Keith in Sri Lanka

Thursday 31st October 2019 Today was an amazing day, largely because it was the first day that I have had in Sri Lanka when it hasn’t rained at all! You have no idea how wonderful that felt after experiencing so much rain since I have been here. I worked from home this morning and got some more washing done, including my blood-stained clothes from yesterday’s leech incident. I do think leeches are the most revolting of creatures and I never want to experience another one! I had a very positive meeting with the Management Team this afternoon, which was great. It was an extremely useful meeting for me because I got positive responses on two fronts. They seemed genuinely pleased with the draft frameworks I have constructed for them for the three different sets of training and will now go through each of them carefully to see how they can be developed further. They also seemed very happy for me to visit the Youth Reconciliation Centres with Daya, so I was delighted with that.

Wednesday 30th October 2019 Today was a very important day, as I completed the Tea Pick for my Fundraiser for the Tea Leaf Trust, so this is a longer account today than I normally write. See the details below and today's photographs! Around 09.00 we were driven in a tuk-tuk to the Kelaniya Tea Estate for the Tea Pick. It was a tricky climb to the Tea Estate once we had left the main road. On our arrival, we were shown into the main office, where we were met by a very welcoming Tea Estate Manager, who has worked his way up there over the past 50 years.  It was dry when we set off for the Tea Estate, but, typically, started to rain just as we headed out to pick the tea, although we all had waterproofs to keep us dry. We were so well kitted out for this. I had brought a cheap pair of boots to wear and I had two pairs of socks on, one covering my trouser legs so that no leeches could get in. We had all sprayed ourselves with mosquito spray, which is strong smelling, so the

Tuesday 29th October 2019 I woke up today determined not to let the weather get me down, but it did occur to me that in my 61 years on this planet I have never experienced a period of more than 6 weeks where it has rained every single day! Of course, when I woke up it was raining, and it continued to rain for most of the day! I travelled up to Maskeliya with Rachelle this afternoon and we stayed overnight at the Riverside Guesthouse, where I stayed when I spent the week in Maskeliya, so that we would be able to do our Tea Pick first thing on Wednesday.  It was very nice to see Thiviya (20), Vilvadharsini (20) and Logitha (19) again. These are the three young ladies from Kilinochchi near Jaffna, who are lodging at the Riverside Guesthouse whilst they are studying at the Maskeliya Tea Leaf Vision School. I chatted to them quite a bit (especially Logitha) when I spent the week here and they were very friendly and helpful this evening. Today's photographs show two pictures

Monday 28th October 2019 This was the coldest and wettest day that I have experienced in Sri Lanka so far and the incessant rain is becoming quite depressing. I arrived here on Sunday 15 th September and it has rained every single day since then. I received a text message from Tim today informing me that this is the worst weather they have experienced during their 10 years in Sri Lanka, so I guess I am just very unlucky to be here at this particular time. I spent a lot of the day working at The Grand Hotel, although I did venture into town to go shopping when the rain abated for a very short time this afternoon. Mark, a volunteer from Maskeliya, joined Rachelle and me for dinner this evening and we went back to The Grand Hotel, where we had a lovely dinner in the Magnolia Dining Room. We did a bit of shopping afterwards before going home. I took today's pictures on my way through the Indoor Market in Nuwara Eliya when I went shopping, as I thought the stalls looked ver

Sunday 27th October 2019 I was up very early today, as I was being picked up from the Goyambokka Guesthouse at 07.00 by tuk-tuk in order to catch the 07.30 direct bus from Tangalle to Nuwara Eliya. Unfortunately, when I got there, I was told that the bus would not be going due to a landslide on the road caused by the huge amount of rain that has fallen (I had been told yesterday that the landslide would be cleared by today). I was told I would need to get a bus to Wellawaya and then a second bus to Ella and a third bus from there to Nuwara Eliya. I got a bus to Wellawaya within minutes, but when I arrived at Wellawaya 2 hours later, I was then told that there were no buses to Ella or Nuwara Eliya today. This meant I either had to stay overnight in Wellawaya or get a taxi to Nuwara Eliya (as cars could take a route avoiding the landslide which was too narrow for buses). I decided to take the taxi and I managed to get to Nuwara Eliya just before 13.30, which was quite a relief! I

Saturday 26th October 2019 This morning I attended an award ceremony for Tim and Liz, who were being presented with a Sri Lankan Humanitarian Award in recognition of the charitable service they have given to the local community here over the past ten years. It particularly recognised their work with the Empowered Women Headed Families organisation, which became their area of focus when they realised how many women here were struggling to bring up families on their own. It was an entertaining occasion for a number of reasons: one of the men compering the event, even though his English was a little suspect, got rather carried away with it all and he can best be described as a mixture of the judges who give their country’s vote at the end of the Eurovision Song Contest and the host of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ in the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’; it was also entertaining because of the many dances we were treated to in the ceremony, particularly the one danced by some young c

Friday 25th October 2019 This was quite an uneventful day, as it ended up being a working day for me, largely because the weather was so bad. Tim and I had a WhatsApp call with Tim Pare at 09:30a.m., which was very useful, and I then spent the rest of the day at the Goyambokka Guesthouse, as it poured with rain for most of the day. In the evening I was back at Raelene’s house for a barbecue with some very interesting guests (Bob and Kim plus Logan plus Sarah), who have been running a workshop in the area this week for people who work with disabled children. They cover a whole range of physical, mental and social and emotional disabilities and support this type of work in many countries across the world. We ended up discussing world politics (particularly Asian politics), which, of course, I greatly enjoyed, as it is something I like to keep informed about. Today's pictures are from the evening at Raelene's house, but they are a bit dark, as they were taken in the ev

Thursday 24th October 2019 Today was a day full of memories that will stay with me for a very long time. I was picked up by Tim and Liz and we drove to Kirinda to visit the Kirinda Vihara Maha Devi Temple (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1VQEM_qa6s ), which looks out over the Indian Ocean. The highlight of the day for me was our afternoon excursion. We drove to Bundala National Park, where we parked and went on a jeep safari.  The safari was a fabulous experience, made even more special by having a young man called Pubuduranga (Ranga) as our guide for the afternoon. His knowledge, particularly of the birds we saw was amazing! We saw a huge number of species of birds (at least 40 that we identified). A final icing-on-the-cake for me today was driving to Erica’s beautiful home on the outskirts of Tangalle, where we received a fabulous welcome. Erica lives in the most amazing house and we were treated to the most delicious dinner. It rounded off what was for me pretty much the m

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 I woke up to find I was staying in the most beautiful Guesthouse that Raelene had obviously negotiated an excellent rate for me to stay at. Tim and Liz were spending today visiting a few of their beneficiaries, so I had the day to myself, which was lovely!  I got up early and went for a long swim in the pool before breakfast. Unfortunately, I managed to cut my foot on a sharp edge on the pool, so I was given some iodine and hydrogen peroxide to stop it getting infected! I spent a very relaxing day having some 'down time' at the beach reading my  Khaled Hosseini book ‘And the Mountains Echoed’, which I am enjoying very much. I felt like I was in some kind of paradise. It was a fabulous change from the continuous rain in Nuwara Eliya and Maskeliya and, as I am almost half-way through my time in Sri Lanka, this break has come at a very opportune time for me. Tim and Liz picked me up later to take me out to dinner and we went to a restaur