate into area where they can find wage labor.  Through this process, it creates an ethnically mixed society filled with numerous cultural practices in one area.  Wage labor becomes more vital in these areas more than before because very few people actually work on their own fields.  They are more apt to hire cheap labor by other people.  An example would be the woman who lives next to A. Khoi’s home (our host) because she is the very few people in the village who actually still work on her land.  Her husband is a carpenter rather than simply a farmer.  More people are shifting away from farming and seek well-paid jobs in the city rather than the fields.   Therefore, there is tremendous change to non-farming activities in the village.  The woman has children who work as an engineer, hotel clerk, and government participant.    This is a good indicator that the farm life is no longer desire in the rural area and people quickly look into office type career path.   Based on people’s response in this area, it seemed as though there are a lot of people who are categorized as “poor” although there are few but not many. The farmers that I’ve encounter with appear very well-off with very nice polished home and have motorbikes.  I also see a good amount of automobiles driving in and out of the village.  Although it may seem rural, it is definitely changing into a more urban area or mini city waiting to more high building and construction to take over… In short, due to this idea of “bettering” one’s life and progressive, rural areas will soon or later become a city.