30. november

Today we succeeded in having a meeting - Mr. Karma, Ms. Karma and I. It has been postponed a few times because of the 2 Karmas being occupied with other meetings. We discussed and agreed upon the criteria for selection of the Master Trainers - when I come back in February I am going to teach the first module! Exciting. We also talked about evaluations and supervision of the master trainers and the draft for the course that I have made. On Friday I am to give a presentation on it. After that I worked on an evaluation to use after each module and also started looking at the centre in Gelephu. I was so busy that I forgot the lunch break and when my stomach started telling me it was time to eat, it was already so late that I didn't want to go. I just had some almonds and raisins to keep me going. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice: "Hello Ms. Anni!" I looked up and got a bit confused because it was Mr. Kaka from the hotel! I did not expect to see him at the Ministry. Apparently he had some kind of business here :-) Coming back "home" to the hotel Mr. Sangay from the Ministry was in the vestibule and at first I thought he wanted to talk to me, but no - he had some business with the hotel. What a confusing mixture of people being in the wrong places from where I expect them to be ;-)

I had dinner at the hotel today and Mr. Kaka suggested some nice Indian vegetables in curry and rice on the side. It was very good and I was also hungry because I didn't have much for lunch. I am getting used to the Bhutanese way of eating now: not with a knife and a fork, but with a spoon and a fork. You still use your left hand for the fork, but you put your food on the spoon in your right hand and eat with that. In the beginning it felt strange but not anymore. I am also getting used to the left driving here. In the beginning I always looked in the wrong direction when crossing the street - I am becoming very Bhutanese!

The second sweet girl in the restaurant (got to ask her name!) told me she was learning German - by herself. She had gone to Germany once because her brother was sick and had to get an operation in Germany. She got some German friends and bought a book to learn German from! We agreed to become Facebook friends :-) And she offered to take me sightseeing on her day off - Monday - but unfortunately I am working on Monday :-( Maybe next time I come here.

My black boots are cracking up - I don't know if I can use them anymore! So now I am left with my warm winter boots. They are ok mornings and nights but a little too hot during the day! And I do feel different because almost everybody here wears high heels or sandals with their kiras and no socks or stockings! While I wear winter boots! At least I won't get a cold ;-)

The kind people at the hotel gave me an automatic emergency light today - if/when the electricity breaks down it goes on automatically - very nice and better than my flashlight. They do spoil me!