Monday 26th January 2026

Today marked the start of my final week in the Hill Country volunteering with Tea Leaf Trust, and it saw me travelling to Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa. I arrived in time for the early morning staff meeting and it was lovely to find Katie there, a volunteer who arrived today and will be staying here for three weeks. After the staff meeting, I had a good chat with Miss Subagaran, the Principal, who I have known ever since I first came to Tea Leaf in 2019.

We agreed a programme for my time here in Bogawantalawa and I got started straight away, having a training session with the 4 Trainee Teachers on basic classroom instructions, then conducting a case study interview with one of the new teachers. After lunch I had a second case study interview with another new teacher, then finished off my day with a further training session with the Trainee Teachers, where they had a brief role play teaching experience.

I left quite early this afternoon, getting back to Daya's around 15:15, where I got straight on with completing the wedding banner that he had asked me to make for him and Vino. It took me 5 hours to complete it, but I wanted it out of the way this evening, as this is definitely my last night at his place, and I will be going to stay at Chef King in Norwood from tomorrow night for the next 6 nights before I head off to the Royal International School in Kurunegala.

I was so tired when I completed the wedding banner that I barely had the energy to complete today's blog and my diary, never mind trying to write up the two case studies that I had completed the interviews for today. I have a busy schedule planned at Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa tomorrow, which includes conducting a staff training session on 'pair talk' at the end of the day, before coming back to Daya's to pack up my stuff and move into Chef King.

Today's photographs show students having a lesson outside today, the two new teachers that I conducted case study interviews with, plus a couple of the completed wedding banner.







Comments

  1. CharlesJanuary 29, 2026 at 11:53 PM

    The wedding banner is truly artistic - no gaudy colours, I note.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday 4th March 2025

Image
I finally got to my last day here which started very early, as I was up at the crack of dawn to sort out a few things in the apartment, then get my last few bits of packing done. Razeena once again brought me breakfast, which was a great start to my day. After breakfast, I popped a present for Sandra in Ravi's office, just in case I didn't see her to say goodbye to her but then met her at the Junior School on my way back and said a fond farewell to her there. I left at 08:30, with Liyanage driving me to the airport - not that I was aware of that journey, because I had got up so early this morning that I nodded off for most of it. I hardly had to queue at all for either the security checks or for check-in, so I had quite a bit of time before my flight was due to take off at 12:50. I had a delicious, filled croissant for lunch, with a latte, then went to Gate 9, where I didn't have to wait too long before boarding the plane, which thankfully took off on time. It was an 11-hou...
Read more

Sunday 23rd February 2025

Image
It was another eventful day for me today, as I went to Kandy for a proper visit. I have passed through Kandy on numerous occasions, but never visited any of the key sites, with the Temple of the Tooth being the most famous one. Rohan picked me up at 09:00 this morning in the school van, with Madonna joining us, to take us both to Kandy, where we dropped Madonna's stuff off where she is staying for the next few days before meeting Achini in the centre of Kandy. Achini was joined by her lovely husband, Kosala, and we had a coffee together before Achini accompanied me to the Temple of the Tooth, which is one of her favourite places in Kandy. It was an extremely interesting experience for me, although we had to take our footwear off again today, and in today's soaring temperatures, it was so hot underfoot, that I couldn't bear it in the end, so Achini had to retrieve me sandals for me before my feet got burned! Part of the temple complex by the lake that dominates Kandy is an e...
Read more

Friday 28th February 2025

Image
Today was my last working day in school, although I may pop in on Monday to say a fond farewell to various people, with the hope that I will return one day. As Daya was staying with me for two nights, he accompanied me into school today and was able to observe two Tamil link lessons (for Sinhalese students) and three Tamil language lessons (for Tamil students). He loved the school, and he very much enjoyed the opportunity to see the Tamil lessons. I had two final Maths lessons and one final observation of the standard of English in lessons, which I greatly enjoyed. I also had a feedback session with two of the Sectional Heads, where I was able to provide very positive feedback to them regarding my experience on both the English and the Maths side of things at the RIS. I had a bit of a break then, before a final management meeting with Ravi, Agatha, and Tharika, which lasted around an hour. Daya joined me once I had finished for the day, and we got a tuk-tuk into Kurunegala to do some s...
Read more