Monday 20th January 2025

I was up at 06:00 this morning trying to produce the notes for a meeting that I had with Jesmin last Friday. I got most of the job completed, but then I had to have a shower and pack, before having breakfast with Gav at 08:00. Reggie picked me up at 09:00 to take me to Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa, where I am working this week. We got as far as Nanu Oya when I realised that I had left my bag with my money and my passport behind, so we had to go back again!

We arrived at Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa just after 11:00, and, fortunately, they had very little planned for me today, so I was able to finish the notes that I had started at 06:00, then catch up quite a lot with my Volunteer Coordinator work, including various emails that had gone unanswered, as I simply hadn't had time to deal with them. I have been struggling to keep up with everything over the past few days, so it was a relief to have time just to catch up a bit. 

I felt better once I had cleared a backlog of work, as it had begun to get me down. I also felt better for being at Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa, as it is my favourite Tea Leaf Centre, not least because Gobi and Kavi are there with their daughter Merashini, who is such a delightful child. Her English is amazing, and she made me laugh because the staff were respectfully calling me 'Sir', and she told them in no uncertain terms that I was not called 'Sir' and my name was 'Mr Keith'!

The highlight of my day today was interviewing Ms Kalyani Subugaran, the Principal here, in order to write up a 'staff profile' of her for Mr. James. She had such a powerful story of her 'Tea Leaf journey', which really moved me, as she is someone I have known ever since I first volunteered with Tea Leaf in 2019, and I have known how tough things have been for her at times. It was great to find her in a really good place now, and I will enjoy writing up her 'story'.

The photographs that I have chosen today are of my interview with Kalyani, plus a couple of beautiful Merashini with Gobi and Kavi.







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