29. november

When I arrived at the Ministry a man I had not met earlier came and said hello. He job was to teach in the villages in Bhutan. He told me that right now many people from the country are moving to Thimphu because they hope to find jobs here. I guess that is a normal pattern whenever a country is starting to develop fast. But it is difficult for all these people to find jobs and the price of housing is rising quickly due to this. The government is launching different projects trying to make people stay in the country. One of these is keeping administration - and even moving it - outside of Thimphu. Everybody in the Ministry thinks it is a good idea to move …… others not themselves ;-) Does that sound familiar? Anyway, this guy was in charge of introducing new courses and training to the women, the monks and the nuns in the country. Earlier all kind of education was delivered by the monasteries and still today a lot of the art and craft work is taught in the monasteries. I also drove by a monastery here in Thimphu one day where the monks studied astrology (I believe Chinese astrology) and many people use the astrology monks as advisors when they face problems. But back to keeping people in the country - they now introduce new possibilities like sowing traditional dancing costumes used during the festivals and other things like that and hope that when people have jobs like these in the villages they will stay.

It shall be interesting to see if Bhutan will succeed in stopping the rush towards the capital! I hope so, because already now there are 10.000 young unemployed persons in Bhutan - most of them in Thimphu - and that is out of a workforce of 350.000 people! The Bhutanese way of life has taught them to be content and grateful for what life has to offer, but with Internet, television and more and more contact with other countries young people start to get frustrated. They want a part of the cake in the same way as everybody else I guess - and who can blame them. I really hope the government will find a solution to the problem. At the same time the companies in Bhutan often hire foreign workers! Hopefully the vocational institutes here will expand and get most of the young people educated!

I worked on finishing the outlines and framework for the course today and tomorrow I'll have a meeting with Karma and Karma - trying to make loose ends meet.

I went downtown after work to buy some Bhutanese flags to take home and found some nice embroidered ones with small poles. I also went to the 8Eleven and then walked back uphill. Halfway up I decided to take a cab the rest of the way - climbing these mountains in Thimphu is exhausting ;-)

Mr. Kaka was there right away offering me all the nice dishes the kitchen could come up with - he is a great salesman as well as a kind guy.

In the evening I talked to my son via Facebook and it turned out that the storm in Denmark had shut down electricity AND my heating system and that the whole house was very cold. I am lucky that he is there to take care of everything. In the middle of our dialogue the electricity disappeared in Thimphu - and was gone for an hour, so I guess electricity problems are just "in" these days or as Oliver wrote - maybe it is catching ;-)