Keith in Sri Lanka

Tuesday 22nd October 2019 What a long day this seemed to be! Tim and Liz picked me up just after 09.00 and we were driven to Colombo, which took us 6 hours. Tim had to renew his Driving Permit and collect a hire care before we then left Colombo around 16.30, travelling on to Tangalle, where we arrived around 19.30. After 9 hours in two cars, it was a relief to finally get to our destination, which was Tim and Liz’s friend Raelene’s house just outside of Tangalle. What a beautiful destination it was too! Raelene has the most beautiful home, where we were treated to a fabulous evening meal, prepared by Gamigay, whose son Tharu helped him to clear up afterwards. Raelene was a great host and, because she is an artist, her gorgeous home is full of her own paintings, any one of which I would happily put up in our apartment in Bath! Tim and Liz are staying with Raelene and booked me into a local, very reasonably priced small hotel called the Goyambokka Guesthouse, where Tim drove ...

Monday 21st October 2019 I accompanied Tim on a trip to Kandy to meet with a Sri Lankan Rotarian whose signature we needed to sign off the Global Grant for our International Project. He is a dentist working at Peradeniya Dental Hospital, so we had to go to his office at the hospital to see him. The meeting went well we think, so he should now allow the Global Grant to proceed.  On our return to Nuwara Eliya, we then met with the Central Management Team, where we discussed the financial details of the Global Grant. This was also a very useful meeting, but it left us with a couple of things we need to discuss with Tim Pare in order to satisfy ourselves that the International Project can be delivered within the specified budget.  We had a break after what had been a very busy day, before going out in the evening to eat at Ambals, where we enjoyed some local Sri Lankan food at a fraction of the cost of yesterday’s delightful meal at the Oliphant Bungalow! It was a tiri...

Sunday 20th October 2019 Tim and Liz met me at The Grand Hotel, so that Tim and I could watch the other two quarterfinals of The Rugby World Cup. The first game between Wales and France was a very scrappy, tight affair, with Wales coming from behind to clinch a 20-19 victory in the last few minutes of the game. South Africa then ended the host nation’s dreams of glory, as they beat Japan 26-3. They were only 5-3 up at half time, but just proved too strong for Japan in the second half. Rachelle joined us after the matches were over and we drove back to the Oliphant Bungalow for dinner. We had such a lovely evening with them discussing their experiences of Sri Lanka (they have been coming out here for 10 years now) and it was very interesting for both of us; for me because I am just starting out on my time with Tea Leaf Vision, and for Rachelle, as she is doing her degree in International Development and wants to work in this field.

Saturday 19th October 2019 This was a very pleasant relaxing day. I got up a little later than usual and did some washing using the great twin-tub machine that I am now getting very used to, before heading off to The Grand Hotel for a great day’s rugby! It was the first two quarterfinals of The Rugby World Cup. In the first game, England had a thrilling 40-16 win over Australia. Hannah sent me a WhatsApp message to let me know that she was watching the game in Melbourne. Ireland, sadly, didn’t fare so well in the second game and they lost 46-14 to New Zealand. Shortly after the matches finished, Tim and Liz arrived from Colombo and I went with them to The Oliphant Bungalow, where they are staying, so that they could check in and we then drove back into Nuwara Eliya and ate at the Indian Restaurant at The Grand Hotel. It was lovely to catch up with them over a delicious meal and a bonus was the fact that there was live music playing. A Sri Lankan guy was playing the mandolin to ...

Friday 18th October 2019 This morning was very interesting, as the students were doing a Community Service Project and I accompanied Mr. Anton’s class. We went on the bus and then walked to the Moonplains Tea Plantation, where the students picked up litter and placed it in bags, which we then left by the side of the road for the ‘bin men’ to collect later. We arrived at the Tea Plantation just as the ladies were bringing in their bags of leaves to be weighed and sorted, so I was able to take a few photographs of that. I saw proper ‘line houses’ for the first time, which was very interesting. It is a stark reminder of how poor they are, although there are a few richer houses in amongst the poorer ones and they look out across the fields to a large new housing development with luxury homes that they could never dream of buying. I was fortunate enough to also be able to pop into the Moonplains TV Primary School (a Government Primary School), which has 65 children, all of whom ...

Thursday 17th October 2019 I was up early today, had  breakfast, gave my room a clean and then set off for The Grand Hotel, where I spent a very productive day working on all three elements of what I have been asked to do by Tea Leaf Vision. I have almost completed an initial draft of the 2-day Mentor Teacher Training Programme and a draft outline of the 2-week Trainer Teacher Training Programme, but the 6-month Teacher Training Programme for the Rotary International Project is obviously a much bigger task and I feel I have only just scratched the scratched the surface with that one! As I left The Grand Hotel, I saw a couple of wild ponies on my way home and I spent a few minutes watching them and taking photographs of them. I also spent some time taking photographs of some beautiful artwork outside The Good Shepherd Catholic School for Girls. The outside perimeter wall has been sectioned off, with individual students decorating panels of about 1m² (apart from one or two ...

Wednesday 16th October 2019 I went to Palmerston School today and I watched  Miss Aruni take the fourth lesson of the day, just before lunch and Mr. Agilan take the fifth lesson of the day immediately after lunch, both English grammar lessons. Both lessons were very good, and I was able to give each teacher feedback immediately after their lesson, which was extremely helpful.  The most impressive thing about both teachers was the lengths they go to in order to teach at Palmerston every day. Miss Aruni has at least a 2-hour journey to and from school each day, but Mr. Agilan’s journey is even more arduous. He leaves home at 05.30 each morning and walks for 30 minutes before catching a bus that takes more than 2 hours to get to Palmerston, arriving at school just in time for the 08.30 morning Staff Meeting. He leaves school at the end of the day around 16.30 and eventually gets home between 19.30 and 20.00. This means he spends 6 hours travelling each day in order to com...