We first stopped the bus alongside a cotton field bursting with white bolls. The kids eagerly tramped out to pick one – and immediately recoiled when they found that not only the stems but also the leaves of the cotton plant are bristling with spikes and sharp points. All of a sudden, they realized that picking these appealing fluffballs was not as fun as it looked from our bus windows.
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We gingerly picked a few samples, and headed on.
Next quick stop, just up the road: a rice paddy. Standing on a narrow strip of raised mud over a wet paddy field, we picked a stem of rice and described to the kids the back-breaking, wet labor it took to plant, harvest and then process it.
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After looking at one stem’s worth, they started thinking about how many stems and how much effort it took to put a single bowl of rice on the table. If “farmer” was ever on their list of potential professions, we’re pretty sure that these few moments in an actual field have knocked it off their list.
We were almost finished with our visit, but
we first needed to track down an old
friend.