Where Energy Flows

My children - My sweet children -They are terrors without doubt
The crazy ones that live with me - My hair? – I pull it out
It’s hard - It’s easy - I don’t know - They drive me crazy
All I want is sleep – yet I am sure I’m not too lazy

Oh exhaustion - I’m so tired - I’m so grouchy - I ‘m a mess
Something needs to change right now – there’s way, way too much stress
So I shall shift the energy - Creating what I focus on
I can get this right – I will - My mad, sad thoughts will all be gone

Balance – Beginners Mind – Patience – Good Thought Thinking
They’re only little once - They are a joy - I am not sinking
Wait – Cancel – Correct – I’m buoyant with so much love
That always surrounds me - From below and from above

Be gentle with myself - Who I am right now’s enough
Life is really good to me – It’s really not so tough
And if society pulls me down - I notice it – without a frown
As perfect parents don’t exist

I go outside – I make a list
Of all the good that’s in my life
And I let go of all the strife
Because – after all, Life is way too short - so why not have a ball.

 © Copyright Elise Rebmann, 2007. All rights reserved.

by Guest Author Oi Servais

My Banana Tree and Lillianne’s Pink Pommelo Tree

I like to grow fruit trees, so the first thing I did when I moved into the house in Pointe Noire was to plant a banana tree.  Our house overlooks the ocean so there is a limit to what we can plant. I know that we will be in that house only for 4 years, so I am not too sure if we would ever have  a chance to eat the bananas from that tree or not. But I planted it anyway. I also planted other fruit trees and we got to harvest the passion fruit and sugarcane right away. The banana tree grew very slowly because it got hit constantly by the salty breeze from the sea, but it grew nevertheless and I never felt the need to transplant it somewhere else.

The last day of my stay in Pointe Noire after I packed the house completely and said good bye to everyone, I went for a walk in the garden to say good bye to my garden. And to my surprise, I saw the first banana bunches of this garden. I knew that it was not for me. It will still need to stay on the tree for at least a few more weeks before it can be eaten and I will not cut it even though the gardener told me that he can cut it the next day so I can take it to Brazzaville. Better leave it for the next occupant of the house as a welcome gift from the garden, I told the gardener.

Then we moved to Brazzaville, the capital city of the republic of Congo on the bank of the mighty Congo river. I can grow anything I want here. I am not limited by the proximity of the sea like in Pointe Noire. Our house search in this city is quite an ordeal (read Looking for Home). I almost had a nervous breakdown and needed the help of the company psychiatric emergency hotline when we lost one hard-to-find-decent-house to someone else because we were too late in responding with a written contract.

When I visited my friend Lillianne at her house in Brazzaville, the first thing I saw walking in through the gate was a big pommelo tree overflowing with plump, heavy fruit. The huge pomelos hanging from each branch are so abundant and heavy that they need to use sturdy wooden poles to support each branch. Lillianne offered me some pommelos from the tree and I swear I ‘d never had any pommelo as sweet and juicy with no trace of bitterness like most pink pommelo has.

But this particular pommelo in front of Lillianne’s house is a special tree. She told me that the first time it gave fruit, there were only three pommelos. She picked all three and brought them into the kitchen.  After she cut them and tried to eat them she found out that she picked them too early and that all were dry, hard and pale like ones we usually see from the market.

So she took all the fruit back outside and told the tree that she was sorry that she didn’t know not to pick the fruit too early and also to not take them all at the same time.  With respect, she offered the fruit back to the tree by burying it in the earth under the tree and also asked the tree to let her know when can she pick the fruit and next time she will respectfully follow the indication.

Within 6 months the pommelo tree produced countless fruit on each branch. Not only were the fruit perfect and juicy, but also the ones that were ready to be picked always hang down to eye-level, and ones that are not ready always stay a little higher than adult reach. So she always knows which ones she can pick. I love looking and greeting the old pink pommelo tree in front of Lillianne’s house each time I go see her.

Now it looks like with Lillianne’s help, I am going to get a newly built house across the street from my husband’s office which miraculously has just become available. Timing is everything and I hope my husband will react quickly to do all the paper work to get it. One thing that makes me feel almost sure that this will be our house is that when I walked to the front yard, I saw two mature banana trees overflowing with banana in full bloom. Somehow I wonder if this can be classified as the saying, ‘ What’s goes around comes around’.

© Copyright Oi Servais, 2007. All rights reserved.

A Guest Post of behalf of Oi Servais. 

Moving to live in Africa brings me closer to Europe. After my husband accepted the job assignment to work in the Republic of Congo, I have been travelling back and forth between Pointe noire/Republic of Congo and Geneva/Switzerland, where my children go to boarding school.

I like Geneva airport. To me, it is the cleanest and the least complicated airport in Europe. I feel safer there than in any other airports I ever gone to. But this is about to change as the last time I travelled to Geneva, my purse got stolen in my favorite airport! A young lady followed me from the passenger exit as I pushed the trolley loaded with 3 big heavy suitcases and a small purse containing all my IDs and Swiss money.

