Harvesting Rice at Bakhu

President Smedley (Scott) and I had an opportunity to go with Elder and Sister Snyder and the Takhamau District of Elders to help some new members with their rice harvest. They didn't get it quite done before the Sabbath. But left it in the fields and went to Church. The Elders decided they would help them and the Snyders are help out at the branch and invited us to come along. Bakhu is about 30 minutes south of Phnom Penh. It is a humble village where many are rice farmers. This one was quite a large field and they do this all by hand. The middle picture is the road we walked down to get to the field. The bottom right shows the path to get to the fild. To harvest the rice, you take the top foot and a half probably of the stalks of rice and use a scythe to cut it. You hold your hand away from you and then pull the scythe fast and it cuts so fast. I decided that I should definitely move my let. My teacher is on the left and is one of the owners of the field. He showed me what to do and then left me on my own. There were three of us finishing up that end of the field. As each of us cut the rice we put it in piles as you can see below. Then people come and pick up the piles.

The beautiful young woman is a gleaner. She follows behind and gathers up the stalks of rice that didn't get cut and puts them in piles. Elder Haem on the top left is Khmer, but this is his first time in the field. Elder Da, the one on the top right is an old hand at this. I think he looks very comfortable doing the harvest. Elder Oleson is on the left.
The farmer on the bottom right is so strong. Those piles of rice stalks and rice are heavy. They do not waste anything. The rice is put on a tarp to dry out in a big pile with the freshest cuts on top.

Scott is trying his hand at harvesting. We had a good group and were finished after one hour! The big pile is what they have harvested so far. It is much bigger than it looks here. The rice stalks are drying out in this field. It is white and ready to harvest!
Our Elders helping were: Elders Oleson, Draper, Da, Haem, Sok and Try.

The road back was just as long as coming in! It was a great experience and we are so appreciative that we were able to be of service. I hope we helped a little anyway, since we were amateurs! They seemed to appreciate our good intentions!