Mike Chappell, who left the Economics Department at Warminster School to become Principal of the Colombo International School in Sri Lanka, reflects on his first few months in Sri Lanka.

To my friends in Warminster

I need to start off by saying I have won no prizes for my moustache or indeed anything else but my first term in Sri Lanka has been interesting to say the least. Those of you expecting a travelogue of the island will be sadly disappointed I am afraid. I have barely left Colombo except to visit Colombo International School, Kandy, which is the other school of which I am Principal.

My visit to Kandy (I phone them regularly) was thanks to Warminster’s beloved Head of Music who provided some help and guidance on performing the ‘Pirates of Penzance’. Klaudia and I went to have a day or two of fact-finding in the school and took in Kandy (Temple of the Tooth) where we just looked at the gardens and the elephants, the Botanical Gardens) and saw ‘Pirates’ in the evening. It wasn’t quite Les Mis: a few of the songs were recorded and mimed but for all that it was very impressive considering that the Warminster Drama/Music team were not there to guide them!

On the way back we dropped in to Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. Now this is great! The main part is above the river and across the road. Twice a day about fifty elephants walk across the main road and down a narrow shopping road to the river to bathe for two hours before climbing the natural stone steps to return via the same shopping street to the mud bath across the road. I missed seeing the risk assessment but was told that a few items in the shops got messed up but no one ever got hurt. The beauty for us is that to watch this is very expensive for tourists but as residents it is very affordable. One elephant had stepped on a mine in the war but even with three legs she wanders along quite happily at the back of the herd descending and ascending the slippery stone staircase to the river – sad, but good to see.

Colombo has no natural centre and sprawls out in narrow dusty streets. This is a country that, when I agreed to come, was still engaged in a very long Civil War so, as you would expect, its capital is a bit run down: tourism (and hence national earnings) collapsed in the war. Very recently they have reopened the only bit of beach in Colombo after cleaning it. Thousands packed onto a narrow strip of sand to play football and swim fully clothed. A lot of the roads are reopening and I am now checked much less frequently at army checkpoints: it used to be twice a night on my way home but I do live near the president (he has never invited me in for tea!). This may have something to do with there being no trouble since the war finished or to create a ‘feel good factor’ as we come up to the Presidential election. The army guys who check you are happy and smiling and they mainly seem part of a job-creation programme: my students tell me the army has grown since the end of the war and the numerous road blocks and ‘preventing-people-going-on-the-beach’ type activities give these soldiers something to do.

The reason for lack of tourist beaches in or near the capital is in my view the fault of the British. I guess in order to keep the railway secure and easy to oversee (also I guess flat and cheaper to build) they built it right on the coast so from Colombo down to Galle in the south (Sri Lanka is about the size of Ireland) what would have been fantastic beachside property has a somewhat less than modern, heavily used and troop-controlled railway running along it. The exception is the old Governor’s country mansion which is now a hotel on the sea side of the railway. This hotel, Mt Lavinia, has a private beach which is again expensive for foreigners but it means you are not constantly pestered by locals on the make. When last there this vast beach had at most 30 people on it.

The School is in what someone described to me as the ‘richy rich’ district of Colombo, near the test cricket ground. The results are good: 48% of A Levels were grade A and 62% of AS were As. Very few students do badly. So my task is to improve those achievements. Well, I will give it a very good go!

We visited an old school friend of mine in Australia over Christmas: every other break I was in school every day, so we knew to get a rest we needed to get right away. In and around Perth we cuddled Koalas and fed Kangaroos in various wildlife parks. I managed three days at the WACA to see Australia beat the West Indies including a 70-ball 101 from Chris Gayle, the fifth fastest in test history. I also went to watch Perth Glory, the local soccer side. Apparently when they play Wellington NZ it is the longest journey in any away league soccer match on Earth. Perth to Sydney is like London to Moscow.

We did a lot of shopping. Sri Lanka is a bit deficient in this field. A lot of the shopping is because Klaudia is starting as a sports teacher in another school and had not brought any clothes or teaching materials with her. Good luck to her: the weather is hot but not the 42 degrees we had one day in Perth.

Well, the election of the new President is tomorrow. We are closing early and everyone expects a curfew and possible violence. Some people have been killed already. I am keeping my fingers crossed that, whatever the result, everything passes peacefully.

Best wishes to you all. When I look at the English weather I am not sorry I am here and I don’t miss my 1-hour drives twice a day from Swindon and back in the pitch black on icy roads! I do miss the school and boarding strangely and my Wednesday nights in the Farmers but the students here are just like Warminster students: friendly, bright and keen to learn.