Steffen joined Carsten and me at the Ministry today - at 10 am he gave a presentation about the teaching he is to do for the next 2 weeks. I think all went well and he got a workplace for a couple of hours - it was nice having him around to talk to every now and then.

We didn't finish the binders for the Master Trainer course - I think everybody was very busy today so we will have to do it tomorrow instead. We still have time…….

Once again I had lunch at the Khang - this time together with Steffen. It is incredible how kind and friendly these people at the Khang are! They smile and seem happy every time I come there. Either they ARE kind and friendly people or they are very good actors! This time I met miss Sonam at the Khang (one of them - I have 2 friends there with the same name ;-))

Today is the first day of the spring here, 1.st of March, even though it was a cold day with some rain and quite a lot of wind! Well the calendar says it is spring - so be it :-) And why is this an important date? Because starting today we work from 9 - 17 at the Ministry instead of 9 - 16. The last hour was a bit heavy - my head seemed to be very heavy, but I think everybody felt that way ;-)

After work I wanted to go shopping and Steffen joined me - we took a taxi all the way through town to the other end of Thimphu because we wanted to see the famous shopping center that we had heard of. The center has got the first and only escalators in Bhutan and many Bhutanese people have visited the center just to try them out.
The taxi that stopped to pick us up already had a customer, a young girl, but the driver told us to hop in anyways. So we dropped her off first and when we came to her house I had to jump out and take a picture! Painted on the wall of the house was a big penis! Last time I was here I saw some houses with painted penises on them - outside Thimphu on the way to the Choki school. At that time we didn't stop so I could take a photo and I didn't want to miss the opportunity this time :-) I have read that it is quite common in the country to paint penises on the walls of the houses because they are symbols of fertility and abundance.

At the center we found a lot of shops selling clothes, a florist (the first I have seen here), a bike shop and a restaurant at the top floor. There weren't very many people in the center and as soon as our heads popped up at the top floor the door of the restaurant swung open and a man smiled: "Welcome". He really wanted customers! We declined with regret and went down again.
I had spotted something that looked like a supermarket even though Steffen claimed it was a candy shop. But it turned out that it WAS a supermarket! I must admit that the supermarkets don't look like supermarkets! They sell a lot of candy, chips, cola and other sweet drinks, no fresh food at all, no meat and no fresh dairy products, but some canned food, juice, rice and spaghetti. Vegetables, meat, dairy products and bread we have to buy at different shops in the center of Thimphu. There are no coolers with frozen food either so the selection in the supermarkets is limited - and not too healthy compared to Danish standards. Oh well, I found some almonds and pasta - I'll have to go downtown to buy some carrots soon.

After shopping we went to the Jumolhari again - it is a very good restaurant with many different dishes on the menu - also for vegetarians ;-)