The harvest watcher

Today it was safe enough to go out to investigate the rice harvest which is nearing completion. On all the plateau lands the rice has been cut and was being threshed, either by hand, whacking a bundle of straw on the ground, or by oxen tied together to a central post in the center of a stack and being driven round and round, or in one case by a tractor that was powering backwards and forwards over the straw and raising such a dust I couldn't get near. There is such a lot of work involved for not only is the rice winnowed on the spot but the straw has to be tied up and carried home or built into straw stacks. I also saw kapok being whacked into great fluffy heaps and then put into cotton slips and sewn up and quilted to make duvets. Women were planting garlic, shucking corn, braiding hair, making food, washing clothes all on the sides of the roads. This man was watching the oxen being driven round on a straw stack - maybe an elder of the family past labouring. Coming home was a lot more difficult than going out for there were road blocks around polling box counting centers and police and soldiers everywhere so detours through back roads that hadn't been tarmacked had to be negotiated. I forgot to say I was a pillion passenger on a motorbike - riding demurely side saddle as local custom dictates!

I do apologise for not acknowledging all your lovely comments. They really are enormously appreciated but it takes for ever to even put one blip on line and I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to do the picasa link too. There is internet everywhere but so s l o w