Keith in Sri Lanka

It was my last full day here in Colombo, and I was on a mission this morning to find beach towels. That may sound a bit bizarre, but when I asked my granddaughter, Isabella, what she would like me to bring back from Sri Lanka this time, she asked me for a nice beach towel, and I hadn't found any up until now. I googled beach towels in Colombo and found towels.lk, which is a shop in the busy wholesale area of Pettah in Colombo, so that was where I headed. To say that Pettah is a busy trading area would be the understatement of the year, as I have never been anywhere so crowded in all my years in Sri Lanka, and it took me some time to find the towel shop, but I got there in the end. I am disappointed that I failed to take photographs of the Pettah experience, but I was rather relieved to escape in the end, as it was all a bit too much for me, although the sights, the sound, the smells etc. were absolutely incredible. I made my way to meet my good friend Aruni and her son, Yash, for l...

This was my second morning at Colombo Swimming Club, and I enjoyed a relaxed morning lying in with a late breakfast, then completed yesterday's blog and diary before Ragu came to pick me up at noon to take me to his cousin Kisho's home for lunch, with Daya and Vino joining us, today being Vino's actual 25th birthday. It was a Poya Day today, so my plans to get some beers in to go with our lunch were scuppered, and I just took some chocolate as a gift instead. We were almost at Kisho's place when we heard a loud explosion and Ragu and I both thought that a tyre had burst, but when we got out of the car the tyres were all fine. We found out that the air conditioning unit had blown, and Ragu then made a few phone calls to see if he would be able to get it fixed later today. Kisho's place was just around the corner, so Daya had come to help, and I walked to the apartment, with Ragu and Daya bringing the car, which was still fine to drive. Kisho, his wife, Kanchu, and th...

I had a bit of a longer sleep and a lovely relaxed breakfast at Colombo Swimming Club before heading off in a tuk-tuk to do some final shopping at One Galle Face Mall, where my only disappointment was to find the shop that had always stocked a small selection of Susie Watkins pottery had closed down since I visited last year, which will be disappointing news for my very good friend, Barbara Fox, as I have got her some amazing bargains from there over the years! I'm not a great fan of shopping malls, but today was quite good, as there were lots of small market stalls on two of the floors, so I enjoyed them a lot. After my final shopping spree, I took a tuk-tuk to Fairview Hotel where Daya had planned a surprise 'High Tea' birthday party for Vino (who is 25 tomorrow). I think Vino was genuinely very surprised when she arrived and it was a lovely family occasion, with her father and sister were able to join us as well. We had a brief walk down to the Indian Ocean, which was lo...

I left Kurunegala at 08:00 this morning after one final breakfast at Razeena's next door! I felt a great sense of satisfaction as I left - a recognition of a job well done, which Tim commented on in yesterday's blog. He said that: 'It sounds as if this part of your visit has been really successful', which indeed it has been, but no less so than the first half of my visit this time, where I had an extremely productive time this year working in three of the Tea Leaf Trust Centres. The two types of voluntary work that I do in Sri Lanka are a huge contrast. My generic skills working in education over the past 45 years, including my leadership and management skills, serve me very well working with the Tamil people at the Tea Leaf Centres in the Hill Country, whereas that skill set is even more ideally suited to supporting the majority Sinhalese people at the Royal International School in Kurunegala, and both settings are very important to me. As Yohan drove me to Colombo, ar...

I have arrived at the final day at the Royal International School, and it was basically one long wrap-up session, firstly with Lalanga, who brought Priyani to my office, as they wanted to present me a gift of two books and a thank you card, which was extremely kind of them. I then had my final session with Lalanga, where I went through the Eisenhower Grid with him in order to give him a very clear strategy for time management, as it was a tool that I found helpful as a Headteacher. I then had a long debriefing session with Ravi, Buddhika, and three older guys who act like consultants for the school, with two of them taking over the mentoring roles for Priyani and Lalanga from next week. Having to review all that I had done with them was very self-affirming for me, as I was astonished how much ground I had covered with them over the past four weeks. I know that I have had a positive impact at the Royal International School, which is most reassuring. It was back to the apartment then for...

It all gets a bit manic at the end here, as I am trying to tie up lots of loose ends, whilst also sorting out very practical stuff. For example, I had to fit in a final clothes wash yesterday, and I also spent time writing thank you cards to various people who have helped me. I completed the ironing of those clothes today, and I also delivered the thank you cards in person, including, of course to Razeena next door who has provided me with breakfast and an evening meal on weekdays. I had three meeting today - two final discussions with Lalanga and Priyani, the Sectional Heads I have been working closely with. This was followed by another meeting with the Managing Director that again turned into a further scrutiny of students' books to address concerns about them. I will get the opportunity to have a proper meeting with him tomorrow where we can discuss the outcomes of the work that I have done this time and whether I will return in 2027. I have particularly enjoyed working closely ...