Over the years my life has proved the old adage, "God doesn't close a door without opening a window."
In May, 2014, I flew to Bhutan to work for UNICEF. Bhutan is my favorite country outside my mother country. Still, I was a bit disgruntled to work on my birthday, and moreover, to actually miss my birthday, figuratively and literally. Due to time difference I would travel on May 7, U.S. time, and arrive in Asia on May 9 while it was May 8 back in the U.S. I realized that I would fly right past my birthday.
I had a crunch of consultancies in a row and these were the only dates that worked. Added to my melancholy, I would fly so near to my daughter, Bronwyn, posted in Nepal as an Environment Officer for USAID, but not have the time to squeeze in a visit and a hug.
It's not easy to get to Bhutan. There are no commercial flights into Bhutan because it has a very small, difficult-to-land national runway; and because the country keeps a tight rein on tourism to its "Magic Kingdom". To get there you must fly the Bhutanese King's Royal Dragon Air, also known as Druk Airlines, boarding at one of the few access points including Thailand and India.
The plane was two hours late leaving India. The delay was caused by bad weather over the Himalayas. Finally, we boarded. In flight and nearing Bhutan arrival time, the pilot announced that the storms were too strong for a landing in Bhutan. He said we were being diverted to Nepal and would stay there overnight. My cheers silenced all the groans on the plane.
Next, I scrambled to see if I had Bronwyn’s mobile phone number in Nepal. We usually chatted through Facetime, but I had phone contacts in case of an emergency. Luckily it was in my calendar. I knew that we would land in late afternoon and I wanted to catch her before she ate dinner.
The plane sat on the Nepal runway for about 30 minutes while airport officials and Druk Air decided what to do with us. I was excited and also worried because I did not have access to a Nepali phone. I told this to a sympathetic flight attendant who disembarked and borrowed a mobile phone from one of the ground crew. She came back into the plane with a smile and we called Bronwyn. The flight attendant kept losing the connection before Bronwyn could answer. My tension mounted.
Finally, the call went through and Bronwyn answered. The flight attendant handed the phone to me. Bronwyn expressed panic at receiving a call from me on an unknown number. This type of phone call might indicate bad news. Wow, was she surprised, delighted and immediately into planning mode. She told me she would meet me at my hotel and take me out to dinner.
In the meantime, the attendant checked with the chief purser regarding the hotel they had booked for us and the captain's plans for early morning departure the next day. She relayed the news to Bronwyn.
Since it was Nepali Mother’s Day - a day more revered in Nepal than other countries - the hotel staff was convinced that Bronwyn had willed down the plane so she could take me out for Mother’s Day dinner. They didn't know it was also my birthday, sort of.
I gave my luggage to a hotel porter and left with Bronwyn, hand in hand. Laughing and chattering like birds, we were delighted at this unexpected reunion.
We spent several hours over dinner, talking about this and that and nothing at all. We basked in the delight of serendipity, and the powerful love between a mother and daughter. One that could cull in a storm and emergency landing.
Early the next morning, my plane left the runway for Bhutan. As I waved down on Nepal, I knew that I would always remember this birthday.
A day late for the workshops in Bhutan, I was driven straight to the training site. The hotel chosen for roll-out of the national parenting education program was in the country-side and surrounded by mountain views. Guest cottages were scattered throughout the grounds. Orange poppies danced in the breeze outside my room. A patch of Iris grew out of a rock boulder in the grove of pines beside my room.
I had looked forward to working with my colleagues from the Ministry of Education, again. Such delightful people, especially Kezang Deki (to my left In the photo), who was head of UNICEF Bhutan's Early Childhood Division at that time, and Karma Choden (to my right), the Deputy Chief of Early Childhood Education for the Ministry of Education.
Karma loved my nickname for her, "Spice Girl", as she was a lively character, adding joy and fun to our work. It was also great to see the colleagues from health, education and child protection who worked with me to design the parenting education program the year before.
There is everything to love about Bhutan. After my fourth trip to Bhutan, I felt convinced that Bhutan has it right – culturally, educationally, architecturally, artistically, environmentally, spiritually and politically.
I have to mention the food before I tell you what happened at the end of my first day back in Bhutan. A dinner menu might include fiddlehead ferns with mushrooms and cheese sauce; stir-fried okra and tomatoes; batter fried veggies -zuchinni, eggplant or cauliflower; ema dasi (chili peppers with cheese sauce) or potatoes with chilis and cheese sauce and beef, chicken or fish – with chilies. Bhutanese love cheese and chili. Most everything I’ve eaten there is fire engine hot.
During a previous work trip, Kezang told the hotel cook that he was trying to kill the foreigner. She told him, "You can put chilis in one or two dishes but not everything, because the Bhutanese can add chilis to their plates." The next night the food was quite bland and everyone complained so we went back to spicy fare, to my delight, as well as theirs.
When I arrived in Bhutan, after my emergency landing in Nepal, the team was ready to start work. At the end of the day, Kezang announced we would have a social gathering in the evening, which sounded suspiciously like a birthday party. Indeed, it was!
There was a huge bonfire and a birthday cake with sculpted roses and “Happy Birthday Deborah” in chocolate swirls. Everyone ate cake, there were appetizers of crunchy chili beans and chili peanuts. There was dancing around the fire and a nice Australian wine and a bottle of Scotch that Kezang's husband brought to the party. It was a lovely evening to be remembered always.
Quite a lot of hoopla for a birthday lost in time zones.
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