Thursday 29th February 2024

Well it's a Happy Birthday to Miggy to start with if you are still looking in, and this is definitely my last blog entry, and the only reason I am popping one in today is because my 12-hour flight from Colombo to Heathrow has landed, and I am now at Heathrow Central Bus Station waiting for my coach to Bath. Sadly, the connections didn't work very well, so I have a 2-hour wait until my coach leaves at 23:15, and I don't get back to Bath until 01:20, which is a bit of a killer.

So, what of my reflections on my past 2 months in Sri Lanka. From my point of view, it has been a brilliant trip, and I have achieved all that I set out to do (almost) - and even more. The 'almost' is that I failed to visit the Tea Leaf Centre in Udapussellawa this time, but my schedule was amazingly full-on, so it just wasn't possible to cram that in as well. I would also have loved to have spent a bit more time with Gobi and Kavi in Bogawantalawa, but it was not to be!

My key reflection of this trip is that Tea Leaf seems to be in a very good place - better than ever - and is just embarking on 'The Cookstove Project', a transformative initiative for the NGO, that will strengthen the organisation even further, as well as providing a very substantial number of employment opportunities for people in the Hill Country. I don't know a huge amount about the intricacies of this project, but if you are interested, just follow the latest news at www.tealeaftrust.com.

My decision to agree to become the Volunteers Coordinator for Tea Leaf Trust was a good one (I think) - certainly judging by the quality of the volunteers that were out with me this January and February, and I look forward to developing the Volunteers Programme with Tim Pare and others over the next few months. Volunteers certainly make an extremely useful, and very welcome addition to the work of Tea Leaf Trust in the beautiful Hill Country of Sri Lanka.

My photos today are just my 'favourite' 15 photographs out of hundreds that I have accumulated over the past two months. I don't have Stephanie's skills as a photographer, but they are reasonable snapshots from this latest fabulous 2-month trip to Sri Lanka - and I'm going to miss that naughty dog!


















Comments

  1. TimMarch 1, 2024 at 9:53 AM

    Congratulations Keith on another fantastically successful visit. I am glad you managed a little R&R during your stay at Erica’s but overall it seems to have been a very busy trip. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 7, 2024 at 8:43 AM

    Great blog, Keith. I have enjoyed it very much. Thanks for all the hard work and support and see you next year. Tim and Yas x

    ReplyDelete
  3. pirathaApril 15, 2024 at 1:19 AM

    I like your website, can I make you a mobile app? contact +94764017780 WhatsApp https://ealuvi.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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