Southern Tagbanwa
Very interesting people live in these foot hills. They farm straight up the sides of the mountains, mainly planting “dry” rice that does not need the lowland wet. Farmers could fall out of their gardens if not careful. It is amazing to see one person walking along jabbing a stick into the ground while another is stooped over dropping rice into the holes. This has to be the most back breaking job in the world.
Do you ever think how much work has to be done for a tribal person to get a cup of rice to cook? Cut jungle down on the side of a mountain. Burn it when it is dry. Clear the branches and get a clearing made. Poke the holes in the ground and drop the seeds in. At harvest time they harvest the rice (bent over to the ground) — then remove the rice from stalks, and beat the hull of the rice. Afterward they winnow the chaff from the rice. That is months of back breaking labor just to be able to eat.
Lot’s to think about the next time I pick up a bag of rice at Costcos.