The woman sitting in the chair is inserting a cultured pearl in to an oyster.

After they had captured our attention with this delicate process, the woman standing picked up an oyster to show us the pearl extraction process - she opened the oyster and then knifed the animal in half to expose the pearl.

Everyone recoiled and the little boy in the middle of the picture cried "She killed it!"

The magic of pearl farming was severely diminished at that point...