Keith in Sri Lanka

Today has turned out to be my last day in Nuwara Eliya, and what a relaxing day it was, as I was able to get up a bit later for a 09:00 breakfast, before getting on with packing up all my stuff. I do seem to have accumulated rather a lot of stuff over the past 5 years that I have been coming out to Sri Lanka, so I anticipate a 'downsizing' exercise at some point in the near future, although I will almost certainly be leaving more here than I take home with me. Whilst I was packing, I was very touched to receive a note from Yad inviting me out for lunch to acknowledge 5 years spent supporting Tea Leaf, and to say goodbye until next year, although I hope to see Yad again at Vino and Thila's wedding in Hatton on 10th February. We met at Pizza Hut at 13:00, with Jana, Sutharshan, and Miggy joining us. I enjoyed chatting with them about Tea Leaf and the Cookstove Project, and I have to say that the pizza was excellent! After lunch, Yad, Jana, and Miggy went one way towards Black...

Having been told that this was my last day in Nuwara Eliya, I received a phone call late last night to let me know that plans had changed. I am now staying for one more night in Nuwara Eliya, and travelling to Pussellawa on Friday morning. My priority has always been to search for accommodation for volunteers there, and I will be working with Mr. Nawfer Aziz for the day on Friday to look round as many of the possibilities for accommodation as we can. Having already found accommodation options for Nuwara Eliya last January, and also been able to do that for Maskeliya and Bogawantalawa this time round, it only leaves Pussellawa to be sorted out, as we are putting Ragala on hold for a while, and I am hopeful that I will be able to sort out accommodation options there next time I am out in Sri Lanka, with a view to then updating all the accommodation lists for each of the Tea Leaf Centres on an annual basis. The reason this has been such  a priority for me this time, is because of the ...

I was up extremely early again this morning, ready for a 07:00 breakfast, and for Reggie to pick me up at 07:30 for my second day at Tea Leaf Centre (TLC) Ragala. It occurred to me today that TLC is generally used as the abbreviation for Tender Loving Care (and we can all do with a bit of TLC at times), so I think it is quite good from Tea Leaf's point of view that we can think of Tea Leaf Centres giving Tender Loving Care to an impoverished community that sorely needs it. My Tender Loving Care today was focused on Mr. Elangowan, the Outreach Project Coordinator at TLC Ragala, who is also required to do a bit of teaching. I was with him for his morning lessons today, and it was probably the best fun that I have had in ages, as I think that I was pretty much born to teach, so I was in my element with him. My focus with the students was getting them to see the difference between 'Tamil' English and 'English' English in terms of their pronunciation. To explain the abov...

I had been asked to go to Tea Leaf Centre Ragala today and tomorrow, so I had breakfast at 07:00 before Reggie picked me up at 07:30 to take me on the 45-minute drive there. It is a beautiful journey from Nuwara Eliya to Ragala, passing through some stunning scenery, and it was a very pleasant morning, so the views were all the more stunning for that. Reggie also happens to be a very entertaining companion, so it was a particularly enjoyable journey all round. It was a rather emotional day at Tea Leaf Centre Ragala, and it wouldn't be appropriate to share the details of that, but suffice to say that I certainly felt that I happened to be in the right place at the right time today, as they needed all the support that I could give them. I was able to sit in on two of the lessons (both 'double' sessions), which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I also fitted in another online meeting with a lovely prospective volunteer called Abirami, who is from Colombo. I left at 16:30, and I finall...

I had another extended sleep last night, which was just what I needed! I had breakfast at 09:00, and at 10:00 I had an online meeting with Larry, a potential volunteer for Tea Leaf from Los Angeles - a 13.5 hour time difference from Sri Lanka, so it was 20:30 on Friday evening there. I spoke to him for an hour, then provided feedback about our meeting to James and Jesmin. I hope Larry decides to volunteer for Tea Leaf, as I think that he will be a great volunteer for us. I had already designated today as a work day to catch up on a backlog of paperwork, and I did manage to reduce some of the backlog before having a sleep this afternoon. I woke up just in time to have another online meeting, this time with Saskia and Marcie, who spoke to me from Thailand, where they have just completed a diving course. I think that they, too, will be great volunteers for Tea Leaf, as I could see just how keen and enthusiastic they were to volunteer for us. Volunteer enquiries over the past 2 months have...

Having got to the end of the week feeling completely exhausted, I had a wonderfully long sleep last night in my own bed! Of course, it isn't my own bed in one sense, but it is a very comfortable bed in a place in Nuwara Eliya that has become my 'home' for the month that I am supporting Tea Leaf. A long sleep, and a late breakfast was just the tonic that I needed before embarking on the long to-do list that I need to complete before my next demanding role in Kurunegala. So why on earth am I pushing myself so hard is an obvious question that I need to address. Basically, I am here to support Tea Leaf this month, and the Royal International School in Kurunegala in February. I am not a tourist, and I have a job to do which I take extremely seriously - maybe too seriously at times - so I do have very high expectations of myself. I have been like this my whole life, so it's difficult for me to compromise on the standards that I set for myself. Having said that, I did say - to...

It was my last morning at Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa, and I was rather sad about that. It has long been my favourite Tea Leaf Centre, not least because of my close connection with Gobi and Kavi, and I have enjoyed spending time with them and their adorable daughter, Merashini, very much. I used the time this morning to contact a couple of potential volunteers, and I also interviewed 2 more members of staff to create staff profiles for them, which was very enjoyable. My interview with Anushiya Rajendram, the Teacher Trainer, was particularly moving, as she had such a powerful story to share with me. So often when I talk to members of staff, I see how Tea Leaf has enabled them to overcome adversities in their lives, and establish a brighter future for themselves, which they then want to do for the students that they serve in the Tea Leaf Centres. The impact that Tea Leaf has had within the tea estate communities is simply phenomenal. Less impressive has been the weather here in Bogawa...

The work carries on relentlessly! This morning I started by interviewing two more staff - Mr. Chathuranga, the new Outreach Project Coordinator, and Ms. Cafoor, the Finance Officer. I was particularly moved by my interview with Ms. Cafoor, who I know simply as Shameera. Like many other members of staff across Tea Leaf, she has faced immense personal struggles, and continues to do so in an effort to better herself, which for me was very humbling. It's good for me to conduct interviews like that, as I have been feeling very overwhelmed with my workload, and reached the point where I was feeling extremely tired, but that all pales into insignificance when you talk to someone like Shameera, and you appreciate the struggles she has experienced and the sacrifices that she is still making to try to provide a better future for herself and her family. These interviews are both humbling and inspirational for me. I tried to catch up on some more paperwork (every meeting I facilitate, or visit...