Our Day in a Cambodian Village

By Jackson Lovas

The day started like most days in the village. Waking up to the sounds of chickens and roosters crowing, dogs barking, cows mooing, and the smells of the cattle. We slept on four mattresses side by side with a pink bug net over us to keep the insects, lizards, and frogs off us while we slept. In the morning we all met at the main house owned by Sreoun Peng, an elder of the village. We all ate breakfast at her house. The food was amazing. After eating we got the details on how to prepare for working in the rice fields. We had to put on long sleeves, long pants, gloves, and plenty of bug spray to keep the bugs off us. On our way to the rice fields I realized how hot it was going to be working with no shade in the middle of the rice fields. It was hot and arid regardless. When we got out there I felt free. Looking across the field at how much work needs to be done filled me with determination. It was so fulfilling to complete all that work and helping out the villagers in the fields. I noticed while we took breaks, several of us at a time, the villagers never took breaks. When I asked Sohtea about it, it was because they couldn’t afford to take breaks to farm the field in time to be on schedule. After we finished our hour of field work we found that we made about 20 bushels of rice in that time enough to make about 100 bowls of rice. It was really amazing.

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