Keith in Sri Lanka

The day finally arrived when I started my key project of this visit to Sri Lanka - supporting the work of the Gnanam Foundation by helping to train the staff who deliver education sessions to youngsters from the Nayapane Tea Estate, from 15:00 - 17:00 after school on weekdays, and from 09:00 - 16:30 on Saturdays and Sundays. I received a fabulous welcome from Ms. Madona, the Countrywide Director of the Gnanam Foundation in Sri Lanka, and her lovely team of staff. I have known Madona since I first came out to Sri Lanka in 2019, when she was a teacher with Tea Leaf Trust in Nuwara Eliya, and I have followed her progress over the past 7 years, so it was particularly lovely to find myself working with her once again after a long time. I loved the building that they are working in, and I was particularly impressed with the team of staff that I spoke to today - a team of 8 staff, including Madona, although 2 were not at the centre today. I spent time with Madona scheduling the whole of the 5...

It was lovely not to have to leave at 07:00 this morning, as 09:00 was a much friendlier start time! My driver was called Chamra, and he got me from Norwood to Pussellawa in record time, as we arrived by 11:30. I am staying at the Nimbodha Lumbini Inn, which is in a tiny place called Wahugapitya, just outside of Pussellawa. It is owned by a Sri Lankan lady called Latha, who lives in the UK, and is run by her brother, Kumara, whose family are in Nuwara Eliya. I was thinking of the English expression: 'Don't judge a book by its cover' on my journey here, and extended it to 'Don't try to put a western cover on an eastern book', as this sort of sums up what I have learned over these past 7 years in Sri Lanka. Addressing Sri Lankan issues from a western viewpoint failed pretty significantly under the British Empire, and continuing to approach Sri Lanka with a western mindset generally does these wonderful people a huge injustice. It was so tempting when I arrived in ...

Daya's brother, Ragu, was working in Kandy yesterday (he delivers medicines to hospitals across a wide regional area), so he decided to come home for the night. He arrived around midnight, so I saw him this morning, having a brief chat with him when we went into Norwood together. It was a very relaxed family day, which was the perfect ending to my week here in Norwood, before my next big adventure begins tomorrow when I travel further north to Pussellawa. We went for a beautiful walk up the road, with Charlie in tow, this morning to pay our respects at the grave of Daya, Ragu, and Rasi's parents, which I have done a few times now. We took a candle, some lamp oil, and some incense sticks, which we lit and placed by their graves. That all sounds rather solemn, but it was actually a lovely occasion, only tinged with sadness that both of the boys' parents, and particularly their father, died well before their time. Our family weekend together was all too short, as Ragu had to d...

Daya and his wife, Vino, arrived in the middle of the night, and it was lovely to have them here for the weekend. After the business of the past three days, it felt great to have the weekend free. We had a lovely morning just catching up, with Chinu and her daughter Deepthi joining us. Daya went shopping in Norwood with Bara, so I ended up having a long chat with Vino, and I also sorted out a lot of my stuff, ready for my long journey to Pussellawa on Monday morning. Akka's eldest daughter, Chithra, also arrived later on in the afternoon, so Akka had all three of her daughters with her (Chitra, Sangeetha, and Chinu), and I took photos of them outside the house. At that point, I happened to notice two new little shops had appeared next door to Daya's house. When I went to investigate, I ended up chatting with Ms. Kuganeshwary, who has recently started working for Tea Leaf Trust, supporting the KNH (Kindernothilfe) project. Kindernothilfe is German for 'Children Without Help...

Today was a very full-on one, but also my best day so far. Shameer picked Bara and me up in his tuk-tuk, and drove us to Ambals Cultural Hall in Maskeliya, where the Tea Leaf Centre Maskeliya Speech Conference was being hosted today. It was lovely to return to a venue that I am pretty sure I haven't been to again since Gobi and Kavi's wedding on 28th November 2019. It is such a magnificent venue to host a Speech Conference in and I loved being there again today. I received such a warm welcome from staff and students this morning, and Mr. Umaharan Sivabalan, the excellent Principal at Tea Leaf Centre Maskeliya, and his team of staff facilitated a wonderful event today. The masters of ceremonies, presenting teams, and speech givers delivered a high quality Speech Conference. I was delighted to be a Chief Guest again today, which just involved witnessing the event, voting for the winners, and giving out certificates. The event finished by 14:30, after which Bara came with me into ...