Tuesday 12th November 2019

This was a typical Sri Lankan day, but now that I am so much more used to life here, I found it very relaxing. I was up early and did a bit of shopping in the centre, where I came across a group of ponies causing mayhem around a very busy roundabout. I have been amazed by all the random buffaloes, cows, dogs, horses (and in some places monkeys) roaming around everywhere. It makes for a very interesting time out here! I came back home and just worked from home whilst I was waiting for the Management Team to give me further instructions about what I was doing later in the day.

I had agreed yesterday that I would travel to Maskeliya this evening and stay for two nights, but I wasn’t given any details. I waited until after lunch and then tried to contact Yad and Jesmin to see what was happening. Yad didn’t respond initially, but Jesmin messaged me back straight away. Unfortunately, that didn’t help much, as she told me Yad was sorting it out. Yad finally got back to me later in the afternoon and apologised for completely forgetting about me travelling today, so no transport or accommodation had been arranged. It was another of those ‘Sri Lanka moments’, so I just agreed to stay in Nuwara Eliya and take a tuk-tuk at 07.00 tomorrow morning!

Today's pictures show the wild horses that I found trotting around the roundabout. I just hope none of them were injured, as many vehicles were struggling to avoid hitting them.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday 5th October 2024

Image
It's my fifth trip to Sri Lanka, but on this occasion I am at last joined by my wife, Valerie, and it will be lovely not to be on my own this time. We flew out of London Heathrow Airport one hour late at 22:30 UK time on Friday, and after a rather excruciating eleven hour flight, we eventually landed at Colombo Airport just after 13:30 Sri Lankan time on Saturday. I slept for a few hours on the journey, but Valerie struggled to get any sleep at all. Sandra Wanduragala met us at Colombo Airport, and we drove into Colombo for a couple of hours - meeting up with her daughter, Selena, at the Good Market, which we really enjoyed and would love to go back to. We then went back to Selena's home, where it was good to be able to freshen up a little bit, and enjoy a nice cup of tea, before our driver, Rohan drove us to Kurunegala, where we will be based for the next two months. Arriving in Kurunegala, we met up with my good friend Tharika and her daughter, Evinka, to have dinner at Sri B...
Read more

Friday 16th February 2024

Image
It was my final day in the Pre-Primary Department of the Royal International School today, which was kind of sad, as they have been so welcoming, and I have had the most amazing time there. Miss Agatha and Miss Tharika run a very tight team that manages 902 children from Toddlers to Nursery to Lower Kindergarten (LKG) to Upper Kindergarten (UKG) extraordinarily well, and which provides an excellent foundation for these pupils' learning journey. I had a wonderful morning where I was observing Number lessons with the UKG Co-ordinator and the English Co-ordinator (seeing the level of English in the Number lessons). In almost all the lessons, the quality of the teaching was exceptionally high, with the attention to detail - and in particular with the resources they had prepared - quite incredible. And apart from all of that, it was great fun, which is, in my opinion what learning should be for children. I had a nerve-wracking afternoon, as I had to deliver a session on time management ...
Read more

Monday 7th October 2024

Image
We got cracking today with our prime reason for being here - to support the work of the Royal International School in Kurunegala. We worked together today to give Valerie a chance to settle in at the school, and we are having a gentle start at the Pre-Primary Department, where we will be spending 3 days seeing what they do so well there, before moving on this Thursday to the Junior Department, which is, of course, where our true area of expertise lies. We received a wonderful welcome from both staff and students as we arrived at the school this morning, including a group of girls performing a beautiful, traditional dance for us. It was lovely doing the few lesson observations with Valerie today, before we work separately from tomorrow onwards. The standard of teaching in the Pre-Primary Department is truly impressive, and we were pretty amazed by what we witnessed today. We are both enjoying it so much already! Sandra (who founded the school) and Ravi (the Managing Director) popped rou...
Read more