2. december

Today is my birthday!
It was nice to wake up and take a shower in this new apartment. I enjoyed a quiet morning reading 2 nice e-mails from friends. The last few days I have made myself a cup of coffee in my room and have eaten yoghurt but today I thought I would go down for breakfast. It turned out that the restaurant wasn't open - I am pretty sure I am the only guest here! So I had my usual coffee and yoghurt in my room - no problem at all :-)

At 10 am we had the meeting about the criteria for selection of master trainers and a discussion about the outlines/framework for the master trainer course that I have designed. The framework was received well and only a few words were changed. The criteria raised a little more discussion but in the end it ended well - if there are to be some changes here we need to educate some young, innovative people open for new ideas. I think we'll send a clear signal about that. It shall be very exciting to see who the master trainers are next time I come here.

After the meeting it was almost lunch time and I walked to the hotel for lunch and had some great Nepalese food and a very delicious dessert - a rice pudding. Yes, I spoil myself today ;-)

I invited Carsten out for dinner and we agreed upon meeting at 6 pm downtown Thimphu. Carsten showed me a small shop owned by a very kind woman - this would be a good place to buy souvenirs he told me because she is very honest. I'll remember that!

Carsten had bought me a birthday present! The kind man! A prayer wheel and a gho and a kira in small sizes (doll size) - gho is a man's traditional dressing and kira is a woman's dress. We went to Taj Tashi - one of the best hotels in Thimphu, had a drink in the bar and a really good dinner afterwards. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday and Carsten has so many stories about all the places he has worked in Africa, Asia and South America. I was so entertained and enjoyed the evening very, very much. I think Carsten should write a book about his life!

I came back to the hotel at 10 pm and was very tired but checked my mails and Facebook and I was very touched to see that so many people had sent me birthday wishes!