MSIA travel staff are currently in South America, providing MSIA Services (Innerphasings, Polarity Balances & Aura Balances) as well as MSIA events in various locations. Staff member, Angel Gibson, provides this update:
DAY 1 — To Caracas
Still dark outside the taxi cab pulls up to my door and the taxi driver calls out “Hi Church Lady”. I laugh at his remembering me. He picked me up before to deliver me to the airport for our Mexico trip. The sun is rising and I’m now at LAX in the American lounge doing a little last email before meeting up with Paul Kaye to begin our flights to Caracas. I love these day long travel days because we just kick back and enjoy the ride, catching up on each other’s lives, read a little, do SE’s, snooze, watch some TV. It’s all good. Our first flight is late getting into Dallas and we wonder if we’ll actually make the next flight ‘cuz it seems that our plane is taxiing all the way from Dallas to Caracas. Dallas is a huge airport. Ah well, we surrender and sure enough, our connecting flight was also delayed and we make it.
We arrive in Caracas around 10pm and are met by our friend, Santos Gomez. Once we see Santos we know all is well for Santos has this knack of arranging everything seamlessly. We’re whisked, luggage and all, into the car and soon we’re driving up the long mountain road and down into Caracas which is nestled in the mountains in Venezuela. I enjoy Caracas. The people there are vibrant and fun, and their Spanish is fast and staccato. We get to our hotel, check-in, Santos lovingly and efficiently hands us our MSIA Services schedule, water and snacks and it’s almost midnight. With hugs and thanks to Santos we make our way to our rooms to settle in, make sure we can download, unpack and get to bed. Tomorrow is a full day.
DAY 2 — Caracas
Ooooh getting out of bed takes a little prompting this morning, but the lure of going to breakfast at the nearby Marriott hotel gets me moving. Paul meets me downstairs and out we go to find the Marriott. After walking around and asking people we still have not found the Marriott so we head back to our hotel for breakfast. What at first I think is a failure I soon see was a blessing for once back at our hotel I encounter Cesar Mendoza who is busily preparing for Services and has need of immediate guidance. Once again I get the lesson to not be too quick to judge when something doesn’t seem to be going my way–God’s way is sooo good. Soon we see Ani Pacheco and Lana Barreira who are here in Caracas to sit in on Services. This is Lana’s first time; she is the MSIA Rep in Brazil and is excited to be learning Services with us. Our rooms are finally ready and off we start the day. Our day of Services goes very smoothly. Cesar Mendoza along with Virginia and other friends, like Marie and Andreina, greet us in between Services. We do quick catch-ups and there are lots of hugs. We have just enough time after Services to change clothes and then it’s off to the Plaza Mercedes Hotel for the Gratitude open workshop that Paul is facilitating.
Just before the workshop there are two baby blessings. There’s nothing like a baby blessing to bring in such a presence of loving and peace-and we bask in this presence. Then Santos and his wife, Magaly, take the stage to welcome the participants and introduce MSIA, PTS and Paul. Paul is masterful in bringing humor and the teachings together. He has us laughing and thinking. We look at what we have to be grateful for and what evokes genuine gratitude. There is so much that we are blessed with in our lives, and things that didn’t take place that we are soooo grateful didn’t happen. We look at loving it all, and loving that we don’t love it all until we find that with enough altitude we can love it all. Andreina and Dunia help us on sound, Kenny, Elba, German, Ishmael, Alicia and more sweet ones whose names elude me at this hour create the sweetest environment of family for the new participants to be introduced to MSIA.
After this most full evening we top it off with a birthday dinner for me (oh boy!) a special treat-and then head back for a few more emails, and soon to come- bed. Keep your Light coming as we go along. All here deeply appreciate this for themselves and this country.
DAY 3 — Caracas
Today just seemed to zip by. Paul and I had a full schedule with Services from 12noon-7pm (just love the later start in the day). Ani Pacheco and Lana Barreira kept pace with us, sitting in where they could, learning Services.
We took a little refreshment break from 7-8pm, having a bite to eat and visiting with Cesar Mendoza who has been doing a good job of coordinating the Services this trip, and with Magaly, Santos and Chuo Jumarez. Magaly brought this unique tasting goat cheese for us to taste with honey and nuts that tasted heavenly on cookies. OK, so we’re getting a little exotic, but when in Rome………
Then it was time for initiations that went for several hours. How wonderful it is to be a witness in this initiation process. Now we’re finishing off the day with some emails, and perhaps I’ll stay awake for a page or two of a novel, then off to sleep. Tomorrow morning early Paul has a radio interview and we must be in the car by 7:30am. Our MSIA Caracas family sends lots of love and Light to you all.
Hasta manana.
DAY 4 — Caracas
Today started with Santos Gomez picking up Paul and me at 7:30am at our hotel to drive us to the Elba en Onde radio show. We’ve decided that Santos is the most amazing man–a veritable prince–who also happens to know, among many things, all the best roads to get around in Caracas. You don’t know the meaning of the word “traffic jam” until you’ve been to Caracas. Amazing.
Within a few minutes through the back neighborhoods, Santos was parking our car and shepherding us to the radio station that housed Elba En Onde’s morning show. Elba, a beautiful woman, who is also a soap opera actress, singer and film star, greeted us, having just hopped off a motorcycle that she commandeered as she left her neighbor in her car in the midst of a huge traffic jam. Elba is very well known in Caracas and we could just imagine how excited that motorcyclist must have been to give Elba a ride to the station. Elba settled Paul by the microphones as she introduced him and us to the producer and technicians, and then the show began. Santos did a little substitute translating for our friend, Alicia (Caracas’ Insight Coordinator), who was working her way through the traffic chaos. Alicia finally arrived and slid into her seat next to Paul. For 2 hours, Elba masterfully wove in sections with talking to Paul, commercials, music and taking calls from her audience. Paul held his own with aplomb. He told Elba and her audience that traffic is a perfect metaphor for life and a great segue into relationships. you need acceptance, patience and cooperation with traffic, life and relationships, and you certainly can’t control any of those. At one point Paul seem to delight and provoke the radio audience by talking about what he perceived men like and women like. If my memory holds, Paul said “Men want a woman to give them sex, to feed them and to respect them. Women want to be admired, protected and listened to by a man.” We heard later that throughout the day wherever Elba went her fans who listened to this morning’s show were still talking about Paul’s take on what men and women like. Paul’s bottom line was having a “great attitude” or “Gratitude” no matter what was happening. So yes, the morning was delightful and we celebrated the fun interview by having breakfast at an outdoor cafe, Ole, owned by Insight’s own Jacques Girou.
Santos returned Paul and me to the hotel in time to hug Cesar, our Services coordinator, and Virginia who was assisting him, and start our day of Services which seemed to fly by and was crowned by 2 ordinations this evening and a lovely dinner with Santos, Magaly, Chuo and Luigi. Paul and I each got a special treat too–a box of wonderful Kakao Chocolates. May you some day have the divine pleasure of seeing and tasting one of these chocolates which are truly works of art and love. Ah, as our last night in Caracas comes to an end, we are packing. Tomorrow we meet up with Vincent, Lesley and Celia who have been traveling today from Los Angeles to Bogota. Light to all of our travels, and many many thanks to all of our beautiful Caracas family who assisted us in many ways during our visit here.
Click here to read Days 5 through 8.
Click here to read Days 9 through 12 with Angel Gibson.
Click here to read Days 13 through 16 with Angel Gibson.
