Thursday 14th November 2019

I set off with Gobi much earlier today – around 09.30, so we were able to visit a lot more schools – double the number in fact – which meant that we have visited 12 schools in all over the past 2 days. This is a stunningly beautiful area to travel round, with many of the schools being quite isolated in remote areas, and I really felt in my element today. It was a great experience to visit 8 more primary and secondary schools and Gobi was great company again.

In these remote areas, children very rarely see white people and I was treated like some sort of celebrity as I arrived at each school. The children are so welcoming and friendly, saying ‘hello’, asking where you are from and giggling a great deal when you smile at them or say anything to them! Many of the boys wanted to have their photograph taken with me, but the girls just watched and giggled!

As we found yesterday, most of the schools were trying to deliver the mandatory English curriculum with English teachers who spoke very little or no English at all, so the Principals all seemed very keen to encourage their English teachers to go on the course.

Having finished all the visits, Gobi invited me to pop into his home on the way back to school to meet his family and have a cup of tea. It was a pleasure to be able to do this and his family (and all the neighbours) were extremely welcoming. As a visiting white guy, I am very much a novelty in this community, which feels quite odd for me at times.

Today's photos are all from my school visits today. The last one shows a group of primary school children lined up outside their school at the end of the day for the Sri Lankan National Anthem.








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