Tuesday 19th April 2022

I was picked up at 08:00 by Ramesh in the school tuk-tuk (that's what tourists call them, but they are generally referred to as 3-wheelers by the locals). He was picking up my good friend Tharika too, as she joined me for a meeting at TLV School Nanuoya. We were going to take photographs after our meeting, but we were having such a good catch-up that I completely forgot about the photos!

I spent more time interviewing students today, with a 21-year-old lad named Gowtham really inspiring me. He takes 3 hours to get to school using 3 buses and costing 450LKR a day (serious money for this community). He believes this 6 hours of travel is worth it, as the English Diploma he is working towards with Tea Leaf Vision will help him achieve his ambition of becoming a gym coach. Wow!

I ran a staff training session after school on leadership. Oh what joy! I have not taught like that for ages, and it reminded me why I love the teaching profession so much and spent my whole career in it. If I can inspire those young teachers to develop themselves professionally, then, as far as I am concerned, it will be a job well done, and I will return to the UK at the end of this 3-month visit a very happy guy!

After school, I went down to the waterfall near school with Ramesh. Sadly, it was rather bereft of water! However, I did catch some tea-picking ladies weighing in their tea leaves at the end of a long hard day - I admire those women immensely, as it really is tough back-breaking work for precious little reward - and I had a very good, productive chat with Ramesh - another one of Tea Leaf Vision's finest!









 

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