My
language school offered the students a cultural experience to harvest rice, and
I couldn't pass it up.
In
Cambodia, rice is a household staple and is consumed at every meal as the main
course along with vegetables and meat as side dishes. Rice is important to
Cambodians. In fact, in Khmer, there are three different words for rice: the
rice growing in the field has a word, the rice that is not cooked has a word,
and then there is a word for cooked rice.
There
was a group of about 7 students and 5 teachers that went on this “field” trip
to one of the teacher’s homes, just a few hours from Phnom Penh. You don't have
to go too far outside the city to start to see rice fields everywhere.
In
Cambodia there isn't a lot of machinery to help with the planting and
harvesting of rice. A vast majority of the work is done by hand, one plant at a
time. Harvesting rice is very labor intensive. It took just minutes for my back
to start hurting as I was hunched over cutting the rice stalks with a handheld
sickle. Oh, I was also standing barefoot in a few inches of water. At first I
tried to wear my shoes but it only took a minute to realize that I needed to be
barefoot as I almost lost my shoe in the mud.
After
the rice is cut, it is bound into bundles and laid out in the sun to dry. Once
the bundles are completely dry it's time to beat the rice off the stalks. We
removed the rice by whacking the bundles on a table that has slits in it so
that the rice grains could fall through the slits. Then we laid out the rice
grains on mats to dry. Once the rice grains are dry they are taken to the mill
where the outside shell is removed and the grain is polished. If the shell is
removed then you have brown rice, but if you polish the grain it becomes white
rice. 
I
had a great time learning about growing and harvesting rice. It helped me
understand more about the Khmer culture. Cambodians have been growing rice for
hundreds of years and for the most part the farming has not changed. I have a
greater appreciation for rice and a sore back from this experience.
-Alan
