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 home to change. That belt is all that keeps the gho (or kira for women) from falling down around my feet, and it has to be tied very tightly. I leave it very loose compared to the locals and have to adjust it every time I stand up.
Tied properly, it’s enough to rearrange internal organs. One of Marie’s colleagues was in agony for over a month before doctors bothered to take an x-ray and found she had a foetus growing in her tubes. These kinds of problems seem to occur alarmingly frequently and we’re convinced that’s because of the belt.
But the gho and kira must be worn by all Bhutanese as a national mandate and when entering flag-bearing buildings, they must be adorned with a kabney (men) or rachu (women). Since I was going to the Foreign Ministry to pick up my parent’s visas, it didn’t seem appropriate to wear jeans and I felt sick in a gho. The only remaining solution was to put on my new suit, recently tailored in Kolkata.
I have to say, that if I felt silly wearing a suit in Australia, Japan and Belgium, then I felt ridiculous in Bhutan.