"Where can we buy him a nice present?" I asked, when a few colleagues were talking about the upcoming birthday of one of the staff members.
"In the Kosti bookshop!" answered one of the enthusiastic young women, with whom I straight away formed the buying-a-birthday-present-action-team. After work we proceeded to
the bookshop in Kosti. I was quite curious about the shop and the books they would sell.
The books would probably all be written in Arabic, but that would even make it more interesting!, I said to myself. While I wondered about what kind of book would be suitable as best birthday present, we entered the shop. There were many interesting, colourful things to see, but after having 'scanned' the small shop thoroughly for three times, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't see a single book! To compensate the lack of books, there were pens, vases with glitters and plastic watches in abundance. After having accepted that this bookshop was not
really a bookshop, I looked around for some (other) nice presents. We both decided that the business diary that was lying on the counter would be nice for him, but because of one specific reason (-it was a diary for the year 2008-) we had to find some alternatives. The men behind the counter we very friendly and really helped us in offering new ideas and inspiration. Eventually we chose to buy a pen, a leather bag and a small painting with a text from the Koran. After we had assisted the men behind the counter with wrapping the gifts in a bright red and purple paper with ribbons, we left the building. Just before writing this blog, we handed the gifts over to the birthday-man after having sung 'Happy birthday' out loud with the whole team. I am happy to tell you, he looked very pleased with his unexpected presents from the Kosti bookshop!
