Pagpapagiik / Threshing Day

What is the difference between a sipok, a talumpok and a mandala?

That was just one of the things I learned in less that half a day of joining, nay, observing the pagpapagiik in one of our rice fields. There were other deeper more relevant things, among them the concerns, hopes, and plans of several farmers, one of whom was our farmhand.

Theirs is a world, a life, that is far from the world of my students and many of my friends. But it is an essential world without which the city, and the lifestyle of those who live in it could hardly survive. The Filipino farmers draw life from the soil in order to feed many of us. Yet they belong to one of the groups that are often neglected by policy-makers and yes, even myself. Often their flight is considered in hindsight.

But their life is hard. They toil under the heat of the summer sun and the lashing of the monsoon rains. They often end up penniless or at the mercy of lenders for the harvest season comes only twice a year.

If only their earnings are dependent on hard work, they would have been rich men a long time ago. However, the reality is, they are at mercy of mother nature's whims. Too much sun and the fields would dry up. Too much rain and I learned, even wind, can bear fruit to worthless chaff.