New house & other random ramblings

I've moved into my new house now. As everyone told me, the people are just as welcoming as Conrad & Pearl and the place is fantastic. There English is not as good so I am having to use even simpler words and talking even slower- not an easy task for me! But, at least they pretend to understand, bobbing there heads from side to side (which can symbolize "yes," or "I don't want to say no so I will just do this."). It can be very confusing. They do not have internet but this cafe is literally across the street from the office and I always keep busy anyway.
I have the upstairs suite to myself including a fridge, a rooftop and clean bathroom- in my last place I was geeting used to stepping on the unavoidable ants crawling all over the floor because it's rude to wear shoes. Sometimes I'd sneak them in under my towel though. I love the not wearing shoes thing because when it's hot and you have to keep so much skin covered you need something to be free.
I'm finding my style here though- learning what is acceptable and what you'll get you some strange looks. It turns out that the rules are more lenient than I thought- they're just different. Tight shirts are fine, white shirts that you can see through are ok, even some shoulder is no problem, it's just the spagetti straps and short shorts/skirts that must be avoided. Pearl was laughing the other day when I was asking her about one of my shirts. "You tink too much" she said and she's probably right.
I was asking her all about her Buddhist beliefs last night. I was told ahead of time but still expected that the Buddism here would be more of a philosophy like in other parts of Asia but here it has really become a religion with rules and scripture and daily worshiping. Everywhere you go you here people thanking the Lord which I mentally associate with Christain thinking rather than Buddhist. There's no yoga here :( but I promised to teach Madhu and the other girls. I am also teaching them power point and presentation skills next week, and right now I am improving their brochures and writing a report about the Children's Center as it has now been open for 1 year. I was also asked to write a proposal to keep one of the women's entrepeneurial programs going for another year.
On Friday I'll be heading out with Conrad to a very remote willage to check out one of the education programs they have going on there. On Sunday I went to the environmental training but I found it very basic compared to what we learn- they learn about water and animals & such. The children are sooooooo studious. They listen carefully when the teacher is speaking and always, even if they see a teacher in town, they bow before them to worship.
Most of the girls want to become doctors. It's great that they are encouraged to go to school & study but it doesn't mean that they are equal- just means that families here can't survive on one income. I was asking Pearl about how if everyone looks well dressed and has food to eat what was poor and she said that poor meant that you could not afford "the good food or the education." I met someone the other day who dressed like they worked in an office in the West and had a new cell phone but when we dropped him at his house he lived in a tiny shack with several family members. Clearly, he is supporting his whole family with his job at INDECOS.
You are considered a girl here until you are about 25, so most of the employees at INDECOS are still "girls". For the most part they act very young, too, giggling a lot but also because they "obey" Conrad who they all call "the Mr." It is a patriarchy all the way and you have Muslim girls, who are not allowed to get educated, running training programs to do with education. The office setting is very different here and I am still trying to figure it out.