the week between Christmas and New Years ended up being when the rice was ready to be harvested so many an hour were spent in the fields.
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| Odette taking me out to check the fields and make sure they were looking ready |
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dry enough to fall off when hit against a metal barrel = ready to be harvested.
and do it fast before the birds and animals get to it |
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yes that's a machete in my hand.
and they say im not an environment volunteer. |
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| always put the rice in grain down so it falls into the bucket |
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| team hit the rice on the barrel until it falls off vs. team cut the rice off. i was elected to the hitting team with Catherine, one of the elders of the groupement (i dont think they trusted me with a large knife). I particularly loved her dental fabric that day. |
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| some of the women who couldn't come would send their daughters in their places, since the schools were on break anyway. i still dont understand how this girl was able to wear a sweater in the middle of the day while chopping rice stalks for hours on end. |
it's really unfortunate that i didnt get to take a picture of the huge bags of rice being carried away on the back of the moto at the end of every day-- so gratifying.
