Uncle Hun slowly wandered over while Judy was speaking to the ladies and told them that tomorrow evening they should bring food so the Christian community in the village could share a meal together with us. It was a quick statement and while we were excited about a village "potluck," we thought nothing else of it.
Until...The next day we walked to the neighbors hut where she was grinding rice into a pure white paste with a crude rock grinder. Our dear and faithful translater, Chetra, told us that when Uncle Hun told them about the "potluck," they went home after our time together and put the rice that they had grown themselves, on to soak, so it would be soft enough the next day to grind.
We then asked, why she was grinding the rice. Chetra told us that they had to grind the rice to make paste, which once squeezed of all the liquid would make dough,and so on and so forth until rice noodles filled our plates. We were awed athe procedure, but just took a few pictures and went on our way to a
neighboring village just across the stream to do some visiting.
On our return...
We saw the women gathered at one of the huts working away. When we stopped to say hello, we saw what it really takes for the villagers to serve us Cambodian Rice Noodles. Let me explain...
Day one evening: All the women soak the rice at their own huts to make it soft.
Day two....all morning: Each one grinds the soft rice into a thick paste - it looks just like glue - and then delivers it to a central hut where almost the whole village has gathered to turn that paste into noodles.
Day two mid-morning thru to late afternoon: Each lady performs a job to make the paste into noodles.
One woman takes the thick cloth of rice paste and wraps it up and then sits on top of a wooden contraption so the water squeezes out of the paste. It forms a clump of white rice paste. A second woman takes the clump and breaks it into pieces - where it takes on the appearance of feta cheese - and then rolls it into a ball, half the size of a soccer ball. Woman three takes the ball and drops it into a huge pot of boiling water. After it boils for a while, she pulls it out places it on a large banana leaf and sets it in cold water. That's when women four, five, and six put the cooked ball of rice paste into a wooden threshing container and with one pole each, they pound the liquid out of the paste. It's then dumped into woman #7's pan and she kneeds the paste into a dough for 15 minutes for each ball of dough. Then woman #8 takes the dough and puts it into what looks like a wooden pasta press, and she sits a log, that presses on a wooden container and out flows hundreds of strands of rice noodles. They drop from the press into a pot of boiling water, where they cook. She then dips them out, washes them in cold water, and then delivers them to woman nine, who dips the noodles out into bunches the size of your palm and places them into a deep colander.
As we sat watching this elaborate process Judy reminded the ladies of what it says in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. That we are all part of the body of Christ and each one is needed to do their part. Some preach, some teach, some serve, some make rice noodles, and some eat the noodles - guilty! However, when we all work together the body of Christ is built up and flourishes. As Judy shared, you could see each woman - all of them baby Christians, some just a week old in the faith - listen and make the connection. With smiles on their faces they nodded in return.
Perhaps they saw the connection between rice noodles and the body. Regardless, we learned what they already know, that it takes a village to make rice noodles and it takes each of us - doing the one thing God has called and gifted us to do - to make the body of Christ function effectively.
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