Wednesday 22nd January 2025

It was another action-packed day here in Bogawantalawa, which started off with Kavi taking me on another school visit - this time to St. Mary's College, which was the school that Kavi attended herself as a child. It is also a school I have visited before, and I got such a warm welcome from Mr. Vijayakanthan, the Deputy Principal - and if you think I just remember Sri Lankan names like that, well I don't - I write them all down extremely carefully - it's essential!

We started by interviewing 8 Grade 7 students who are studying in the 'English medium' class within the school, and their level of English was hugely impressive, as were their aspirations; these 8 students are hoping to be a general surgeon, an astronaut, a scientist, a soldier, a pilot, a paediatrician, and a plastic surgeon. Their responses were instantaneous, and it was extremely clear to me that these were very well-considered hopes and dreams for the future.

We then chatted with 4 of the teachers who had completed the 6-month English Programme with Kavi (out of 8 who have taken the course in this school alone). They had clearly enjoyed the course, and felt that they had benefitted from it greatly in a number of ways. Of course, at the end of our conversation with them we had to have the obligatory photo shoot, then we left the school feeling very uplifted by the responses that we had received from the teachers here.

I went back to Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa to get changed and collect a few things together, then took a tuk-tuk into the town centre, where I caught a bus to Norwood to meet Vino, who was training some of the Cookstove Project staff with Gobi. Vino took me home for lunch (which was absolutely delicious - the best roti I have ever tasted!) and to show me his finished house (which I first saw quite a long time ago) and to give me a wedding invitation!

Today's photographs are split between my visit to St. Mary's College this morning, and my trip to see Vino's new home this afternoon.









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