Monday 8th January 2024

I had an easy lead in to working again today. I spent the morning at home, catching up on various bits and pieces for Tea Leaf, then took a tuk-tuk to Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya, which is housed on the top floor of the now non-functioning Edinburgh Estate Tea Factory. The journey there is quite stunning, even if the road is quite a horror show, and the views from the Tea Factory are just incredible - what a stupendous place for Tea Leaf Trust to have a key Tea Leaf Centre!

I had a planning session with Chan, as we are going to be delivering the teacher training to the new teachers over the next few days. He will be running it in Maskeliya for their staff plus the Bogawantalawa staff, whilst I endeavour to recreate the same teacher training in Nuwara Eliya for their staff plus the Udepussellawa staff and the Pussellawa staff (which is the fifth Tea Leaf Centre opening very soon). What a privilege it will be for me to do this!

I then moved on to an online meeting with Tim, Yad, and Jesmin, before doing a little more preparation for tomorrow's teacher training sessions. I know a few of the teachers already, but most of them will be new to me, so I think it's going to be a lot of fun over the next few days. After the teacher training, we will move straight on to their Intensive English Programme with the new intake of students on the one year English Diploma, which kick-starts the new academic year.

I took the tuk-tuk back home again to Blackpool, and had a long discussion with Yad, which was lovely, as she is so busy at the moment (to be honest, she always is!) so it was great to have time to discuss some very important things with her. My dinner this evening was daal, fish curry, and roti, which looked a rather ordinary meal, but tasted incredible (thanks again to Meena, Yad's mother). After a chat with Miggy, it was back to my room for some preparation for tomorrow!

Today's photos are some of the best yet, showing my journey to the Edinburgh Tea Factory, the lovely Chan, who is now on the Central Team, as the Staff Development Officer, some views from the Tea Factory, and, just to tempt you, my daal, fish curry, and roti!














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