If you need to know one thing about coming to Thailand, know that rice is a very important part of the daily life of a thai person. If you are eating a traditional Thai meal, then you are most likely eating rice. If you are going to the local temple to earn merit by the Buddhist monks, most likely one of the foods you are offering contains rice or is rice alone. I live in the Issan region of Thailand and one thing that it is know for is that the local economy in this region comes from farming and agriculture. For my friends and family in California, think of central California. Comparing it to the United States in general, think of the midwest of the US. Thailand is one of the largest rice producers in the world, so more likely than not, you are eating rice from Thailand when you buy rice from your local stores. Around this time of year the rice farmers begin their harvest and they plant new rice for the next harvest. At the local government office for my village they have their own land where they plant rice and the community volunteers as well as the office staff work together to maintain it by planting and harvesting the rice when it is time. Luckily for me, I was able to join them for planting the new rice after the most recent harvest. Here is how my day went: ~~~~~~~ We started the day by meeting at our office to prepare the lunch that would be served at the rice field. We prepared individual sticky rice bags, fried chicken, and fried pork. These are quick and easy things that are typically prepared for lunch and are usually paired with papaya salad (som-tum), which is amazing and you must try it if you have never had it before. In order to prepare som-tum it normally needs to be had fresh so we took the ingredients for making the som-tum to the rice fields. On our way there it started to rain lightly and I was beginning to worry we were not going to be able to work on planting the rice, but everyone still met at the rice field in jackets prepared, rain or shine. I was not as prepared as they were, as I was in a t-shirt and shorts. There were about 40-50 people who were government workers or volunteers in the village that came together to work on the rice field. Right when the rice stalk came in everyone got to work. (Please forgive me for any agriculture terminology that I am butchering in this description, but pictures are also shown on the bottom of the article). I never really knew how rice was planted until this day and it was fascinating and totally different than I imagined it to be like. First, a rice field is made up of one large area flooded with water and the area it filled with manure. The rice plant itself looks like a small stalk that is then pushed into the manure at the bottom of the water with a couple inches of leaf or grass sticking out. There is math behind how each of the rice stalk are planted and the distance from the next, but I have no idea what that is because they were explaining it to me in thai. In order to work on the rice field I expected that I would be wearing some boots or something to cover my feet, but many of the people working with us got in the water barefoot. There were some people that had their own boots that they brought from home because many of the people volunteering had their own rice fields that they work on. There were no extra boots for me to wear so I toughened up, tried not to think what manure actually is, and I went in barefoot and got to work. I, luckily, did not fall in the mud, but walking through manure flooded with water was pretty interesting and slippery but the Thai people I was working alongside were not phased. Many of them were working swiftly like it was nothing, pushing about 5 stalks of rice into the manure per minute. It was very intimidating, but I had to show them that Americans are capable of the same things they are and they did find it very amusing that I joined them in the work. You would think that learning how to push the rice stalk into the manure would not be too difficult, but for some reason it was very hard to get familiar with when I first started. In order to push the stalk into the ground, you must make sure you only have two stalk in your hand and then grab it by the bottom of the stalk in order to be able to stick it firmly into the ground. I was able to stick a few that actually looked almost perfect, but then I had a few that wouldn't be sticking up straight like they were supposed to, some fell over as I took my hand off the stalk, or I was told that I stuck the stalk too deep. Once I started to really understand the best way to get the stalk into the ground I realized I was moving ten times slower everyone else and I was only able to get one or two stalk in the ground per minute. The thai volunteers that I had a chance to work with were very patient with me and really wanted me to succeed, so they made sure I got it right and they congratulated me when I was done. At the end of the day I was tired and my feet were covered in mud, but I was able to make a deeper connection with my community which made it all the more worth it. We all ate lunch in a big group and some of us talked about how poor at planting the rice I was a the beginning and then progressively got better exchanging laughs. I felt even more closer to my community than I have ever felt since my first day. ~~~~~~~ My host dad is a rice farmer. Every day he gets up around 5:00am and he starts his day by going out to the rice fields or other plantations he has, taking breaks for lunch and water, and ends his day at 6:00 or 7:00pm. It amazed me how he could do this, and it amazed me even more that he does this every day, every week, and takes vacation only for certain holidays. Many people in my community own rice fields and they are constantly out there tending to their crop. I do not know if I would ever be able to do that as a profession, but now I know the amount of hard work they put in to do the work they do and I appreciate the job and agriculture in general so much more because I got to experience it personally. One of the activities I like to do with the kids in my classroom is ask them about their short- and long-term goals, and the jobs they want later on in the future. Now, a typical answer that I thought to expect in schools from most students that came up in my classes were: Teacher, Soccer player, Singer, Volleyball player, Dancer, Doctor, Nurse, or Lawyer. Some answers that I was not familiar with before coming to Thailand that students in my class wrote were: Farmer, Fisherman, Cow Herder, or Pig Farmer. Honestly, before coming to Thailand I would have thought why would those professions be desirable to students aged 10-15 years old, but if you ask me now, I understand it. The people they look up to the most, maybe their biggest role models, have these very professions as jobs, and the truth is these kids want to be just like the person they put on their highest pedestal. For many of these kids, those are the people that work the hardest to provide for them the most that they can by working hard and pushing through the hardest challenges; the parents and caretakers of these very kids. There are a few things I learned from joining my community that day. The hands-on work of any profession to do with agriculture is tough and strenuous work, and those that do it are some of the hardest working individuals that I have now come to understand. The people in my village are some of the happiest people I could know, even in the face of challenges and work, and I am glad I get to spend the rest of my service here with them. Lastly, lessons can be learned through even the youngest of teachers, and I am proud that I get to work with these amazing kids.
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