Thursday 18th January 2024

I got up at 06:30 this morning in order to catch the sun, so that I could get my washing dry before I go away for the weekend tomorrow. Fortunately, it was a very hot morning - so, thankfully, it was mission accomplished! I spent the early part of the morning at home, waiting on a Zoom Meeting with a prospective volunteer that never appeared, but at least I got my washing and ironing done whilst I waited, and then I went into school.

They have started a 2-week Intensive English Programme (IEP) with the new intake of students on the one-year Main Diploma, and it was so lovely to join in with a few of these lessons. The teachers do a great job considering that they have only had quite limited teacher training, and the students themselves are so enthusiastic - like sponges wanting to soak up every piece of information given to them. It really is a delight to be a part of that.

At the start of lunchtime, we had a special celebration for Tim Pare, who co-founded Tea Leaf with his wife Yas. He is 50 today, and apparently loves Battenberg cake, as do I, as it was always a special part of Sunday tea at my grandparents' house when I was a child. I had been given 3 Battenburg cakes to bring over to Sri Lanka, and I left one with the Management Team, and took the other two into school, where we made a little birthday video for 'Mr. Pare'.

I had a relaxing evening at home, and Miggy and I had roti and daal, and some fish for dinner. It is so much nicer eating a meal with someone, and Miggy is great to chat with. I then turned my thoughts to getting ready for my long trip down south to the coast tomorrow, where I will be staying with a friend of Tim and Liz Westbrook, who I first met with them in 2019. It is a 5-hour bus journey, so I am getting into the mindset for a long ride.

Today's photos show one of the IEP lessons, and staff in the staff room at the end of the day. I have also added the link to the video we made for Tim Pare to wish him a very happy 50th birthday.








https://youtube.com/watch?v=cq5QUh3cFgU&feature=shared


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday 4th March 2025

Image
I finally got to my last day here which started very early, as I was up at the crack of dawn to sort out a few things in the apartment, then get my last few bits of packing done. Razeena once again brought me breakfast, which was a great start to my day. After breakfast, I popped a present for Sandra in Ravi's office, just in case I didn't see her to say goodbye to her but then met her at the Junior School on my way back and said a fond farewell to her there. I left at 08:30, with Liyanage driving me to the airport - not that I was aware of that journey, because I had got up so early this morning that I nodded off for most of it. I hardly had to queue at all for either the security checks or for check-in, so I had quite a bit of time before my flight was due to take off at 12:50. I had a delicious, filled croissant for lunch, with a latte, then went to Gate 9, where I didn't have to wait too long before boarding the plane, which thankfully took off on time. It was an 11-hou...
Read more

Friday 1st November 2024

Image
There was no school again today, as the staff were out on a staff trip somewhere (not sure where they went), so we had breakfast a little later at 08:30, then did some washing before heading into school at 10:30 to do some planning and preparation for our Maths Staff Training session on differentiation, which is taking place after school on Monday. There are 53 staff coming we have been told - across Grades 1 to 5, so I think it will be pretty challenging for us! Having got as far as we could with the planning and preparation, we went shopping for some Maths resources Valerie needed to purchase, plus a little trip to Halal Bakers to buy some bread for breakfast tomorrow. The street shops are an amazing concoction of buildings with all kinds of trades going on within them, and on the extremely busy Kurunegala to Kandy road, so Valerie took some photographs of the local shops, which you will see below today. We got back to the apartment, and I got on with planning out the Maths Staff Tra...
Read more

Saturday 5th October 2024

Image
It's my fifth trip to Sri Lanka, but on this occasion I am at last joined by my wife, Valerie, and it will be lovely not to be on my own this time. We flew out of London Heathrow Airport one hour late at 22:30 UK time on Friday, and after a rather excruciating eleven hour flight, we eventually landed at Colombo Airport just after 13:30 Sri Lankan time on Saturday. I slept for a few hours on the journey, but Valerie struggled to get any sleep at all. Sandra Wanduragala met us at Colombo Airport, and we drove into Colombo for a couple of hours - meeting up with her daughter, Selena, at the Good Market, which we really enjoyed and would love to go back to. We then went back to Selena's home, where it was good to be able to freshen up a little bit, and enjoy a nice cup of tea, before our driver, Rohan drove us to Kurunegala, where we will be based for the next two months. Arriving in Kurunegala, we met up with my good friend Tharika and her daughter, Evinka, to have dinner at Sri B...
Read more