Tuesday 21st February 2023

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 already got into Nuwara Eliya when a motorcycle, ridden by a guy, with a girl on the back of it, went into the back of the tuk-tuk, which then stopped immediately, with the driver getting out to inspect the damage. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and there was no obvious damage to his vehicle.

I was reflecting on my time in Sri Lanka as I drove back to Blackpool in the tuk-tuk this evening. Coming out here has probably been the most remarkable experience in my life, and I feel so privileged to have been given this opportunity to serve a group of people I had never even heard of a few years ago. The article in last night's blog should help you to see why this group of people now has such a special place in my heart.

Today's photographs are of a lovely trio f children coming home from school as I walked down the path to the main road. I then took four photographs showing you the huge variation of houses (the rich and the poor all mingled together) on my journey to Blackpool Junction, with a lovely photograph looking up the hillside on my way to Blackpool Junction.










Comments

  1. CharlesFebruary 22, 2023 at 1:02 AM

    Good to get some social history, Keith - the article referred to is fascinating. I wonder if the smile on the faces of the school children bodes well for the future prosperity of Sri Lanka?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday 16th February 2024

Image
It was my final day in the Pre-Primary Department of the Royal International School today, which was kind of sad, as they have been so welcoming, and I have had the most amazing time there. Miss Agatha and Miss Tharika run a very tight team that manages 902 children from Toddlers to Nursery to Lower Kindergarten (LKG) to Upper Kindergarten (UKG) extraordinarily well, and which provides an excellent foundation for these pupils' learning journey. I had a wonderful morning where I was observing Number lessons with the UKG Co-ordinator and the English Co-ordinator (seeing the level of English in the Number lessons). In almost all the lessons, the quality of the teaching was exceptionally high, with the attention to detail - and in particular with the resources they had prepared - quite incredible. And apart from all of that, it was great fun, which is, in my opinion what learning should be for children. I had a nerve-wracking afternoon, as I had to deliver a session on time management
Read more

Wednesday 14th February 2024

Image
My younger granddaughter Esther is 5 years old today, so I messaged her 10-year-old sister Isabella to ask her to wish her a 'Happy Birthday' from me. It was much less of a crazy day today, with a morning filled with lesson observations - this time observing English lessons in the Upper KinderGarten (UKG) classes, which is the equivalent year to Reception, so I could imagine Esther being at school with the children I was with all morning today. It was really useful today to watch the teaching of English to the 5-year-olds, whose level of understanding is already very impressive. As with the Tea Leaf Centres, it is a fully immersive system, so everything is conducted in English, and it is impressive how much English these 5-year-olds already know, in the same way that the progress Tea Leaf students make through the one-year full-time English Diploma is also extremely impressive. If you have been reading my blog, you may remember that Erica, who I had a wonderful weekend with in
Read more

Saturday 6th January 2024

Image
I would say that this was easily my most enjoyable day so far, but it got rather spoiled this evening when I handled an extremely frustrating situation very badly. Let's focus on the good part of the day, because it really was a pleasure to work with Miggy and Stephanie all day, as we went in search of accommodation for Stephanie from next Tuesday 9th January, that we could also recommend to future volunteers who are working with Tea Leaf Trust in the Nuwara Eliya area. We visited 10 different Guest Houses between 10:00 and 16:00, with a brief stop for a delicious buffet lunch (that only cost 500LKR - a round   £1.25 -  per head) in b etween. We found some very suitable accommodation to suit a range of budgets in a variety of locations, but there was one place that was exceptional, where we returned at the end of the day to make a booking for Stephanie, who will go there at the same time as Isabelle, a new volunteer, next Tuesday. Our ideal accommodation (and I would happily stay t
Read more