Wednesday 28th October 2026

Having gone to bed at 20:45 feeling exhausted, I was able to sleep almost straight away, but woke up just after midnight to find the house in total darkness in the midst of a heavy storm. The power cut, a common occurrence in Sri Lanka, especially in the Hill Country, continued throughout the night, but the power came back on just after I woke up. For people who live here, this is just part of daily life, but I am not used to it yet, so it does frustrate me a little bit.

Anas picked me up in his three-wheeler (commonly called a tuk-tuk in the west!) with Gowri waiting for me in the back. Having communicated with her a lot recently, it was lovely to meet her in person, and we spent the next 5.5 hours travelling around 4 different schools to get some feedback from teachers who had been on previous cohorts of the 6-month English Programme (including Cohort 11, the most recent one) and to also promote Cohort 12 and future ones.

My most embarrassing moment of the day came at Barathi T.V. (Tamil Medium) School, which has 533 students from 5 to 18. Ms. Krishanthi, who speaks very good English, completed the 6-month English Programme in one of the first cohorts, and had been supported by a once-week conversation with Tim Westbrook. I asked the lady sitting next to her (Ms. Rosalinmary) if she had chatted with a native English-speaker, and she replied: 'Yes, you Sir!'

In my defence, Ms. Rosalinmary had changed schools, after being at St. Mary's College in Bogawantalawa for 8 years (the maximum that an ordinary teacher can serve in any one government school in Sri Lanka), so I really wasn't expecting to see her at this school! I also saw Ms. Megadharshini (who had conversation sessions with Charles Hayward), and at the final visit to the Muslim School in Maskeliya, I chatted with Ms. Nisha, who still chats with Tim Westbrook!

My first picture today shows a beautiful view (even on such an overcast day) from our lunchbreak stop today. The next pictures show Gowry and me, and Anas with our three-wheeler transport. We then have three photographs at Barathi T.V. School (Ms. Rosalinmary is with me on the third one), a photo of me with Ms. Megadharshini, and a final one of me with Ms. Nisha, the Deputy Prinicpal at the Muslim School in Maskeliya.












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