Wednesday 21st January 2026

I had a fabulous day today - quite honestly, possibly the best day I have had on this current visit to the beautiful Hill Country in Sri Lanka. There are some days, if you're lucky, where everything just seems to go wonderfully well, and today was one of those days. It was a day which made me feel, as I have so many times, just how worthwhile my time is volunteering with Tea Leaf, and why I have kept coming back time after time over the past 7 years.

I only had one 45-minute session with my Trainee Teachers first thing this morning, but I was able to give them some quality input on how to use a whiteboard effectively, which is not as straightforward a skill as you might think it is. This is a very responsive group of Trainee Teachers, and I am loving working with them. My 'boss', Mr. James, asked me yesterday to interview two of my Trainee Teachers in order to create a Case Study for each of them.

There is only one male Trainee Teacher, so we had picked him and one of the female Trainee Teachers, and I interviewed this lady, Miss Manimaran Deepthana, first. She was so lovely, and she had a powerful story to tell. The male Trainee Teacher was absent today, and his replacement was Miss Narayanasani Ketheeshwary (what a name, I know!). I was completely blown away by her story, which was so impressive, and I cannot wait to write it up.

My wonderful day continued with an excellent session with Miss Roshani Matthews, the Teacher Trainer, and a couple of observations of Intensive English Programme lessons in the afternoon. I was then fortunate to get a lift back to Daya's in a rather nice tuk-tuk, as he had invited Tim Pare (co-founder of Tea Leaf with his wife, Yasmene Shah) back for tea, which ended up being yet another highlight for me in what has been a beautiful day in so many ways.

The photos today show my two Trainee Teachers with me (in a great photo spot chosen by Stefhan from the Media Team), a lovely one of Miss Roshani Matthews, a couple from my observations of the Intensive English Programme sessions this afternoon, and a couple from Tim Pare's visit to Daya's.











Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2026 at 2:51 AM

    Really enjoying these updates Keith, keep them coming! Adrian

    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

Sunday 16th February 2025

Image
I had another fabulous day today, as Sandra took me back to Rangala House for the day. She had taken Valerie and me there for a treat on 24th November last year, so this time I knew exactly what to expect, and I was very excited to be going back there. The big difference this time was that Anthony, who owns the place, was there. He has a home in Bristol, too, where he runs a restaurant called The Kandyan on Gloucester Road, where we met him just before Christmas. We picked up a lady called Madonna, who is from Texas in the USA, on the way. She will be helping out in the Pre-Primary Department of the Royal International School over the next couple of weeks. When we arrived at Rangala House, we were introduced to a friend of Anthony's from the UK, who was staying the night with three of his friends as part of a three-week trip to Sri Lanka. They were all great company, so we enjoyed a lovely, relaxing time together. I couldn't resist the beautiful swimming pool, which was incredi...
Read more