Keith in Sri Lanka

I went into Nanu Oya School today, although I must tell you that its official title is Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya, as the key thing here is that it is in the Nuwara Eliya region, and Nanu Oya is just a small town within that region. Tea Leaf is having a rebrand and all the 'schools' will now be known as Tea Leaf Centres, which gets over the confusion of the charity in the UK being called Tea Leaf Trust, whereas the centres in Sri Lanka are known as Tea Leaf Vision. I was catching up on some paperwork, and then accompanied Daya as he went to talk to a government official about the possibility of having a new building for Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya, as they have to vacate their current premises very soon because the landlord wants to take back control of the building. Our meeting was rather fruitless, which was frustrating as the time is ticking on for them. I left mid-afternoon and took a tuk-tuk into town to do a small bit of shopping, before heading off to The Grand Hotel ...

Today was a lovely day, and more than made up for my disappointing day yesterday. I was up early and got a tuk-tuk to GROW, where I had been asked to help Donald and Ladushan promote their 9-month English / ICT / Business Studies Course. It was a pleasure to do this, but also a bit sad, as they had hoped up to 30 potential students would turn up, whereas they only ended up with 12. Unfortunately, Donald and Ladushan started up their business through Bookbridge at the worst possible time, with COVID19 having a devastating impact, only to be followed by the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka that has made everyone's lives more difficult, apart from the super-rich .The tight squeeze on middle-class budgets has made it difficult for parents to afford to send their youngsters on GROW's courses. Having done my best, and then chatted to Ladushan about possible ways to attract more students, I went to The Grand Hotel, where Jana, Yad, and Daya were joining me for a 'thank-y...

This was a bit of a strange day, as I was hoping for something a little more adventurous for my last weekend in Nuwara Eliya, although I know tomorrow is going to be better. I slept in quite late, and eventually wandered into Nuwara Eliya via a tuk-tuk that just happened to be passing as I was walking down the lane past the house. It was a local guy who has given me lifts previously, and he took me to the shopping area near Kavitas. As a fuse has blown in one of our adaptor plugs, I needed to replace it, so I obviously went to an electric shop, only to find quite bizarrely that it didn't sell fuses! However, the guy in there told me that Kavitas did, and, sure enough, I was able to get what I needed there, before spending some time doing some 'present' shopping, which was quite enjoyable. Once I was all shopped-out, I went to The Grand Hotel. I had a snack lunch at the hotel and caught up with my blog and my diary. Suresh Abbas, the General Manager, came and sat with me, an...

It was a pleasure to return to Udapussalawa today. Singkoguls picked me up around 08:30 and went through Nuwara Eliya to pick up Tharika, then drove on to Tea Leaf Udapussalawa, where the staff team welcomed us. Pramila and her team have worked wonders since we last went on Monday 30th January, and the school is very much up and running now, with a lovely buzz around the place. We were there to see how they were getting on, and to do some promotional work to encourage more students to join the programme, which involved visiting two of the local secondary schools. We received a warm welcome at both schools, and I think there will be students coming from both of them. Once the promotion work was done, we stopped off for a bit of lunch, then made our way back in the rain to Nuwara Eliya. Naresh and Shamira had booked a Grand Tour of The Grand Hotel and they had invited me to join them for it. It is no secret that The Grand Hotel is one of my favourite places, so I jumped at the chance, an...

I was asked to go to Tea Leaf Centre Palmerston today, but there was some sort of hitch with the transport arrangements. Eventually, Reggie came to pick me up, and I arrived at school around 10:30, but it didn't really matter too much. The Principal was away today, and there were just 2 teachers and 11 out of their current 14 students - 1 solitary lad and 10 ladies. Their numbers will grow soon once 'A' Level exams are completed. I was asked to take the 11 students for the afternoon, so I prepared an activity session for them based around a language game called Typhoon, which I found on the internet. I taught them a song first, and we had some general conversation before playing the game, which seemed to go down extremely well. I had some time free once the students had gone home before Reggie picked me up again in his tuk-tuk. The two teachers accompanied me in the tuk-tuk - one getting dropped off in Nanu Oya, and the other just before we entered Nuwara Eliya. I decided t...

I worked from home for most of the day today, as I was asked to stay for a meeting Yad and Jesmin were having with Naresh, Shamira, Orien, and Indio, who have almost come to the end of a 3-week block of volunteering - mainly at the Tea Leaf Centre in Nanu Oya. I thought it was a very comprehensive review of how they had found volunteering and how they might be able to help Tea Leaf in the future. My quote of the day today came from Orien, who has the most amazing brain and challenges everything with question after question. The boys were intrigued by Ranger and asked Yad lots of questions about him. When Yad said that Ranger had fathered some puppies with a neighbouring dog, Orien asked her how she could be certain Ranger was the father, and whether she had done a DNA test to make sure! I did some last-minute editing work on the KNH Final Report, which looked very good to me. There has been some wonderful work going on there, and I am looking forward to seeing how the KNH Project devel...

It was a rather odd day today, as I had expected to go to Maskeliya, where there was a mass gathering of over 50 staff who now work for Tea Leaf, but I was asked to stay behind, as there was no room for me in the minibus, and work on the KNH Annual Report, which had to be in this evening. I took the opportunity to have a bit of a lie-in, and also sort my washing and ironing out, as it was a sunny day at last. I got on with editing the KNH Annual Report, the first half of which was fine, but the second half left a lot to be desired. I later discovered that Yad had written the first half of it, so no wonder there was such a difference between the two bits. To be fair, Yad has had so many years now of completing reports in English that she is streets ahead of most of the staff who work for Tea Leaf, and the organisation benefits hugely from that. I worked hard, and when I had finished it was well past mid-afternoon, so I took a tuk-tuk into town to have a rest at The Grand Hotel. We had a...

I wanted to use today to get on with writing up all my notes from a very busy week last week. I could have stayed at home, but there was a Central Team Management Meeting there, so I decided to go into GROW to work in order to catch up a bit with Donald and Ladushan. However, I got there only to find that it was completely closed up, so I walked into town as I had a few things that I needed to buy. Val is keen to make some cushion covers for the lounge in our home in Cres, Croatia, and material is so cheap to buy out here compared to the UK that I spent a bit of time trying to find some. I was very successful (I think!), as I found a good choice of quality material for next to nothing. It will take up a fair bit of my luggage space on my return journey, but I think it will prove to be worth it. I spent the rest of the day working in my 'office' at The Grand Hotel, an area of which became my office back in 2019 when I first came out here. I sat with a pot of ginger tea and some ...

I was up pretty early for a Sunday and proceeded to do my weekly washing, despite the fact that it was a terrible day for drying it. I think it is my penultimate go with the twin-tub, as next weekend is my last one in Blackpool. I have put it all out on a rack indoors, but the atmosphere is so damp that it doesn't always dry like that. I am hopeful that we may see some sun tomorrow morning, and I can hang it out then. We decided to go into town to watch a film called 'Vaathi', which was showing at 13:00. Daya invited Nakiba (who is like his Deputy Principal at Tea Leaf Centre Nanu Oya), as she loves the star of that film, and I invited Shamira again, but she was too busy to come today. This was my fourth Tamil movie during this visit to Sri Lanka, and it didn't disappoint! I have enjoyed all four films that I have seen in different ways. I stayed on in Nuwara Eliya and went to the Grand Hotel - just for some hot chocolate - but it was very nice in the Tea Room, as a pia...