Friday 24th January 2025

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 Bogawantalawa today. It was absolutely tipping it down as Reggie picked me up to drive me back to Nuwara Eliya. To be honest, it didn't make much difference to me, as I was so exhausted that I slept for most of the journey home. It seems strange to be saying 'home', but I have grown to love Nuwara Eliya so much, and Sky Heaven has become a wonderful haven for me this year, so I will certainly want to return here next year!

It felt great to be back in my lovely room here, which is not going to be my lovely room for much longer now. I thought I was moving onto Kurunegala from here next Saturday, but I have been asked to spend two days and nights at Tea Leaf Centre Pussellawa, which is on the way, so it makes sense to do that. It does mean that I now only have 6 nights left here at Sky Heaven. The huge plus is that Pussellawa and Kurunegala are going to be so much hotter than here!

Today's photos are of my two interviews this morning, plus a few that I took as I was about to leave Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa this afternoon.









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

Tuesday 27th February 2024

Image
There isn't too much to report on for this first of two full days in Colombo, so today's blog will be very different, as it will be an attempt to tell you a little bit about 'my story' and why Blackpool has a special significance for me in my life. Each one of us has our own story, and many of you reading this blog will be aware of some of mine, but for others it may come as a bit of a surprise, as I don't often share it, although it is quite a fascinating one. My story today begins with the torn photograph below: As you can probably tell, this is a very old photograph (and not the clearest, sadly) taken at the wedding of Thomas Ryan (born on 27th April 1871) to his first wife Bridget in 1901. This photograph is taken outside the family farmstead in Coolnadown, near Emly, in County Tipperary in Ireland. Thomas (the tallest guy, third from the left in the picture) is my grandfather. To the left of him is Patrick Ryan (my great grandfather) who was 79 in the 1901 cens...
Read more

Thursday 10th October 2024

Image
We were due to move across to the Junior Department today, but they were still heavily involved with their concert performances, so we were back in the Pre-Primary Department for one final day, with a much lighter programme. In fact, we started with one of the Upper Kintergarten classes performing a Class Assembly in the auditorium on the top floor of the building, which was delightful. They even got us to give out some awards to the children. At the end of yesterday's concert performance in the Town Hall, and at the end of the Class Assembly this morning, everyone stood for the Sri Lankan national anthem. I don't know if it is the longest national anthem in the world, but it must be high up there. The children certainly sang it with gusto, and their enthusiasm was quite infectious. I think having us around is really quite a novelty for them, and we are warmly greeted wherever we go in the school. There were queues of people wanting to say goodbye to us at the end of the day - ...
Read more