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The TCL Sunday School Nativity in the Mess Hall on
Friday evening December 19th 2008 |
TCL Sunday - when groups of students fan out across the island to conduct
services - took us the Galle in the south. We enjoyed the company of a
lively group of students, Harshana, Sanath, Vathsala, Michael and Dilan. We
travelled down on the Saturday and visited a former TCL student Manoj in
Welligama as well. On Sunday February 22nd 2009 we conducted services in two
Methodist Churches in the Galle circuit. |
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Friday
March 6th 2009 was English Day and, like last year, James wrote and directed a
short play in two acts, "The Great Day" telling the story of a wedding
from hell. Here the bride recites a limerick about her pet dog
with whom the groom refuses to be photographed on his wedding day.
Custard pies finished it off. |
A new venture on English Day was a
debate. The motion was "Secularism is a bigger threat to Christianity
than the anti-conversion bill". Some very good arguments were put
forward but the team that thought fastest on its feet, Brian's team,
prevailed. Here Rasika is speaking. |
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Visas permitting, two students, Harshana and Indradevi, should be going to
England in May. They will be guests of the Goudhurst Sri Lanka Church
Association for a month during which they will experience something of
life in the Church of England. Neither of them had ever had need
to use a knife and fork before so we had them round for sausages, leeks
and mash. |
The Spouses' Class has enjoyed a
fascinating Environmental Studies course given by a national expert, Dr. Ajantha
Perera, who works for the Methodist Church. She took them to see a
local rubbish dump one day to consider the problems of bulk waste disposal.
Maybe we should all do this! It was very smelly as Vicky shows! |
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Volunteer Clive Mills, on the Experience Exchange Programme (EEP), thought he was coming to teach a bit of Greek and
help out in the Church History Documentation Centre but he ended doing
much more for the college. He also taught Hebrew and shared a
Church History course. His time at TCL ended on 31st March after
six months.
Here student leader Nathan bids him farewell. |
A military coup at the annual
fancy dress competition of the TCL nursery caused consternation amongst the
judges who felt that the troops should not be rewarded for their drastic
action. The dressing up of children as soldiers is symptomatic of the
pro-war feeling that prevails amongst the Sinhalese locally and throughout
the country. However, the platoon won nothing despite their guns -
their costumes were mass produced, "US Army" being emblazoned on their
lapels. A monkey (or was it cat?) and a chef won the competition
although everyone was given a present. |
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We said good-bye to the eight fourth year students, four single men plus
four married men and their spouses and children, plus two BD students who
joined TCL from Jaffna to complete their studies (one year). A second year
student, Shehan, and his wife, Champika, and baby, Shalomi, are also
leaving. They are our near neighbours and we will be sad to see
them go. Shalomi has copied her parents' smiling faces and is a
wonderfully cheerful child. There was an enjoyable informal get
together in the Principal's Bungalow with the Faculty and their
families. Saturday March 21st 2009 |
And on the last formal day of the
TCL academic year, Saturday April 4th 2009, there was
the valedictory service. Here Rosemary
presents Sasikumar with a lit lamp symbolising his future ministerial role
as being a light to the world. The Reverend Karunasekera watches to take over as the next
Faculty member to present lamps the leavers: 8 x Final Year BTh Students, 2 x
BD students and 3 members of the Spouses' Class: Priya, Kohila, and
Dharshini. We have both enjoyed teaching the Spouses' Class. |
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Annual
College Photograph on Valedictory Day, Saturday 4th April 2009. |
