On January 28th, on his way to Jaffna, Bodhinatha stopped in Kilinochchi and laid the first stone for a new Sivapoomi Special Needs School. This will be the second school for children with disabilities run by the Sivapoomi Trust. The first one is located in Jaffna and serves approximately 200 students. Sri Ganeshanantha Swami from the Mahadeva Ashram in Kilinochchi also graced this occasion with his presence. This school will serve the much needed war-torn Vanni region.

We recently witnessed several days of very strong wind blowing in from the south. The final night of it almost felt like hurricane speeds and brought down a few small trees and countless branches and leaves. A paper bark tree, which despite its name is actually quite heavy, fell on one of our Big Max structures. The monks use these small sheds for a variety of purposes and the one that was hit was our nail, screw and bolt supply. This made for a somewhat tedious clean up, as you can imagine. Monks from the Siddhidatta Kulam then removed the tree, cutting it up to be chipped and eventually used in the vegetable garden.

Recently, the monks finished the roof of Lord Ganesha's shrine in the vegetable garden. The structure has been in the works for some time and thanks to efforts of the Siddhidatta Kulam and particularly Nirvani Adinatha, it is finally complete, with the exception of the roof's ridge piece. The roof sheeting is done in copper, making for a very beautiful finish.