Keith in Sri Lanka

It was back to the KNH Proposal today and we did it! I say 'we', but it was very much Yadharshini Selvaraj who completed it, with me playing a very minor supporting role. I have to say I have enormous respect for Yad in completing an extremely intimidating document, which most native-English speakers would have considered incredibly challenging, in a language that is not her own - she is quite simply an amazing woman! Apart from being an amazing woman, Yad is also great fun to work with, and the intense few days we have spent together have been a pleasure from the point of view of working so well with a colleague. I must admit I am enormously grateful that Kindernothilfe doesn't insist on their paperwork being completed in German, as I think it would have finished off both of us. It was certainly an achievement Yad should be very proud of! I had worked so hard and so intensely over the past few days that I felt quite numb when it was over. I know Yad was going to take some ...

Today was such a wonderfully refreshing change after a pretty turgid weekend slogging over the KNH Proposal! I was sent to visit the new Tea Leaf Centre at Udapussallawa today, and I had one of my favourite people as my travelling companion - the lovely Tharika Perera from the Central Team. We went in the Tea Leaf tuk-tuk, and Singkoguls was our tuk-tuk driver, a great young man with a rather wonderful name! We arrived at Tea Leaf Centre Udapussallawa and Pramila, the new Principal, who I have known from my first trip out to Sri Lanka in 2019, was there to greet us, along with her team of staff - Ruwani, Sindujan, and Thanageshan. There was not a great deal to see yet, as they are in their early days of setting up the school and recruiting students, but you could see that the place has potential, albeit with a few obstacles to overcome too. Today's trip was all about visiting two of the local government secondary schools - one Sinhala medium and the other Tamil medium - to promote ...

I'm afraid it was more of the same today, as Yad and I continued to plod our way through the KNH Proposal. I did tell her at the end of the day, that once this wretched document is completed and submitted, I never want to see it again (she just laughed!). I don't think I have worked two days solidly like this - especially at a weekend - for a very long time. The worst thing was that it was quite a sunny day outside, so neither of us got much sun today! I was checking out the views of my blog, and I was encouraged to see that a lot more people are checking in. I was, however, disappointed to see that the blog had the fewest views on Sunday 15th January and Sunday 22nd January - probably because people are much too busy doing other things at the weekend. The 14th/15th and 21st/22nd are certainly worth looking back on - much more interesting than this weekend - so do have a look! Yad's brother Reuben appeared today, and it was very nice to see him again, as I have not been aro...

I woke up in the night to go to the loo - around 04:15 - and, as I often do, I checked my phone (because of the time difference) to see if there were any messages from back home. There weren't, but there was one from Tim Pare, asking me if I could attend an online call with him and Yad at 08:30! 'Just as well I checked!', I thought, as I put my alarm on for 07:45 before drifting back to sleep again. The call was all to do with this Kindernothilfe (KNH) Proposal Document, where they are applying for a grant to significantly extend their current KNH Project. The problem is that it is a pretty intimidating, lengthy document to fill in, and it has to be in by the end of January. Tim went through the document with both of us for some time, and that was basically it, as the rest of the day was spent working on it! I didn't mind particularly, as my weekend plans had, in usual Sri Lankan fashion, been rather blown apart, for various annoying reasons that I won't go into her...

Today was rather quiet, as there wasn't a great deal going on. It was one of those 'the lights are on, but no-one's at home' days! I sat in this morning completing some curriculum work for Jesmin, and then I started to get a bit bored and restless, as there wasn't much happening at home, so I made my escape into town, and had a very relaxing afternoon and evening at The Grand Hotel (no surprise there!). I make so many new contacts going to The Grand Hotel, and today was no exception, as I bumped into an English couple called Rob and Diana Cantley who live out here - very close to the Tea Leaf Centre in Palmerston. They have been growing carnivorous plants out here for a living for years - and have won Gold Medals at The Chelsea Flower Show for them! Rob has a Wikipedia page (copy and paste: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cantley). Apparently, they are at the growing end of a very niche market and export their carnivorous plants all over the world. I had a love...

I left early this morning to go to The Grand Hotel to try to track down the Human Resources Manager with responsibility for Learning and Development. I got the General Manager's Personal Assistant first of all, and she sat me down with a mug of tea and some jaggery, telling me that the lady I was looking for would be able to meet with me directly after the managers had attended their morning briefing meeting. Let me tell you about jaggery! It is an absolute delight - not dissimilar to crystallized fudge, but by all accounts, much better for you. Apparently, amongst its many benefits, it helps prevent constipation, detoxes the liver, treats flu-like symptoms, is a blood purifier, boosts immunity, cleanses the body, eases menstrual pain, prevents anaemia, boosts intestinal health, cools the stomach, controls blood pressure, prevents respiratory problems, relieves joint pain, helps with weight loss, and is a good source of energy! Well, as you can imagine, after a few pieces of jagger...

I'd like to start today with a huge thank you to the handful of people who are still reading my blog. It really is a handful - I barely get into double figures these days - and I joked with my wife Valerie yesterday that, apart from her, I have very few regular readers now. I am going to hang on in there, as I made a commitment to a couple of people in my Rotary Club that I would continue with it, even if it is hardly worth the effort now! My lack of readers may well be due to the fact that, although I am in a beautiful country and having an amazing time generally, I lead quite a mundane existence from day-to-day, with today being no exception, as I stayed at home all day to continue to help Yad with the KNH Annual Report, which I have to say is actually very interesting for me, and not as tedious as it might sound, because it is such a rewarding project. I did slip out for an early evening stroll, as the evening mist was falling and before it got dark! I found it rather atmospheri...

As I am beginning to feel better, I am finding it much easier to keep on top of my workload here, so today I was really pleased that I was able to finish up my write-up from the teacher training I did last Wednesday in Nanu Oya Tea Leaf Centre. I was pretty ill when I did the training, so I wasn't very happy with it, but I am a lot more pleased with the write-up, as if I am doing a job for somebody, I like to do it well. I completed the write-up this morning, and then I went into Nuwara Eliya to meet with Donald and Ladushan at GROW, as they needed my help with writing up a Business Proposal for some funding for a course. We went through it very carefully, and they will have to complete it as best as they can tonight and tomorrow. I will then go through it online or maybe even pop in again on Thursday to chat it through with them. Ramesh appeared just as we were leaving GROW, so he joined us as we went into town as we went into Milano's for what turned out to be a very pleasant...