Livin'n'Learnin': On Route to the Hilltribe

I know. It has been nearly ALL month since I've written a post...but I've been busy. I am keeping myself occupied with work, school work, church functions, soccer and a wee bit of a social life. The blogging has seemed to slip through the cracks of my day...so sorry for this! Well I am going to jump right into the the experience I had a Jeff Rutherford's farm. Most of this post is taken right from my journal. Oh and I'd explain who Jeff Rutherford is...but I am not entirely sure how he is connected to our SSU Asia trip...my memory has failed me on that....so here goes

We went to Jeff Rutherford’s farm ( mainly rice) on the way to the Hill tribe Village. It was neat to see. There were so many different kinds of plants, fruits, vegetables and spices growing there, not just rice. There were also cats, rabbits, ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, and a hedgehog wondering around loose on the property. The house was rather nice and clean. It was quite open to the outside. This I really loved. Many doors and windows were kept open – no screens, which let in natural light and a beautiful breeze. There was hardly any separation between outside and inside.

We split into 4 groups to walk around the farm and see everything that was there. Jeff led the group I was in. He showed us banana trees, mango trees, passion fruit, basil, another plant that smelt like liquorice, the rice fields, cotton, sugar cane, potatoes, and carrots. I can’t even remember it all. A lot of it was plants I hadn’t even heard of. And all this was on a small property. When we first arrived I didn’t see how we could spend all morning there, but once we were walking around and Jeff was explaining what many of the plants were and how their farm works, how they live etc, it came clear to me that this little property held a lot of plants and a lot of food, they could live almost entirely off their land. But some of the trees are still immature and not producing. They’ve only been running the farm for three years. But so much is on that farm already. Jeff still has to go into town to work. As he said, he has to have a job to be a farmer. I guess it doesn’t provide enough income to sustain his family, to send his daughter to school and to make a living.

After we had a bit of a run down on the upcoming week to be spent in the villages before we had lunch. This was followed by being able to try our own hand at thrashing rice. Well I actually didn’t get to try this because there wasn’t enough bushels ready, but I watched the others.

I’m not sure of all the correct terminology but oh well. So the rice plants were tied together into bushels. Then this tool – two sticks connected with wire of some sort at the ends – was used to grab the bushel. The wire wrapped around the rice. This slanted wooden peak was placed on top of the tarp which lay over the ground. This is what the rice was hit against. Once the rice is in the tool, the worker situates him or herself behind the wooden peak, (upward slant coming towards them). They raise the bushel above or level to their head and proceed to slam it down hard onto the wood. This will lose the rice seeds and they fall onto the tarp. This thrashing motion is repeated until no more rice falls out. Then move onto the next bushel…for the whole field…

After this experience we piled back into the songthaeuws to make the trip up into the mountains.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed :D