Orange hats & sickle knives

Every year, the largest university in Nong Khai, Khon Kaen hosts a rice harvesting festival held at various rice fields in Nong Khai. We were invited by this university to take part in their harvesting ceremony to learn the history of the Northeastern area of Thailand's traditional methods of harvest. Pertinent to this area, large families annually harvest their rice together, but in effect of the downward spiraling economy, these families gradually made their way to larger cities in Thailand prospecting higher paying job opportunities, leaving their homes and land. Hiring outside help has superseded the traditional family harvesting experience and diluted the Northeastern traditions of rice harvesting, but as a response Khon Kaen has made it their goal to keep these traditions alive by exposing them to nearby countries and the community along with volunteering to harvest other fields during this season.

We began our day, gloomy and early at the tender hour of 7 am--it's been a little chilly here lately, which has been turning on my hibernation mode a few days already! A coach bus awaited us at the Naga fountain a few blocks away. We were greeted by a few members from the university staff along with students from Khon Kaen. I was still a little disoriented so I wasn't feeling too social when greeting other volunteers on the bus.

When we arrived, we saw hundreds of people in bright orange hats peeking through the rice stalks and dispersed throughout the fields. As we got closer, the university students organized themselves into a gauntlet, greeting us with the Wai. I really like the way they greet people here, it just gives off this genuine respect for one another.


The university did a great job in bringing to life the tradition and creating an active space for volunteers to participate by hosting relay races, instrument (from the rice stalks sturdier bottom piece) competitions and rice whipping to disconnect the grains from the stalks. Alongside the events, the coordinators also invited us to actually harvest rice. We used sickle knives and made sure our hats were on correctly to protect us from the sun. We harvested for about 10 minutes, piling up stalks of rice on the side and learning the appropriate technique of harvesting. It wasn't an extremely arduous process, considering we experienced the last phase of growing rice (harvesting). However, I did learn to appreciate the technique and skill farmers have when tending their crops and the patience they have to grow fields and fields of rice.

Me & "Yuri"... possibly from Korea or Japan. Lol.

As noon approached, we finished up the activities and asked to participate in a small interview session with the coordinators that would be aired nationally and locally (hey, Mom... I'm famous here! Just kidding. Kirk said that they might just edit us out and only air the white people speaking). Melanie and I were joking about how they probably are confused as to why these two Asian girls were in the interview at all since majority of the volunteers that were asked to participate were Thai's understanding of "Foreigner" a.k.a. White people. I've often found myself having to clarify my background since my skin tone and facial features are similar to Thai's and sometimes feel ashamed that I don't have the correct words to express myself. Maybe it's because I've felt their exasperation through their confused looks and frustrated head shakes, but in hindsight, this is part of the traveling experience, the lost in translation paradox.

Making sure we plugged Isara in during our interviews! Take that, T-2-T!

After the festival, we joined the university students at their university and had lunch. We were also given a tour of their newly built aquarium.

It was a great day spent with a few of us from Isara and a fantastic experience. I was expecting to be working really hard out there, sweating like crazy and having no fun at all, but it was quite the opposite! I really appreciate the university's effort to preserve these traditions while creating an educational experience for foreigners. So, I could finally say that I've harvested rice before... awesome!


P.S. more pictures & a video will be posted later!