{"id":6902,"date":"2016-07-30T18:17:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-30T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalroutes.org\/?p=6902"},"modified":"2016-07-30T18:17:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T18:17:17","slug":"nepal-2016-working-the-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/2016\/07\/30\/nepal-2016-working-the-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal 2016 – Working the Rice Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hiking out to the ancient rice terraces for a hard day’s work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nepal 2016 — Getting Down and Dirty\u00a0on our Home Stay<\/h2>\n

By: the Amazing Grace<\/p>\n

“Picking rice in the fields is a therapeutic process. First you pluck the rice from the mud, small clumps at a time, until you\u2019ve gathered a small bushel. Then you plunge it into the water repeatedly, occasionally slapping it against the terrace wall to clean the roots of residual mud. Then you do that again, and again, and again until you\u2019ve cleaned out at least 10 terraces because Nepali farmers don\u2019t mess around. The work isn\u2019t hard, but it is very repetitive and tiring.<\/p>\n

\"RiceTerrace\"
Close-up of the beautifully stunning (and very muddy!) terraces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The monsoon harvest is demanding, and I certainly wasn\u2019t ready for it. However, I loved the feeling of the cool mud coating me up to my lower calves, the warm sun shining on my arched back, and the satisfaction of tying up a clean, fresh bushel of rice.<\/p>\n

Next,\u00a0we hurled it down a few terraces below us to transplant it. If you haven\u2019t already planted rice for at least 5 years like everyone else I was working with in the fields, aside from my roommate Defne, you better get out of the rice fields. The Nepalese women plant rice at the speed of light. They filled five terraces in the time\u00a0it took me to fill one,\u00a0and even that one was barely finished.<\/p>\n

\"Nepalworkblog1\"
In addition to agricultural work, plenty of construction work has also been carried out during our stay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have the utmost respect for the women in my host family. They do this monotonous farming work day in and day out, with no complaints, only hard work.<\/p>\n

My 15-year-old host “aunt,” who will be attending college once the harvest is over, planted two terraces by herself in 20 minutes. I am in awe of and completely humbled by her ability to do this.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As for the other students, Cole and Gabe picked corn and carried it up to their house \u2014 like all the other Nepali farmers \u2014 with hand baskets. Jill and Taya handled grass from the rice fields to the yaks while battling major slippage. Merak was riding out a stomach bug, but Wilder provided him with some much needed brotherly support.<\/div>\n
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\"nepalworkblog2\"
The Nepali hand basket in action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Josh and Edward\u2019s family decided to not work that day, which was a disappointment to them. The rest of the group, after a day of truly back-breaking work, is skeptical of their ‘disappointment’. However, we all thoroughly enjoyed the time we had spent with our families \u2014 and for all of us it will reman an unforgettable day.”<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this update, make sure to like our Facebook Page<\/a> and follow us on Instagram @GlobalRoutes<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nepal 2016 — Getting Down and Dirty\u00a0on our Home Stay By: the Amazing Grace “Picking rice in the fields is a therapeutic process. First you pluck the rice from the mud, small clumps at a time, until you\u2019ve gathered a small bushel. Then you plunge it into the water repeatedly, occasionally slapping it against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}