Saturday 28th February 2026

I left Kurunegala at 08:00 this morning after one final breakfast at Razeena's next door! I felt a great sense of satisfaction as I left - a recognition of a job well done, which Tim commented on in yesterday's blog. He said that: 'It sounds as if this part of your visit has been really successful', which indeed it has been, but no less so than the first half of my visit this time, where I had an extremely productive time this year working in three of the Tea Leaf Trust Centres.

The two types of voluntary work that I do in Sri Lanka are a huge contrast. My generic skills working in education over the past 45 years, including my leadership and management skills, serve me very well working with the Tamil people at the Tea Leaf Centres in the Hill Country, whereas that skill set is even more ideally suited to supporting the majority Sinhalese people at the Royal International School in Kurunegala, and both settings are very important to me.

As Yohan drove me to Colombo, arriving at Colombo Swimming Club just before 11:00, I reflected on how blessed I am to have Sri Lanka in my life, and particularly so now that I am volunteering in two completely different settings. I have had many successes, but by far the most rewarding ones have been the personal ones, with my relationship with Daya and his brothers and their extended family bringing me much joy over the years, including, of course, this year.

The absolute highlight of this year for me has been Daya and Vino's wedding, and I was bowled over that they travelled all the way from Batticaloa to Colombo this weekend to see me before I flew home. I felt so happy to see them again today, and they will be around until Monday, as that is a Poya Day, so they can travel back then. It also happens to be Vino's 25th birthday on Monday, so we will certainly be doing our best to celebrate that tomorrow and on Monday.

Today's photos are of my visit with Daya and Vino to one of Daya's two remaining uncles on his father's side, where we had lunch. We did visit his other uncle later for dinner, but I didn't get round to taking any photographs there.







Comments

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 4th January 2026

Image
It was time to leave Daya's home this morning and head off to Nuwara Eliya. I had been invited to another good friend Donald's family for lunch on the way, but that quickly turned into my attendance at the Mini Miracles Preschool and Day Care Centre Graduation Ceremony, as Donald got a last minute invite to it and wanted me to join him before we went home to his for lunch. Of course, I accepted the invitation, and it ended up being very enjoyable, if rather long. I arrived early, so I had time to see where Donald works now, as it is just round the corner. When I first met Donald in 2019, he was a teacher at Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya. He then set up his own teaching company called GROW in Nuwara Eliya, with Ladushan, who had worked with him at Tea Leaf, as had Kawya, who is now married to Ladushan and working for GROW too. Kawya was at Dreamspace Academy today running an innovation workshop for youngsters. It is a great legacy for Tea Leaf that Donald moved on to set up GROW,...
Read more