One of my favorite service project programs that Ricefields offers our students is Hands in the Dirt. We take the students out to various farmers' rice fields where we pluck the rice from the nursery fields, and replant the stems in a new field where they will eventually be harvested from. It is backbreaking labor (literally-you're back aches after bending over for 3 hours!), but to end each morning on a good note and reward students for their hard work, we start a mud fight (at least, if the students haven't already started one on their own!) before we leave.
I remember my first day working on this program I was shocked by how hard it actually is to plant rice! And we were only planting for 3 hours! Thai farmers spend 8-10 hours a day in their fields...in the hot sun. Crazy! And another great working condition is putting your hands down into poo dirt. Yep, they use animal manure to fertilize the rice. The staff lovingly refer to this program amongst themselves as "Hands in the Sh*t"! It's gross, but you try not to think about it and wash your hands super thoroughly many times for the rest of the day...
But then it happens. Someone throws the first mud ball and before you even realize what's happening, the mud splats across your face anddddd right into your mouth! (Sometimes it pays to keep your mouth shut.) From there it's an all out war; who can catch who and dunk them into the muddy pool they call a field. By the time the program ends, you're covered in mud head-to-toe... poo mud. That case of bacteria in my stomach I went to the hospital for? I'm going to guess I probably got it from the sh*t!
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| Program leader's of that week: Me, Zach, Nam, and Adrienne. |
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| Rinsing off in the slightly deeper, less muddy water. |
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The aftermath of one of lesser muddy mud fights.
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As gross as all of this is, you get so used to it that you stop worrying, stop trying to avoid it, and just have FUN. I have some great memories from my mornings in those fields! One morning in particular - my 25th birthday. I was so lucky to celebrate my birthday in Thailand, and super lucky to have an especially stellar group of students that week. All of the girls from my hong (I was their room mom) signed up for the program knowing I'd be leading it and made it an unforgettable day! We worked a little (Shh!!!!) and then just had a massive mud fight for the remainder of the time. They made sure to COVER me in mud, since I was practically a target with it being my birthday and all. However, as a present, they helped me take down one of the Thai guys we had been trying to mud-ify for about a week. It was brilliant!
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| Posing with our grass. Callie had just slapped mud on my shoulder! |
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| A mud fight about to go down...me slapping mud back onto Callie. |
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| Hong 1 ladies! |
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| The whole gang on my birthday :) |
I love Hands in the...Dirt ;) and I can't wait to help with this program again next year. I never did catch Poon (the guy in the center, above), so I have something to work towards this coming summer! Shout out to all my girls from Hong 1 - week 7. Miss you guys and hope to see you next summer at Ricefields!
