October 26, 2013 Photos from Elder & Sister Gorringe and GROWING RICE

Photos sent to us from Elder & Sister Gorringe:

Flooding outside Mission home

Same scene 3 days later

Sister Salome Tou’anga ‘I Vaiola Hausia

At mission home for training

From Elder Gorringe on GROWING RICE

A rice field

The pictures are of the food staple, rice. The amount of labor required to plant, grow, harvest, thresh, dry (twice) and mill the rice to me is amazing. We could not do this in the U. S. Labor here is unbelievably cheap. They are paid 200-250 pesos per day and a day can be very long. The rice is planted by hand, just broadcast on the ground. When the plants are large enough, they are pulled up by hand and tied in small bundles. They are then planted in fields that have been plowed, often by carabao, and then flattened by a powered machine much like a large lawn roller that is guided by a man wading behind like a garden tiller. The planting is done by hand in very straight rows with all plants spaced evenly apart in both directions. The planters are bent over all day long. Sometime after planting, the whole field is fertilized by hand broadcasting the fertilizer.  

Tying the rice stalks in bundles by hand

Cutting the rice by hand

Drying the rice on the road

Close up of the parlay, unmilled rice drying

Yes, they use the road as a rice drying bed. There is no other place for it. This is the highway between San Marcelino and San Antonio. Yes the drying of the parlay does cause traffic problems and does sometimes get run over especially by busses.
I hope this gives you a little insight into life for many in the Philippines.