The little purse was tucked in the small compartment of the trolley and parked next to me in front of AVIS counter car rental. While I was busy with all the documents and signing the rental contract with AVIS, the young girl snatched my purse and started to walk away. The AVIS clerk behind the counter saw this and asked me if I came with someone because he thought the young girl could be my daughter taking my bag to go buy something. I told him I was traveling alone.

I barely finished my sentence when the clerk jumped across the counter with an agility of an Olympic athlete and sprinted after the young girl who had my purse in her hand. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The clerk snatched the purse back and ran back to the AVIS counter and returned it me. The security camera has registered all this happening and many people came to congratulate me, saying that I was lucky to have my purse snatched in front of some one who reacted rather quickly. Just a year ago, Roger Moore, the James Bond actor had his briefcase stolen in this very spot but never got it back. So I was luckier than James Bond!

I will never forget this incident; that something like this can happen in the heart of the civilized Europe. I believed that something like this happens only in Africa. During my first two years in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, I purchased a CD from my Interior Alignment™ friend from Switzerland. It is a meditation CD in both French and English.  Very easy to use, it is guided meditation calling on awareness to meet with guardian angels. I started using the CD with a group of expat ladies in town and everyone really enjoyed it. So we set up a session once a week to do the meditation in the French version.

Even when I traveled away from Pointe Noire, the group still met at my house to do meditation using the CD every week. I learned later that all the houses around my area have been robbed several times during my stay in Pointe Noire because the area is ‘up and coming’, and there is a lot of construction going on along my street. I never experienced any robbery at my house; to the contrary I never felt insecure in that house at all. Even after I left, the family who took over the house told us that they feel happy and secure the moment they enter the house, no matter how much noise and the brouhaha going on outside.

Now I am in Brazzaville and my new home is going to be in a somewhat vulnerable area. Even though it is located in the safe zone of the city, it is within proximity of the port, where petty theft abounds. I even experienced a near hit twice while shopping in the area. But my chauffeur was able to ward off the danger at the very last moment.

I feel so blessed to be in the protection of the guardian angels. It is not an accident each time and anywhere in the world I feel myself being protected by an invisible force beyond our mundane realm. Sometimes the angel came to protect me in the form of a human being like the clerk at the car rental counter or my chauffeur in Brazzaville. But sometimes, the angel gives the protection as energy radiation telling me to avoid association with certain people, groups of people or certain places, and to go to see certain people or groups of people or visit certain places. I always have some idea why I show up at certain place at a certain time to meet someone. There is always the reason why one is where one ends up at the moment.

I have some idea why I am still in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo. But sometimes I wish I could communicate in a more linear way with my guardian angels. As the challenges of living in this African city accumulate, I wish I could ask my angel when I will be done with this place. But I know the answer already. I should not even ask. You will be ready when you are ready my dear. After you did what you come here to do or learn what you come here to learn or suffer what you come here to suffer. After it all said and done, you can go on.

© Copyright Oi Servais, 2007. All rights reserved.

As Neshi wrote, our time together at Asilomar was truly a joy.  For me, it was a time to savor what I think is the best part of Interior Alignment™ - our community!  When even just a few of us are together it feels like time stops and the space between us is filled with a warmth that is beyond description.

The best way for me to share the essence of the experience is through photographs.  You are welcome to visit my photo gallery to see some of the images of our first Interior Alignment™  Conference, 2007.

 Enjoy!

Love, Deb

Posted by Deborah on behalf of Guest Author Oi Servais 

What do Interior Alignment™ Practitioners (or Teachers) do when they need to find a new home? What are their observations coming from the unique persepctives of Interior Alignment™? (Feng Shui, Space Clearing and Healthy Homes)  What can they apply from their training to find a place to live?

Here is a unique opportunity to find out!  Follow this series as MTIA Oi Servais (who is also a California Real Estate Agent) looks for a place to live under very challenging circumstances – in Brazzaville, Congo.     — Deborah, IA Blog Administrator.

Oi here…

I wish some of my fellows northern California Realtors could immigrate to Brazzaville. But who will come with me to the city classified by BBC in 2003 as the worst city in the world to live, coming in even behind Bagdad. So who wants to come and help me here?

I am sitting in the lobby of hotel Meridienne, one of the most chic, more decent and expats-oriented hotel in town, waiting for my ‘courtier’ (local french word for real estate agent) to show up.

“9:00 a.m. at Hotel Meriedienne, Madame,” I remember very well the courtier Jean Claude told me on the phone yesterday. “I will meet you at hotel Meridienne and we will go visit 3-4 houses that will work for you, in your price range. And you will make your choice.”

It’s already 9:45 a.m. and the courtier Jean Claude is still nowhere to be found. The savvy and experienced local french-congolese born professional who introduced me to Jean Claude warned me beforehand that Congolese time is not European time. You need to call them if they come late. In their language yesterday and tomorrow is the same word. That should give you enough of a hint about Congolese sense of time. So finally I decided to give him a call. When Jean Claude picked up the phone he was in high spirits.

