Rice harvesting

Last Sunday (3/10/2010) we went to harvest rice in Dong Anh, Hanoi. It was the first time in my life that I cut rice plants. And I'm pretty sure it was the firsthand experience for the UC students too. We set out at 6:30, carrying some water and some hats, and some nem, which Nancy Mary John Sharon Jesse chị Mốc and mẹ chị Mốc had made the day before. The place looked like my hometown, and pretty much like near where i live. We came to chú Khôi's house, who is a farmer and was more than hospitable to have lent us the sickles (or knives, or scythes, or whatyoumaycallthem).
We then headed to the fields. It was quite windy and sunny when we spent the time there. The fields were like what i've seen in my hometown or near where i live, but to the UC kids it may have been a different impression. I was quite slow to get the sickles so when everybody were stepping into the mud there were only some đòn gánh for me to carry the rice to where they put the machine, the job of carrying was quite hard that I staggered a lot, sometimes i dropped some rice (so sorry). You never know what chú Khôi can carry, compared to how much i can, it's like 3 times as much (very heavy), and he didn't stagger at all.
After like 7 or 8 times (maybe more) of rice carry, i chose to grab a sickle and try cutting some rice. Man it's like nothing you've ever done, and my first time was quite bad. i stepped back and forth in the mud, trying to cut the plants in a way that is neat but ended up cutting them either to long or too short or let the rice fall on the mud. Such a shame. But when i started cutting, it's almost done so i didn't have much chance to mess up, after that we hold what we had cut in bushels and brought them back to the field's rim where they were carried to the machine. There's another part called "đi mót lúa" started by Gerard, in which we stayed in the field, searching thoroughly for rice that is left behind. "If the rice is not too muddy or not too wet, we can keep it" said Gerard. The lesson learned here is you can't afford to waste rice, and by collecting as much rice as we could  we show that we appreciated the labor of those who'd been working on the rice.
We went back to chú Khôi's house and had lunch there and some rượu that chú Khôi was so proud of. The field trip ended at 3 when we got back to Hanu and had some bia hoi afterwards. The feeling that still lingers is itch on my legs, aw it's itchy like crazy.