Saturday 28th May 2022

I had a pretty relaxing morning today, with a late breakfast at 09:00, then sorting out my blog, diary, emails etc. - all very leisurely, although I did edit 3 Student Profiles for Mr. Sivabalan and email them to him, and I was very moved reading them, as I have edited 6 of these over the past couple of days, and they have been written for the students with the most difficult of personal circumstances.

I had arranged to meet Mr. Rizvi around lunchtime. He teaches at Mottingham T.V. School (that really is Nottingham spelt with an 'M' - it's not a typo!) and has been on the most recent batch of the 6-month Training Programmes (having conversation sessions with Peter Hopwood). I met him the other day at Portree Primary School, and I had discovered that he lives less than 10 minutes' walk from me!

He had been out this morning, so he came by Ananda's to meet me, and we walked the back way into Maskeliya. Our first stop was the Catholic church, where a wedding was in full swing. He was quite insistent that I should meet the priest, but I assured him that would not be necessary, especially as he was in the middle of conducting a wedding - can you imagine the bride and groom's faces!

We then did the full religious tour, from the Catholic church to his mosque (via a cup of tea), to the Hindu temple, and last of all the Buddhist temple, which was genuinely very interesting. We finished up at his house, where I met his wife, Safna, and two sons, Abdullah and Mahdhi. It was such a pleasure to spend time with him, and we hope to meet up again before I eventually leave Maskeliya.

N.B. I haven't banged my head - I got anointed at the Hindu temple!









Comments

  1. CharlesMay 29, 2022 at 11:49 PM

    What an interfaith experience - you will have learnt so much about Sri Lanka's main religious communities, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete

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