It is always a strange feeling when I return home from a trip abroad. For the first few days I feel as though I am in a daze and wonder if I actually went on the trip at all. Then the reality of what took place starts to settle in and I get flashes of what I have experienced. The beauty of traveling is that I learn so much and expand my horizons. It gives me priceless life experiences that stay with me for the rest of my life. Being able to share these journeys with friends, peers and the world at large is a major motivation behind what we do at Direct Current Media.

We have met so many people who opened their hearts and minds to what we are doing and supported us completely. It is a lot to ask of people who we have just met to allow us to take an intimate look into their lives. Everywhere we have traveled people have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcomed and help us create a show that would reflect their work to the world. It is a privilege and a blessing to connect with them!

Venezuela was no exception, it's a beautiful part of the world, and we connected with a lot of passionate, friendly and intelligent people. It's a place where art and politics merge to create an environment that pushes boundaries, raises relevant issues and presents opportunities for real change. Whether someone is a Chavez supporter or down with the opposition, it's a lively place where political dialogue and people’s democratic rights are encouraged.

Venezuelans are encouraged and supported by the government to become literate, learn their rights, understand the constitution and get engaged in the political process. These types of programs empower the people beyond any political party or leader. Power to the people is easy to say but quite difficult to accomplish. While in Venezuela, we felt that this was at least part of the process.

To return home and hear Christian evangelist, Pat Robertson, calling for the assasination of Hugo Chavez and Donald Rumsfield calling Chavez a "threat to democracy" was bizarre. Despite Pat Robertson's claims, we saw no signs of communism in Venezuela, we saw no signs of muslim extremism, in fact about 95% of the country is Catholic. Chavez is not a dictator, he is a democratically elected leader, who still enjoys a majority approval rating among Venezuelan's.

While all this is putting Venezuela in the news, why wasn’t there any coverage on the World Festival of Students and Youth recently hosted in Venezuela? There were 17, 000 students from around the world gathered under the banner of peace and solidarity to struggle against war and imperialism. We're glad we can share this event with you and our experience of Venezuela and it's people. We hope it can contribute to inform you as you decide for yourself what to think of Hugo Chavez and the people who are living life day to day in Venezuela.

As my man K'naan says "We live in a decided world, we want CHANGE despite it"

Sol