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Little Dome in Durban, South Africa
by Krpasundarananda

Krpasundarananda is a Meditation teacher with Ananda Marga and has been a Monk since 1991. His first assignment was in Australia, then he was transferred to New Zealand where he worked for more than eight years teaching meditation at the universities, renovating a meditation center, organizing yoga weekends and setting up (and renovating) a retreat center. Then in 2000 he was transferred to Africa where he started to make newsletters like what is posted below. Though his main job is to teach meditation and help people to realize their spiritual goals, in many cases people don't have the minimum necessities of life, so social service has become important. As his background is engineering and he always had an interest in construction and alternative energy, he got involved with alternative building through an article someone forwarded him about Nader Kalili. In the last few years he has built many domes in different places around the world.

I'm ready for the next project with the Downtown street kids in Durban, South Africa. One of our local members gave us the opportunity to build in his back yard and he provided all the materials needed. We had a little trouble getting the bag material, but finally, a week later than planned we started. This time a small 3m diameter one as our resources limited and time was getting short, now to make things further complicated I couldn't get any reservations for my onward journey and finally had to settle for one week early, leaving only one week..

The site
Simple plan

Now one week would have been enough if we could get full days but also there were obstacles were on our path. It's was not easy to get transportation from Downtown to the site and the boys had to travel two hours to get there and two hours back that left us 5 hour days minus lunch break. In the future I'll make sure that I plan for much more time per project! This was a bit crazy..

Mixing
Laying

As most of us are stubborn in our ways (individually and collectively) and also possess quite a bit of ego this learning processes is not always easy or without painful moments. But if we accept what comes, act sincerely in the most appropriate way, learn and try to always see the bright side of things we find ourselves lighter and lighter, more and more loving and become an inspiration for all.

Is it really strong?
Measuring

The boys really liked to learn, though some prefer to learn one aspect and then keep doing that. It seems that in each place only one or two have the mental makeup to really try to absorb everything from A to Z. Also some good contacts were made and most likely one article will be published in the newspaper.

Didi Ananda Jappasiddha checking the level
Higher, but high enough to finish?

Now did we finish? No... but fortunately I can come back again after 10 days and spend three more days to help complete it. At that time maybe someone from the TV will come and one NGO working with youth and housing will visit. There are already several ideas for bigger projects next year.

The universally acclaimed best spot to hang out.
Final picture

And here you see we managed to complete it. The brothers who were building got more and more inspired when it was nearing completion and in the end we finished in two days instead of the three I thought it would take.

Now in a few days I'll be on my way again... Several workshops, training, presentations and I hope a visit to Calearth where all these domes started.

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