Special Friends

18^th November

It was another of those “only in Bhutan” moments that from time to time my other BCF colleagues share in our closed facebook group. 

Where else in the world would a class 8 boy tell a female staff member that she has just been propositioned – and do it without batting an eyelid or even a hint of a teenage boy smirk – as if it was the sort of conversation he had everyday (for all I know it may be, but I find it unlikely). It was delivered in the same matter of fact way that might have accompanied an inquiry about whether I had enjoyed the curry.

The literal translation, as this 16 year old boy put it, was “he is saying that Madam is very smart and very beautiful and he would like to make a special friendship with Madam”

The context was, as staff on duty (SOD) for the day, I had been supervising the serving of the boarders’ evening meal. The majority of students had taken their meal to the multipurpose hall, but one of the captains was undertaking some duties nearby.  I was standing outside the kitchen eating a small serve (actually, everything I eat is a small serve when compared to what the 6-year old class PP boys manage to stash away) and one of the cooks who speaks a little English was having a conversation with me, only half of which I could understand.  I though he was inquiring about how tired I felt at the end of a long day and whether I would be ready for bed by the time I got home, but my student’s translation put a different context on the words I had picked up from the conversation, which had included special, bed, sleep….

I managed to keep a straight face for the next half hour as students finished their meal and I bid the boys goodnight and walked up the hill with the girls to their hostel, but was enormously amused by the straightforward way in which my student had told me the intent of the conversation.