Friday 5th January 2024

Having gone to sleep around 10:30 last night, although I woke up a couple of times in the night, I slept in until around 09:30, so I felt a lot better today generally, but it is taking me longer to adapt to the time change than on previous trips to Sri Lanka. I am almost always dealing with people in Tea Leaf who are far younger (and generally much fitter) than me, so it is important to remember that and pace myself a bit better, in order to last the course!

With that in mind, I spent the whole day in what can loosely be called 'the office', which is the largest room downstairs. It has a jumbled mix of desks and three piece suites out of which a functional office space could be created, but it is still very much a work in progress, and looks more like a room stuff has just been dumped in rather than an attractive working environment, with the bare walls making it a particularly uninviting space to work in.

Despite the above, I did work in 'the office' all day, catching up on emails and various other bits and pieces that I needed to get through. Yad was there for some of the time, so we chatted through a couple of things, and Miggy had a meeting with Mr James in the afternoon that I caught the end of. Yad provided me with a lovely bit of lunch, and the tiredness then kicked in again late afternoon, with Miggy having to rouse me out of my sleep.

Miggy has been a delight to be around, and I feel very lucky that what I thought was going to be an empty room next to me is now occupied by him. We went into town for dinner at Themparadu in the evening, picking Stephanie up on the way, and it was lovely. It is a delight as the Volunteers Coordinator to witness at first hand the quality of young people Tea Leaf is attracting, and both Miggy and Stephanie have so much to offer the organisation.

Today's photos are a gift from Stephanie, as she is a skilled photographer and let me have some photos from her day in Nuwara Eliya, where staff were promoting the next Main Diploma Programme to be run at Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya. I have also included a couple of my photos from our evening out at Themperadu.