“Oh Madame you are at the Meridienne already. I will come right away with a taxi and when I arrive at the hotel you will pay for my taxi.”

Here again is another real estate practice in this city. You, the client, provide transportation to go see the houses. I know that for sure. But I never heard of a client, waiting to meet the real estate agent for the first time, being expected to provide transportation for the agent from his home to come to meet you. It seems too absurd to be true by any stretch of imagination. So I called my savvy french-congolese contact who told me beforehand not to pay anything until I find the house that will work for me. Starting with paying for the taxi, you might end up having to pay for transportation to pick up his children from school and send them home too, (and how many children?) because he needs to work with you and therefore has no time to pick them up.

Ok, it was raining hard and the taxi fare was only 700 CFA (less than 2 dollars.) I feel the urge to pay for it but I know only too well that I should not. I remembered my experience in the lovely beach / petroleum town of Pointe Noire where I spent the last 4 years in a modern house overlooking the ocean. Of course the maid and the cook came with the house. The last day before I left, as I tipped them, I still remember how they looked so sad. Not any Hollywood professional actor could do better in expressing how sad they were to see Madame go. Their sadness is aiming at a bigger tip for the last time of course. What will happen to us when Madame leave? Will we be taken care of as well as when Madame were here? (which was only 4 years.)

But as soon as the new ‘Patron and Madame’ arrive they will ask for payment of this and that service they rendered that the previous occupants of the house did not settle with them yet. They will say the previous Madame still owed us so much and the new occupant needs to pay. That experience was still fresh with me so there is no way I am going to pay two dollars for this guy’s taxi. So I have him talk with my french-congolese friend, who is his long time client. I hear a loud scolding from the phone and Jean Claude politely repeats, yes Madame, Ok Madame, and then it was settled. He went outside and paid the taxi out of his own pocket — as it should be.

That was one thing settled. Now about showing me the houses. He started to explain that I need to pay the visiting fee of 10,000 CFA (about 20 dollars per house) for each house he shows me. This fee is not bad for the city where average household salary is between $100-200. The guy can ride along in his client’s car and knock on doors to show houses, spending one week-end showing 10 houses and he can already earn a month’s salary. No need for keys because every house always has one or two guards to open and close the gate. This is common practice and the guard also comes with the house.

Again this is not correct, and I say to him that I will pay nothing until he shows me the right house that I decide to rent. When that happens and after I receive a successful rental agreement and move into the house, he will then get his service fee equal one month rent or half a month rent depending on the amount of the rent. We discuss this for a long time and I again need the help of my french-congolese friend, his client, to talk with him on the phone. After this is settled, we finally get on the car and take off from the hotel to look for houses.

Now what about the area? In my rather high price range the guy shows me the area that is considered decent by local standard. In this area the car wades through murky water with garbage floating, on the unpaved tracks they call streets. I have never seen this amount of garbage everywhere along the city street like this before. Even though someone like me, who has already experienced Africa town for 4 years in Pointe Noire, plus two year in Kinshasa before, should have built enough shock absorbing immunity to garbage. I still cannot find a house that I can drive to on a normal road without big potholes on the road or a garbage pile that the car needs to cross. So I can only concentrate on the house, not the street that leads to the house. Not the neigbourhood either, because there are less than 1000 expats in the expansive city of Brazzaville and I can not expect to live in an area where all neighbours are expats. After all we are in Brazzaville and all these California real estate rules will not apply.

There is no official city garbage collector so each household manages their own way to get rid of waste. Most of the time they just pay a human push cart to haul their waste away and dispose of it in a dump — somewhere far that they don’t want to know about. For big places like an office or hotel, there are private truck garbage collectors that manage the waste. Of course it is a private enterprise and no one knows what they are doing with the trash. Each time I come back to Brazzaville from my long vacation at home in the well manicured and well organised country-club life style in Northern California, where it is considered a crime if our assorted coloured-coded waste and recycle bins are left in front of the house longer than one day after the pick-up time, I cannot help but wonder if this is really the same world.

Anyway, it has been a month now that I have worked with 3 well introduced ‘courtier’ in Brazzaville. I still not yet found any decent house yet. Most of what I see so far are either dilapidated beyond fixer-upper or sweat equity as we like to say back home. This is a real fixer-upper and will take quite an effort to make habitable.The only thing I should do now is just to network among the diminishing community of expats to see if someone will leave town so I can inherit their home. That, I believe, is the only way to get something habitable.

So today, I decided, will be the last day I will go out with the ‘coutier’. As Jean Claude got into the car, I asked, “Do you have anything in Mpila near the President palace?” Hopefully the road might be in better condition and it is considered a safe area in town.

“Yes , we have one house there you can take a look at. But first, I have to use your cell phone to call for the key to the house. My phone has no credit.”

And off course there it goes, the real estate practice in Brazzaville/Congo.

© Copyright Oi Servais, 2007. All rights reserved.