Life in the village, new opportunities, getting lice, and working with women

I got back from Sankhu village yesterday afternoon, revitalized after several days in the fresh air outside of Kathmandu. The village is truely beautiful, and only about an hour away from the city, plus a ten minute walk through town and up a hill to PA-Nepal's Sankhu children's home. There is a greater percentage of older children in this home, which has been very nice, as many of them have better English, and more common interests. I have quickly discovered that Nepali people are very forward, not hesitating to point out that you are fat, beautiful, or strange. Both short hair and one earring have attracted general distaste, and my nick-name, Roz, is generally pronounced "Raj", which i am repeated told is a boy's name. Ah well, at least they like my dimple. It is also funny to be tall for the first time in my life. At 5'5'' I am taller than most girls, and about even with most boys. I finally can sympathize with my American friends who hate feeling "bigger" than everyone else.
The only problem with Sankhu, and with PA-Nepal in general, is that the Kathmandu part of the organization, and the woman in charge, Indira, can be difficult to communicate with. Furthermore, new government legislation passed in the last month has made it illegal for volunteers to stay in children's homes, probably given the lack of screening of volunteers and abusive incidents. This means I can only stay at Sankhu for 3-5 days at a time, and must "commute" between the village and the city, or nearby villages (there are some picturesque places that are very close). The only other problem has been getting lice, which is apparently pretty common so i'm not going to sweat it.
Initially I almost decided to just find a different organization, so i could be outside of Kathmandu all the time, but yesterday I met with Menuka, the head of another Omprakash partner called Raksha. Raksha is a women's organization that helps women who have been forced into sexual acts by their employers escape from these abusive jobs and rehabilitate through vocational training and counseling. They are doing wonderful work, Menuka is extremely friendly and enthusiastic, and has invited me to stay in her home or the office while I'm in Kathmandu so I can help with proposal and brochure writing in English, as well as teach some English to the women in the program. Though I'd like to be outside of Kathmandu, Raksha is doing wonderful work and I really want to help, so I think I will probably alternate between Raksha and PA-Nepal in Sankhu for the rest of my month and a half in Nepal, thereby maximizing the amount I do while I'm here.
It feels very good to have a plan for my stay after the amorphous miscommunication concerning PA-Nepal after I got here. One warning to other volunteers in Nepal: communication is very different here, and goes much more slowly. You have to be patient, direct, and work with the people in charge, which can get frustrating when there is a language barrier, a huge city with very few street names, and so many people involved. However, I'm already finding it very worthwhile, and am excited to get to work.
I am off to Sankhu again this weekend through the middle of next week to watch the girl's dance performance and spend more time with the kids. It is a wonderful place to recharge: we wake up, help the children with their homework, eat a large meal of dahl bat with tea, teach in the school part-time when teachers are not around, or request help, have a snacky sort of lunch, play/talk/help the kids, or do chores, and then eat a late dinner, after which there is homework, general exhaustion, and hanging out. We can really choose to do alternate things though, so if i wanted to go for a walk for two hours, or take a nap, or play guitar, i could do so. I'm bringing out all the frisbees I brought to Nepal this weekend, and hopefully will teach the game, though most of the flat areas are used for rice cultivation and aren't at all acceptable as frisbee fields. I will have to teach a smaller version of the game and the proper throws. Perhaps i can find a good field to take them to...