Rice farm

If it doesn’t add to your life, it doesn’t belong to your life : Anonymous

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I wake up in the morning feeling the breeze of nature, smell of fresh air, hearing dogs bark, roosters crow and birds sing a song. Everyone starts getting ready for the day, food ready for the monks in the morning, children ready for school and time to head to the farm. Everyday routine is pretty much the same, but nobody complain as this is part of their life.

This is my parent’s rice farm where I took this picture when I went back to visit a year ago. I love being there, seeing the green and nature, hearing the wind blow and I could sit there listening to that for hours. I feel relax and peaceful, bad internet signal, no social media but quietness and calm.

Do you know how long it takes to produce rice? It takes more than half a year. First of all we have to drop seeds and wait for a couple of months to grow to feet tall and green, then pluck them and cut the tips off, then they are ready to plant as you may see in the photo. Then we wait around 3 or 4 months for the rice to be ready to gather. We mostly harvest the rice for our own consumption, however, some farmers sell it for commercial purposes but we have to make sure our own need come first and enough to supply until the next season.

This was where I spent my childhood life, at the farm on weekend, school in the week, but did not always work, we did have some entertainment in village every now and then. I remember the first black and white TV in the village and we had to pay to watch in the evening, and we did not have electricity until I was 13. We never used washing machines, we did not have electric or steam iron but we used charcoals, we slept on the wooden floor with a very thin matts with a hard small pillows no mattresses and I rode a bike 18 kilometres each day to secondary school. All of these things help me appreciate life I have now. I would never want to change a thing and always teach my son to appreciate what he has got and how lucky he is compare to me.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it. Please give it a like or comment if you like my story. I wrote this from my heart in my own limited English knowledge (with my 11 years old son being my editor). I apologise if some grammar isn’t correct. Khob Khun Kha (Thank you) Next chapter to be continued…

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