Friday 20th January 2023

As expected, it was a pretty tiring day today, but also a rather wonderful one. We were up at 06:00 to get a minibus ride to Bogawantalawa for the opening of the new Tea Leaf Centre there, the new Principal of which just happens to be Sadayan Gobinath (Gobi), who provided such fantastic work on the ground over the past two years of the Rotary International Project, and thoroughly deserves this new position.

It was a three-hour journey to Bogawantalawa, including a break in Hatton, which is roughly halfway, where we had a breakfast of 'short eats' and tea. 'Short eats' are a very traditional Sri Lankan snack, and I must take some photos of them at some point to show everyone. The road to Bogawantalawa is absolutely appalling, with more potholes than road of any real description, but we still somehow got there for our anticipated arrival time of 10:00.

The new Tea Leaf Centre is quite a find, as they have managed to rent out a magnificent building, which Gobi, his wife Kavi, and little daughter Merashini, will be able to live in as well as work in. There is even a guest room for people like me who go to work with them, so I will look forward to that in due course. It was a lovely official opening ceremony, with the lighting of the lamp, speeches and the official cutting of a cake, and a tour of the new school.

I was delighted to see a number of Tea Leaf staff who had travelled in from Maskeliya for the ceremony, and I enjoyed having a catch-up with them. After a light lunch - more 'short eats' and cake - we all departed for the long journey home. We left just after 13:00, and with a short stop for ice-creams, and then another short stop for a cup of tea at Daya's (as we drove straight past his house), we got back to Blackpool about 16:30.

Today's photos, of course focus on the opening ceremony for Bogawantalawa Tea Leaf Centre, including a little video of the speech I made (if I can upload it successfully).





















Comments

  1. CharlesJanuary 21, 2023 at 12:30 AM

    Is it coincidence the new centre should be opened the same week as its principal, Gobi, has been awarded recognition for his services to the Tea Leaf Vision project by the Rotary Club of Colombo?

    ReplyDelete

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