Friday 12th January 2024

It was another very busy day of Teacher Training, with a morning session, followed by a break for the teachers to do some more promotional work in town, followed by lunch, and then another session in the afternoon. They are such a great bunch of young people to work with, absorbing everything you give them like little sponges. You could not hope for a more enthusiastic group of young people to train, and it is such a pleasure to work with them.

I now have Isabelle, a volunteer from France, working with me, who is with us for two months. She is from near Bordeaux, and she will be 70 next month, so there is no real age limit here for young and old volunteers to come out to support the work of Tea Leaf Trust. She has proved to be such a lovely person to work with, and very highly-skilled, as she taught English as a foreign language in France and around the world, so I think we make a great little team together.

I have had a couple of comments about the lovely welcome banner in my room, which is actually one I made 4 years ago in 2019 - one of a number I made in quiet evenings when Rachelle, my housemate at the time, had gone back to The Netherlands. I made this one for the old Nuwara Eliya Tea Leaf Centre building, and Daya put it up in my room last year to surprise me when I arrived, but it has remained in my room as a welcome ever since.

I had a very traditional 'Friday feeling' this evening, something I haven't experienced for a long time in my retirement, but having worked pretty hard all week, I was relieved to know that I would now have a few days off, particularly as it is a long weekend so that Tamil Hindus can celebrate Thai Pongal, which I will be doing in Norwood, with Daya and his brothers. I have really missed Daya being next door to me, but Miggy has proved to be a great companion too.

Today's photos are a few from today's Teacher Training, and I have also popped in a few showing the various banners I made for Tea Leaf in November/December 2019. The last picture is a wedding banner I made for Gobi and Kavi's wedding, which I presented to them in a lovely box. I know they had it hung up in their bedroom for a long time, as they sent me a photo of it! If you require a special banner for any reason, just let me know!








                
 

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