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Monday was the first day of teaching for Aksel - all his participants came to the course in their nice ghos and in the afternoon they were going to do some practical exercises in the workshop. I hope they have some other clothes for working - it would be a shame to ruin their ghos!
In my own class the last two participants were present today. Mr. KInley had finished his job in Thimphu and joined us late Sunday afternoon on our trip and Mr. Leki who went to India with his 4 months old sick son came last night. Sadly enough his baby had died but he still wanted to attend the course! I felt so sorry for him :-(
Most mornings are very beautiful with lots of sunshine and nice weather - then in the afternoon it often rains. Today we had a strong thunderstorm with heavy rain. And - which is the rule rather than the exception - the Internet disappeared during the thunderstorm. The manager at our hotel suggested that we got some data cards with mobile data connection so we will try to get hold of that now. It is really difficult to prepare classes without Internet!
Monday night when Aksel and I were walking back to the cottages after dinner the small lampposts suddenly went on a strike. Can you imagine that? Surrounded by nature, trees and bears we could see absolutely nothing! We were lucky that we had our cell phones - they became our flashlights and helped us back to our cottages ;-) Out here with no lights at all it's really BLACK after 8 pm ;-)
Tuesday I woke up and didn't notice anything unusual until I met with Aksel for breakfast and tried to talk to him. My voice had almost disappeared! I did not feel sick but realized that a huge cold was on its way. When we reached the school I asked Karma Dorji if he knew how we could get a data card. He said yes and was horrified by my voice. So he went to the principal of the school and told him that he wanted to take me to the hospital. The principal was very alarmed and said he would take me himself! I never wanted to go to the hospital but they insisted and told me they felt responsible for my health. So I agreed to go along. I found an assignment for the master trainers to do while I was away and went to a health clinic about 15 minutes' drive together with the principal. The clinic was a small room where 3 parents and 5 children were already waiting but the nurse refused to let me wait and placed me in the chair immediately - while the parents and the children all looked at me curiously in the same room. I whispered my small problem to her and she asked my name and age, looked down my throat once and started counting 40 antibiotic pills for me to eat during the next 5 days.
Then we returned to the school - me with the 40 pills in my pocket. I asked the principal about data cards on the way back - actually I was more interested in data cards than antibiotic pills ;-) Even though I realized that it might be a good thing to take them because it would be almost impossible for me to teach if I got really sick with a cold. The principal promised to find a data card for us to borrow so I was very happy :-) He brought me the card a little later the same day and I tried to make it work at night but I couldn't. I kept getting a message about registering the card with a mobile company??? Nothing is simple here ;-) I'll ask the master trainers for help tomorrow!
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