23. november

It wasn't a very pleasant night :-( It was ok as long as I stayed in bed under my covers but as soon as my arm or leg found its way out into the open air it was SO cold. And on top of this one dog that lives in one of the apartments has his favorite night corner right outside my bedroom window, which means he is basically barking into my ear every ten minutes during the night. I woke up numerous times and when my alarm clock went off I did not feel like getting up - at all! Even so I climbed out of the warm bed and got ready for work and I decided to talk to Mr. Sangay and tell him about my problems with the cold. In spite of my tired condition I managed to put on the kira all by myself - I was very proud of that ;-)

Getting to work a little before 9 I wrote Mr. Sangay a note telling him that I was very cold in the apartment (I am not used to living without central heating) and that maybe we could talk about it and try to find a solution. 20 minutes later Mr. Sangay came to my box and said that he didn't want me to be uncomfortable and that he would find another place for me to stay. I was very grateful! A little later Carsten came by and he agreed that I had to move. It wasn't that easy to find a place where I could stay till Dec. 10.th - the only place was the Khang Recidensy that I just moved out of yesterday! So Mr. Sangay came to the apartment after work and I packed everything very quickly - and hurried so much that I stepped on my new skirt so I tore it ;-) Then he drove me to Khang with my entire luggage and the kind people at the hotel were happy to see me back! They said that many times and they grabbed all my luggage and ran upstairs with it before I could count to 10. So now I am back to the Khang Recidensy - to the same room as before - no. 407 - and it is nice and warm! Thank you to the loving people of Bhutan who are always trying to help out! It feels good to be "home".

At lunch today a young girl I had not met before came to my box at the ministry and offered me some corn pieces - they looked like corn flakes but were harder. She invited me to join her and Karma Lhazom for tea and corn pieces which I did. We had a very interesting conversation and these well educated girls know SO much about this area of the world: China, Singapore, and Malaysia etc. Karma Lhazom just returned to Bhutan after studying lifelong learning in London and Spain for 2 years and the other girl had studied in Singapore for 2 years.

I worked hard today with putting a framework for the Master Trainers' course together, writing some criteria for the selection of master trainers and making a suggestion about what accomplishments I will complete during my next 3 trips to Bhutan. I'll see if I can get some comments from my counterparts - the 2 Karmas on these things J And tomorrow I will finish my report on the findings and recommendations - I only have to add a few comments from the meeting yesterday. Great - things are moving forward and that is good for I have many tasks to accomplish ;-)

Tonight is an early night - to catch up for last night!