Keith in Sri Lanka

It was a strange final day in Kurunegala. Razeena from next door brought breakfast to my apartment for me, which was extremely kind of her. Ramadan started over the weekend, so I had told her that Friday was going to be my last breakfast, but she decided to bring me breakfast anyway. I have been greatly blessed to have my breakfasts and dinners at her house next door on weekdays, with lunch provided at school, so I have just fended for myself during the weekends. I went into town around 10:00 to go to Ninehearts photography studio, where I printed off a few photographs as gifts for people here. They did a wonderful job for me, at an extraordinarily low cost compared to the UK, so I will certainly go there another time, as I have done with SS Colour Lab in Nuwara Eliya, where I have been so often that the staff now recognise me when I come in. That may end up being the case at Ninehearts, too, as they are equally impressive. On my way back from Kurunegala, I popped into school to say go...

Today was a last day out with Sandra, who invited Tharika to join us, as we visited the Primate Centre Eco Lodge at Polonnaruwa (known locally as the 'Monkey Camp'). We left just after 09:00, and it was a long journey to Polannaruwa - almost 3 hours including a stop for a cup of tea on the way. On arriving, we went to Priyamali Gedara for a delicious buffet lunch. It is a popular spot for tourists, and there were many people there from around the world. Having been met at the lunch stop by Niroshan, a family friend of Sandra's, we then followed him out to Nishantha Wood Carvings, where he works with his father. It has been a traditional carved woodwork factory since 1981, and it has over 20,000 rare wood carvings and furniture on display. In fact, it was so vast that we only really skimmed the surface there in terms of appreciating all that the place had to offer, but we had to move on to our main mission of the day. We eventually arrived at the Primate Centre Eco Lodge, bu...

I was up very early this morning to say goodbye to Daya, as he was catching an early bus to Kandy, on his way to Hatton, and finally his family home in Norwood. It has been lovely spending some quality time with him over the past couple of days, and a little tough saying goodbye, as it could be a long time before I come back again to Sri Lanka. I feel ready to go home now, but a part of me longs to stay here, and I know that something of me remains each time I go back to the UK. I rested for a lot of the day, enjoying quite a big drop in temperature, and experiencing a tremendous thunderstorm, with the loudest clap of thunder that I have ever heard in my life! The extremes of weather here are quite extraordinary, and after day upon day of intense heat, it felt very overcast and quite dark and gloomy for most of the day. I was going to do a last load of washing, but I have put that off until tomorrow, hoping that the sun will be back then. Sandra called me in the afternoon, inviting me ...

Today was my last working day in school, although I may pop in on Monday to say a fond farewell to various people, with the hope that I will return one day. As Daya was staying with me for two nights, he accompanied me into school today and was able to observe two Tamil link lessons (for Sinhalese students) and three Tamil language lessons (for Tamil students). He loved the school, and he very much enjoyed the opportunity to see the Tamil lessons. I had two final Maths lessons and one final observation of the standard of English in lessons, which I greatly enjoyed. I also had a feedback session with two of the Sectional Heads, where I was able to provide very positive feedback to them regarding my experience on both the English and the Maths side of things at the RIS. I had a bit of a break then, before a final management meeting with Ravi, Agatha, and Tharika, which lasted around an hour. Daya joined me once I had finished for the day, and we got a tuk-tuk into Kurunegala to do some s...

Astonishingly, today's blog entry is my 400th blog entry since my very first one on Sunday 15th September 2019. I can only hazard to guess how many hours it has taken me to download all my photographs for my daily blogs, write the scripts, then attach the photographs each day. It can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour to do all that, so I have spent a huge chunk of time doing this, and I can only hope my readers feel that it has been worth all that effort! I had yet another sports event this morning, and this time it was the Nursery and Upper Kindergarten (UKG) Games Day, which had all the elements of the other two larger sports events, but also the 'cute' factor of seeing the Nursery children (3-4-year-olds) engaged in some rather amusing athletic challenges. The organisation of each of these events has been second to none, and I have been hugely impressed with the hard work and dedication of all the staff. My attendance at the Games Day meant that I only had time fo...

There was no school today, because it was another Public Holiday to celebrate Maha Shivarathri, a Hindu festival celebrated in honour of the deity Shiva. It was lovely to have a day to relax, which is pretty much all I did as I needed to. It was a little cooler today, because it threatened to rain for much of the day, then finally did this afternoon. Although it was lovely to be a little cooler, it was also very humid, so it still felt rather oppressive (much better than being cold though!). Despite the humidity, I took the opportunity to do a big pile of washing, and I will now only have to do one smaller wash at the weekend before I leave next Tuesday to fly home. Everything dried very quickly, so it was a good decision in the end, as I am now starting to think about tying up any loose ends before the end of this week. I have quite a few things to sort out in terms of leaving some stuff here, as I usually do now, and taking the rest back home with me. I had a meeting with a prospecti...