The white bean is a staple here and soup and other things are made with the white bean.

Just after the rice harvest, the beans are harvested too. They are left to dry, then the dried plants are moved onto the black sheets of plastic, and threshed. The tool is a stick with a strap of leather which is used to beat the crop...into submitting the seed.

The lady doing this is very very old..and when she bent over, she doubled over just like a playing card. I thought of retirement in  the western world. Here there is no such thing, you work till you either drop, or cannot walk any more. The crops are mostly worked by very old people, who work them very slowly sitting together in the sun. This crop was later beaten again by an old man and he gave me a bean..it was a white bean about the same size and shape as a green pea, but white.

These oldies don't have teeth, they are wrinkled and weathered by the sun, and their legs are bent with the work they have done all their life. Yet there is a wonderful aura of contentment and happiness about them, and they are very much loved by their children and families.

You can see quite clearly in the image how the rice is being harvested in small loads....they cut and clean an area and then move to the next. This lady would be one of the harvesters too.