Sunday 4th February 2024

Today is Sri Lankan Independence Day, and I celebrated it by sleeping in, and chilling out at home for the morning. I left just before 12:00 to walk down to get the bus to Nuwara Eliya, and Miggy appeared whilst I was walking down the hill, so we walked to Blackpool Junction, and got the bus from there. I don't like getting the bus now as much as I used to, largely because I struggle to stand up for long, although on the short journey into Nuwara Eliya that's not such a problem.

I wanted to watch a Tamil movie today, as I saw lots last time I was here, but I haven't seen any on this visit to Sri Lanka. I went to the cinema, and there was a Tamil movie, with English subtitles, called Destruction Earth, which was due to start at 13:00, which sounded perfect - certainly in terms of the timing. It turned out to be a Tollywood version of ET, although this was a sort of science fiction-cum-musical version, if you can imagine it.

The film didn't start until around 13:20, and went on until just after 16:00 (with a 10-minute intermission in the middle). To describe it as 'bearable' is probably being a bit over-generous, but I would have been disappointed to have left Sri Lanka without seeing a Tamil film this time, so it met that very basic criteria at least. I would probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I had been at least 50 years younger, but it was a relaxing way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

As I left the cinema, I bumped into Musthaq and his wife of a few months, which was lovely, as he was one of the best Tea Leaf teachers I saw on my first visit to Sri Lanka in 2019. He left Tea Leaf to take up a position in a private school in Nuwara Eliya, and he is still there now. My day ended having dinner with Stephanie at The Grand Indian, where I was able to say a rather sad goodbye to someone who has proved to be an exceptional volunteer for Tea Leaf.

Today's photos show a few from yesterday's opening of Tea Leaf Centre, Pussellawa (starting with a stunning view from the back of it, and followed by a young girl who performed a beautiful traditional dance at the ceremony), one of Musthaq and his wife (who look incredibly young), and one of my dinner at The Grand Indian Restaurant with Stephanie.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

Monday 7th October 2024

Image
We got cracking today with our prime reason for being here - to support the work of the Royal International School in Kurunegala. We worked together today to give Valerie a chance to settle in at the school, and we are having a gentle start at the Pre-Primary Department, where we will be spending 3 days seeing what they do so well there, before moving on this Thursday to the Junior Department, which is, of course, where our true area of expertise lies. We received a wonderful welcome from both staff and students as we arrived at the school this morning, including a group of girls performing a beautiful, traditional dance for us. It was lovely doing the few lesson observations with Valerie today, before we work separately from tomorrow onwards. The standard of teaching in the Pre-Primary Department is truly impressive, and we were pretty amazed by what we witnessed today. We are both enjoying it so much already! Sandra (who founded the school) and Ravi (the Managing Director) popped rou...
Read more