Rice Planting

Note: Sadly, the internet does not want me to post pictures today. I will add some later.

I have finally participated in the final (or first) step of the rice cycle. (See my entry from December for the rest http://carolyninpanama.blogspot.com/2010/12/rice-harvest.html). Now I have to wait until October for the harvest and the deliciousness.

In April, the dry season was coming to an end. Farmers machete’d the fields, or woods, and then burnt their fields in preparation for planting rice, corn, and beans. One day my neighbor across the path stopped by to tell me, “I’m burning my field tomorrow. You should probably stick around your house to make sure no sparks land on your roof.” Speaking of which, it is incredible how few houses seem to burn down around here (none in my 8 months that I know of), considering the amount of indoor fires and thatched roofs present. People here must be more attentive than in the US.

In early May, when the rains began, I planted rice for 2 mornings with my neighbor Valentin, his wife, and 17 year old daughter. The 3 year old daughter supervised. The field is located on a steep, rocky slope. Valentin walked around with a sharpened pole and pushed it into the earth to make 3 inch deep holes, 1 foot apart. The 3 of us women followed him around and tossed a small handful of rice seed into the holes with our bare feet, and stamped on it a bit. Because of the steep terrain there were no neat lines of planting, so it was important to always leave a line of holes as a border so that Valentin would know where we had already planted.

The only other tricky part was not falling backwards down the hill while filling in a hole with my toes. Surprisingly, I succeeded.

This was a small field so Valentin didn’t need much extra labor, but traditionally planting and harvesting are social events. Friends and family are invited to come help, with the assumption that fermented corn liquor and food will be provided to all workers. I was not given any corn “juice” but I did eat breakfast and lunch both days with the family, which definitely made the experience well worth it.

I think I have mentioned beforehand how there is lots of petty fighting between families in my community, as in most tiny communities throughout the world. My host family is cousins of some sort with the rice planting family, but they are not friends and I hear about it from both sides all of the time, as I live between them. The joys of neutrality. During rice planting I had a cough, the same cough that comes to visit me every year, so per usual I took medicine and otherwise ignored it.

A few days after rice planting, my favorite tía (aunt) stopped by to visit and told me that my rice planting had put my host family up in arms. Apparently they were angry that Valentin let me work when I was sick, especially when they would have to pay to get me carried out of here when I (naturally) would fall extremely ill and need hospitalization. My host mom had been telling this sob story to everyone, except me. Tía and I had a good chuckle over the ridiculousness of it all.