My travels took on an additional element when in 2000 the Sri Lanka Military Academy commenced a degree programme in collaboration with Sabaragamuwa University. Under their thoughtful commandant Gamini Hettiarachchi, depicted here, they had approached the UGC about this soon after I joined Sabaragamuwa in 1997 and I believe the Chairman was happy to hand it over to us to arrange because he knew I would be involved. Almost from the start I took the lead, and worked out a programme together with a few positive colleagues at the university, and the hierarchy at the Academy who were keen on developing thinking skills as well as degree level wider knowledge, and actively fell in with my plans.
But it took time to take things forward, not least because of some opposition within the army itself, and it was only in 1999 that the move took on momentum, under a new Commandant Percy Fernando. And as I note we had finalized arrangements by the time of his farewell dinner, in January of the new year, when we watched him drive away to his new post, a post from which he did not return.
A new year and new responsibilities
I got back to Colombo from my millennium dinner in Bangkok on the night of January 2nd, looking forward to classes at the Military Academy in addition to at the university. There too I had a greater load, for we had taken a double batch, to try to get over the delays in university admission which the country suffered from endlessly, and I had much to do there too when on the 3rd Kithsiri took me to the university in time for breakfast.
I met the new students then and wrote GELT letters after lunch and had a meeting about English with meetings about other elements of our Core Course the next day since I had still to organize these since they were beyond Chandra’s ken. Then on the Wednesday, after more administration and marking, I went to Diyatalawa for a Board meeting, when we also had a presentation about the ethnic conflict, followed by drinks and dinner. I believe that was Percy Fernando’s last function at the Academy, and he left that night to take up his new post at Elephant Pass which was under threat from the LTTE.
That Saturday I went to Derrick’s in Kandy, when he also had the British High Commissioner and Ayra’s sister Savi visiting from Australia. We saw the Mahanayake next morning about the English programme for young monks that Derrick had put together, and that afternoon I went to the university, to meet the old and the new students over the next few days and sort out groups while finalizing the marking for the previous exams.
On the Wednesday night I left and stayed the night at Kuruvita, and went next morning to my site to see that the roof had come up. Then I went to USJP for lectures and then to the British Council to discuss a conference which they had wanted me to organize together with our former trainee Neluka Silva who was now in the English Department at Colombo University.
