Little Did I Know...

Little did I know that shortly after taking this picture of a giant haystack in the fields above Chanaute that a short time later I would be helping to build one, but that is exactly what happened.



I'd already had the opportunity to help with threshing the week before, which is where you grab a bunch of rice stalks that have been tied together and allowed to dry out over several days and then whack the stalks 3-4 times against the ground to loosen the rice grains. After threshing a few hundred bunches you end up with a large pile of rice that is then collected in 40 kg bags (roughly 80-90 lbs) which are then hauled away on the backs of the workers to be processed.
Needless to say, I didn't do any of the heavy lifting, but the threshing alone is hard work after you have done it for the hundredth time (they let me off the hook after about 10 bunches, probably because I wasn't very good at it).
After clinic ended today, I was invited to Copola's home for tea. When I arrived, her husband and another relative were building a haystack and they asked if I wanted to lend a hand. Below are some pictures of me in action!








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