Justine's Post 21/02/14

After Lois completed her first year of school last year, all three children were well and truly able to dress themselves each morning. In Bhutan we've gone back to me having to dress them in their school uniforms and to add to the morning rush hour, I have to dress Paul as well! 

Dressing in the national dress takes a bit of getting used to, lots of wrapping, folding and pinning. On the first morning of school we managed to dress Thomas in his gho, but I got completely confused trying to dress the girls in their full kira. 

The full kira is basically a long piece of fabric that gets wrapped and folded around the body from shoulders to ankles.Now do you start with the first pin on the left shoulder, or was it the right? Is the fold to the back or the front? Amelie was getting dizzy with me turning her around trying to figure it out. Lois was looking on in despair, thinking “I’m next”.

With kiras in hand and girls running down the stairs in their thermals, we knocked on the door of the lovely lady in the shop downstairs. In no time at all she had both Amelie and Lois all folded and tucked into their school uniforms and looking very smart.

We thought we would cheat a little.....when we got home from school, I undid one pin on the girls uniforms and they were able to slip out of them with most folds staying in place for the next morning. 

I was more successful in dressing Thomas, Amelie and Lois on day two, although some re-adjustments were required enroute to school. I didn’t tie Lois’s belt tight enough so she started to come apart. Then when we got to school one of the male teachers kindly pulled Thomas aside to readjust him and perfect the pleats at the back of his gho.

No doubt, practice makes perfect and we have some time to go but in the meantime there are lots of helping hands....as Thomas was walking home from school his gho started coming apart, the teenage boy across the road ran across and fixed him up. It is wonderful to see the Bhutanese take such pride in their national dress.