At home in the Village

So these days I am staying with a Nepali family in a village studying Nepali. I have a few more weeks to get my Nepali language on track to use it in my human rights work. And I feel I am on track to to just that. I am staying with a wonderfully warm and very large family. In one house I have a grandpa, a mother, father, two older brothers, their two wives, two nephews, a sister (who visits and stays there often), her two small sons, and two cows. luckily the cows do not stay in the house though. it is most defiantly a matriarchal household. Every mealtime my mother sits with pots of delicious Nepali food around her dolling it out to each family member and pestering us all to eat more to no end. Sometimes I must resort to defending my plate from her loving addition portions of food.
I have gotten close to both my older brothers. Dinesh is 29 and we speak at length in Nepali about everything under the sun in the evenings. We sit outside as the sun goes down talking and complaining about how our stomachs hurt from eating too much of mom's food. This time each night does more for my language improvement then anything I think. My other brother Manoj and I joke around a lot and are always picking on each other. His son, Susant, who is 6 often joins in too. Manoj often takes me around on the back of his motorbike to places I would not otherwise find and introduces me to many of his friends and extended family.
The village itself is full of cows and goats and fields surround it. It is on a hillside so the fields are terraced with the jungle reaching up the mountains behind us. And it is true jungle mind you. No one goes out at night because of the jaguar. I am eager to begin my work, but this family is so wonderful and life in this simple, farm based village suits me so much I am already feeling reluctant to leave even though it is not for some time.