Thursday 23rd June 2022

I wasn't feeling great this morning, but I was needed at GROW to talk to the parents of prospective students - 16-year-olds who have just finished their O Levels and want to attend GROW's 3-month programme in English, Sinhala, and IT. I couldn't face the government bus though, so my compromise to myself was to call Reggie to take me to GROW in his tuk-tuk, which was a wise decision.

I talked to the parents and students, explaining how I am Donald and Ladushan's Adviser and Mentor, and can vouch for the quality of their work (which I can!), and I am pleased to say that it looks like they will have at least 20 students out of a maximum intake of 25, which is wonderful news for them, particularly given the extraordinary times that Sri Lanka is currently going through.

Talking of these extraordinary times, the queue for petrol opposite GROW started moving, which meant that there had been a delivery of petrol! Ramesh arrived later in the morning to inform us that he had got right to the head of the queue at the petrol station when the petrol ran out, which is such terribly bad luck! I can only imagine the frustration of getting so close, but still ending up with nothing!

I treated myself to lunch at The Grand Hotel, as I felt so ill today, and that helped to cheer me up. I ended up helping one of the staff to get petrol to travel home to Colombo, as he had tried for 3 days and failed. Having a white guy sat in the front of the car meant he got priority for fuel, as I 'had to attend an important business meeting in Colombo tomorrow' (although nobody actually checked!).








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