Category: Countries

I’m back in gho today after a few days. My stomach kept getting worse until I had what seems like an attack of giardia on Monday night. I was a set of biological bellows for about 7 hours that night, expelling my own volcanic gases. I’m normally one to trust in my body to resolve… Continue reading Giardia

I wore a suit in public today. It’s the first time in well over a year. I’ve been sick all weekend, but thought I was recovered this morning, so I put on my gho as usual and went to work. After an hour of the thick belt pushing against my stomach, I had to rush… Continue reading Suited Up

One week ago today, Gasa town was electrified. Gasa is the most remote dzongkag in Bhutan, and even now the town is most of a day’s walk from the nearest road. Until last week, they had lights and a community phone powered by solar panels – if the weather was good enough. In the last… Continue reading Gasa Electrified

Today I got to see my Bhutanese office mate submit a tender for a government project. I’ve never seen this done outside of Bhutan, so perhaps this process is similar in other countries, but it was new to me. The documentation was standard enough, but he had to pay about $50 (a lot of money… Continue reading Government Tender

The newspaper today reported that a Bhutanese soldier sodomised the 11 month old baby of his neighbour. In general, people here are more peaceful and civilised than anywhere else I’ve been, but then they can be more horific too. I hate to make judgements about people of another culture, even for something like this. Who… Continue reading 11 Month Old Girl Sodomised

My new business cards arrived from Australia today and they look fantastic. I’d like to have ordered them locally to save on shipping, take advantage of the low costs here and most of all to support the local industries. But my target clients are international companies and I it wouldn’t look good to use what… Continue reading Printing

I got a call from Marie just after she left this morning. She was at the petrol station staring at a cut fuel hose. When she left, she noted the full tank, but by the time she’d reached town a couple of minutes later, the guage showed almost empty. The fuel attendant had showed her… Continue reading Fuel Gone

I’ve dropped Marie’s parents at the airport and Marie and I have reclaimed the house for a few weeks. Today was curtain shopping and during the week I’m hoping to find the bricks and wood we need to make our shelves. But today was also a day for relaxing in the sun at the rock… Continue reading Climbing

It’s been a hard day after getting news that Marie’s second non-family guest of the year might not get his visa. There are no documented rules and they change all the time, but each volunteer (working for the government) should be allowed to have 2 or 3 guests each year. We’d applied for this friend… Continue reading Dinner at the Baps’

As I was cycling to RIM this morning (behind a bunch of monks getting a lift in the tray of a Police utility) a helicopter took off from the army base. It was enough of a novelty to the locals that they’d gathered along the edge of the road to watch, completely oblivious to the… Continue reading Dogs on a Tin Roof