The Rice Harvest and Eating Bugs

A pleasant, quiet day, if you exclude what's on the menu this evening.

In the morning we toured the village where we are staying. It's striking that in these 2000 people, everyone knows everyone, and for our guide, he calls many of them auntie or uncle. This is definitely a very closely knit community . For example, when they are growing up, year groups are formed, and so all of a similar age meet from time to time and work on projects for the benefit of the community . Their projects are substantia, for example, community halls, and helping school dropouts learn a trade.

After the village tour, we had a really fun visit to the paddy fields, where the harvest started. We all had a go at cutting the rice bushels and then later threshing out the grains. We loved it, and it seemed the locals did too.

In the afternoon, the kids went hunting for edible insects such as bees, grasshoppers, praying mantis, and little frogs. Now they are cooking them. I think I will stick to my usual vegi curry. Apparently, insects are non-vegetarian.

Epilog. It turns out fried grasshoppers are quite tasty, as is a chutney made with bees, so maybe insects will be the next culinary fashion.Read more