Arroz

Recently I had the opportunity of going to the rice fields just outside of Guayaquil. Rice is the staple food of Ecuador. It is served with every meal. Even if you get potatoes or noodles, they come with rice. When you get to the rice fields, it is like a sea of green that stretches as far as you can see in all directions. A worker in the rice fields makes 7 dollars a day for 4-5 hours of work. Work begins early in the morning and is over before the real heat of the day. From what I observed, the workers totally know how to relax in the off hours. They are very social. A hammock in the shade can account for some time, or gathering at one of the hundreds of little makeshift outdoor cafes is popular. That café will be a few poles lashed together with some pieces of salvaged corrugated metal roofing, and a few plastic chairs around a rough table made of boards. They seem to be able to spend any amount of time in each others company visiting and drinking pop or beer and nibbling at snacky sort of things prepared by the owner or his family.

Alfonso Valero is a supervisor in the rice fields. I have been building the bathroom for his family, and doing some other things for them as well.. A couple weeks ago, he went out with his boss to check on the workers at his two rice processing plants, and see a few of his workers. I got invited to go along. I had a great time. The boss is a super guy. To see him interacting with Alfonso, you could never tell who was the boss. The other workers I saw obviously think highly of him, and do not defer to him as boss in any way that I could see. Total respect and love all the way around. On the way there we stopped at one of the little cafes for a breakfast of corn tamales cooked in corn husks and a big slab of cheese, all washed down with pop.

I had a hard time deciding what pictures to include because I found so many things interesting. The first picture shows a guy planting rice. They plant a nursery field by broadcasting seed by hand. It comes up thick. When the plants are about 10" tall they pull them out, and then wade into prepared fields and plant the individual plants about 10" apart. Their hands move very fast, or they did while we were watching. When the plants grow they really bush out and fill the field rather densely. Pretty impressive when you look up and in any direction and realize that that is how all the greenery got there.

The second picture just shows the pattern of roads to access the fields with equipment. The third picture shows what it looks like after the harvesters have gone through, and a harvester working in the background.

Not being able to speak with my friends I had to surmise a bit. The tractor going down the road seems to be used for packing the stubble back into the muck. I saw them going back and forth across the fields and not pulling anything so that is all I can figure. Ecuadorians are masters at keeping ancient equipment running. That tractor is probably 20 or 30 years old. I see taxies in Ecuador that are some of the first Ladas made. You Americans are probably not familiar. The Lada is a Russian car. They bought the patterns and rights to build a Fiat that was a 60's or 70's model and was sturdy and reliable. They were cheap and tough and were available for awhile in Canada, but they never got popular there. They came with manual transmissions and no power steering. There are loads of them on the road here as taxis. I see Datsun trucks on the road that look just like the ‘71 Datsun that I used as a self employed carpenter in the Musquodoboit valley. Great little 1200cc 4 cylinder jobs that got great mileage and hauled a man sized load when called upon to do so. I never needed more.

Most of the contractors that I know driving around in big impressive expensive trucks with V8 or V6 engines are going around 99% of the time with an empty box and get everything delivered. You don’t need 400HP to pick up a box of gun nails. Some contractors do actually use their trucks for work. I like to see a truck with the box all dented up from being used. Maybe common sense will return as the economic crunch causes people and car makers to think about what people really need and can afford. My biggest beef with big trucks is that there has been no alternative. I would love to have that Datsun back, or something about that size. I digress. The last picture shows tiller like things getting the ground ready for planting. Don’t miss the next edition of Arroz (rice), aptly called "Arroz Part 2", from your humble, tho’ overly philosophical correspondent in Ecuador.

Pete