Arumugaswami took the silpis to our annual farm fair yesterday. They encountered Congressman Neil Abercrombie, who is campaigning for governor. He presently represents Hawaii’s 1st district in Washington and was instrumental, along with other congressional representatives, in getting changes made to the US Religious Worker Visa Program that allowed the silpis to come to Kauai under the R-1 visa to work on the temple. He was happy to meet the group, asked how to say “hello” in their language and then greeted each with “Vanakkam.”