Dear Diary: My Nostalgic Days At The Rice Fields

I remember those years that I went with my eldest brother at the rice fields and it was around when I am at grade 4 in the mid-80's and we go to the rice field to pick up some rice stalks after harvesting season. Some rice stalks fall to the ground after the farmers had stacked them in one big hill stack and those we collect into sacks we carry.

It was both fun and fulfilling and my mother didn't forbid us to go because it is food that we collect considering the effort which is quite hard because of the walking and the hard time walking among the mud, prickly grasses, and snail shell injury that my legs and feet are going through all day.

But my brother taught me how to walk among the cut rice stalks and we wear clothing to protect us from the heat of sun and the injury from the sharp grasses. But we walk in bear feet though so I thought now that it really wasn't a good idea. but if we wear of flip-flop slippers it would surely be caught up into the mud if not get torn or lost. So there is no other way but to walk in bear feet.

Well I just missed those days especially when at the end of the day when we are at the Savannah area at the edge of the rice fields we would venture in draining the small ponds to get the fishes that are swimming into it and cooking it in hay on the spot. We would then create a mini picnic as we eat the crudely cooked fishes with the cooked rice that we brought along with us prior. After that we just head home walking with our collected rice stalks.