These last few days the monastery has had the help of Pradeep, a man from Fiji who lives on Kauai and has a excavation business. Pradeep says he loves to pick our Jack fruit and make curries for his family.
He's been helping to clear large stones and tree stumps that are blocking the soon-to-be fence line. Kauai University has graciously offered to let us push all our debris onto their property, saving us a lot in disposal.

The Ganapati Kulam Media Studio renovation is in full swing now and simultaneously the long-planned installation of solar panels is also gearing up.

Several teams are at work on the renovation of the monastery publications building. One is at work doing the all-important demolition. Another is working on design for the floors and walls. A third is engineering the drawings, permits, budgets and work flow (critical path planning). A fourth is busy assembling the ceiling. It is not to be an ordinary ceiling. No. This ceiling is made entirely of Kauai woods (mostly camphor and Rainbow Eucalyptus), milled at the monastery and shaped and planed by our team of thondars. Now they are doing the final touches, sanding, assembling the units and varnishing.

The ceiling is made of eighteen four-foot-square panels. Inset in them are three-foot panels of Indian tribal art and kolams. The colors are soft, since these panels will be the reflective surfaces that bathe the room in indirect light.

The slideshow shows the team at work today and four of the kolam art panels.

The big news of this phase was the removal of the old office trailer where Acharya Arumuganathaswmi and Brahmanathaswami have been living and working in for years. It felt like a mini-hurricane had come and opened up a new space! Stay tuned as for a major transformation!

Here are more photos from Bangalore showing recent work on Iraivan's Nandi Mandapam, and temple entrance

Here our team assembles for the day, right after the morning Ganapati Kulam meeting. Left to right: Adi Srikantha, Shailesh Trivedi, Deva Rajan, Jnanideva Cevvel, Vayudeva Varadan and Nigel Siva. 

The renovation of the Ganapati Kulam media lab is moving forward rapidly with the big team of sevaks who have come to join us on task force. Adi Srikantha has been with us for several months now. He was recently joined by Shailesh Trivedi from Southern California. Next Vayudeva and Nigel Sivam flew in from Maryland; Jnanideva from Edmonton, Canada and Deva Rajan arrived a few days ago from California. Helping on the island is Durvasa Alahan.

This morning at our Ganapati Kulam meeting we had a team of 12 including the monks! The first phase, demolition has been moving forward much faster than we anticipated and we are already ahead of schedule!

Arumuganathaswami is working hard to create a trailer hitch for the kulam's old trailer that is getting moved, as the renovated Media studio will no longer need it. The new entrance to the building will be where it is currently attached to.