Harvesting Rice in Laos

RICE HARVESTING

The young volunteers, Elders Vance, Johnson and Xiong, rode their bicycles out to the rice farm of the family of Nunaa, one of our young members.  The elders rode about 15 miles at a steady pace that we just kept up with as we rode behind in a tuk tuk.  (October, 2014)

Nunaa met us on her motorcycle and led the way.  It isn't cold here. They wear jackets, though and little face masks to keep the dust out of their lungs while riding along the roads.

Nunaa's dad came to pick us up at the end of the paved road.  He is driving his truck/tractor.  He was very gracious and pleasant.

Nunaa's mother welcomed us to their home on the farm.   Nunaa's family are not members of the Church, but have become more accepting of their daughter's membership.           

The cycles have been sharpened to do their job.  Last year, Elder Johnson cut his finger to the bone near the first of his day, but just wrapped it and kept working, cleaning and disinfecting it later.  He has a scar from it, but survived.

Nunaa gave Judy a hat, mask and gloves to use while harvesting.

Judy, ready to work.

The rice fields had the more mature stalks on the far side.  You can see the brown heads of grain.

Rice stalks are bundled and left in the field to dry, sitting on stumps to keep them above the mud.

The mature rice grains are golden brown.  The technique is to grab a bunch of stalks with the left hand and cut with the right.

L to R: Nunaa, Elder Vance, Nunaa's sis, relative, Elder Xiong, Elder Johnson, Dad, Elder Singley.

Storage building of some sort on the farm.  Most of the buildings, including their house, were on stilts to keep above the rain and mud in the rainy season.

The road to the farm was just dirt for the last 3-4 miles.

This is a tractor/truck full of rice shocks, ready to take to a threshing machine to take the grains off the stalks.  Notice the really long wagon tongue.  The driver sits on the box and guides the engine and wheels up front with the long handle bars.

The senior couples only stayed to work a couple of hours and we had to get back home to get some other things done on our Preparation Day, so Dad took us back to catch the tuk tuk back to Vientiane.

All along the road, people waved when we waved, and sometimes they even initiated the wave.  I don't think they see too many Americans  out this way.