Life on Ten
Dr. Vanessa Walker and Angela Trapp discuss how to live your life to your fullest and various issues that may get in the way of living a Life on Ten.
Life on Ten
You are not your job: Finding purpose through serving others
The question "What do you do?" has become America's default conversation starter, but guest Lorna Owens believes we're asking the wrong question. "You are not your job," she states emphatically during this profound conversation. As a nurse, midwife, attorney, entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian, Lorna defies easy categorization – and that's precisely her point. Join Vanessa and Angela on this fascinating discussion about finding what matters in your life on 10!
Hello and welcome to Life on 10. Hello, friends and family, and all of our wonderful friends that are listening to us in different countries. I'm so excited. I'm still excited about that.
Speaker 2:I love how you're still just so stoked about the international, our international contingent. Hello, all three of you. Thank you for continuing to listen.
Speaker 1:We are just so grateful and I'm, and I'm, I'm focusing on the positive here. And why do I need to focus on the positive? Yes, you know so good to focus on the positive. Yes, you know it's so good to focus on the positive it is.
Speaker 2:That's why yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and because I need to to keep my sanity. So, anyway, with that said, we are truly, truly happy that you are with us this evening, and I am, of course, angela, and I have with me my Vanessa, lovely co-host. Vanessa, welcome everyone. My Vanessa, lovely co-host. Vanessa, welcome everyone. I am super excited about our guest today. Vanessa, our guest is a superstar.
Speaker 2:I am so stoked too, this is gonna be the best day the best day ever.
Speaker 1:um so, ladies and gentlemen, um, I would like to introduce our guest, lorna Owens. And Lorna, I do not even know how to describe you Like you're bigger than life.
Speaker 2:She's a renaissance woman. She's a renaissance woman. I mean, look at all the amazing things she's done. You guys have to enumerate them, because I want our listeners to understand how amazing this woman is.
Speaker 1:Well, lorna, yeah, renaissance is a word. I think that definitely begins the description. She's done so much Nurse, attorney, entrepreneur, author, author. Wow, I met Lorna more than 26 years ago at our church, unity on the Bay, where James, my husband, was the minister and Lorna, you remember this. I remember you started this group. She started this group this was over 26 years ago and she called it and the women gather Ooh, let's start there. Lorna, my question to you is that group still vibrant? Is it still going on?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I'm glad that I'm on with you guys. This is Jack Also. Yes, yes, yes, this group is still going on. As a matter of fact, we just had one in April here in the land. It was amazing, but here's the deal, angela, and you prophesied this because that's what it had to be.
Speaker 1:Vanessa didn't know I was a prophet. Yes, I'm a prophet. Well, you are pretty awesome too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the next one is going to be in Ghana, may 9th of next year. Ghana, you all have to come. Yes, oh, my gosh, it's going to be. And the women gather Africa, to be held in Ghana.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. You're giving me enough time.
Speaker 3:Let's go back to the first one. I remember I was in Coconut Grove at the Methodist Church. I couldn't afford a other venue. We worked out a thing because the church owed me some money for work I'd done as a lawyer no big deal and so we got the church and Dr Quachy Clement he's now a professor with a PhD. He went to one of these fabulous schools that you understand tech, and I remember he brought things in and boost the sound, and so we have this beautiful sound in the church and I invited maybe seven or so people, thinking three will say yes. Everybody said yes. So we had this huge dance.
Speaker 3:And I don't remember Angela Philip Michael Thomas from my advisors there. He's still a good friend. But here's what I never forget it's the morning after you called me very, very early. I don't even remember this and you said Lorna, I just saw this, it's going to be huge. It's this, this is going to be huge. You have no idea. I never say this to anybody before, but this is going to be huge. And every year when I did it and it was huge I remembered it. So from the day you told me, at least once a year, I remember that.
Speaker 1:I remember saying that, lorna, I just knew what I felt.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I bet you could just feel the energy.
Speaker 1:You can feel it, Tell the audience a little bit about what it is Usually. What does it look like? And the women gather. I love that.
Speaker 3:And the women get the literary jazz brunch at the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove and we would only have women, authors and their best-selling authors, and they came from everywhere and we had about 500 women. But the thing about it is it was our day to be and just feel fabulous. So the energy of the room was there were okay. So, let's say, it ran $150, $120 per ticket and so that's not cheap, even back then. But the beauty of it is there were women who came to the Ritz-Carlton, who kind of saved to come, and they were just glad to be there, and there were those who could have bought the whole Ritz-Carlton Fabulous mix of people.
Speaker 3:But the way we did it was we didn't have vendors, we just had books and books and and makeup, and the makeup we had would be the big brands like eastlake, iran, bobby brown, because we wanted women to look fabulous and they would come and they would make up as many women as they could. Oh, I love that, yeah. So we had this marketplace called the Marketplace, and so the only thing in there would be makeup, books and books and my stuff, whatever my company would, and maybe bags, because every woman need a bag. That's it. That's it. But when you inside the ritz-carlton even though it's ritz-carlton and everything is nice we designed our own stage and our partner in that was west elm. So every year we would tell west elm what the theme would be. I had nothing to do with it. I would arrive at the ritz-carlton and my stage was already beautiful, nice uh.
Speaker 3:We also had a lot of flowers. So if one year the flowers was orchids, you'd have maybe like 50 orchid plants all over. Wow, and remember this we have people like the great international, best performer, best artist, nicole Henry. Yes, the year Nicole Henry was that person. It was always jazz and about. Say we started at 11 o'clock or whatever. Like a few minutes before that time you'd hear Nicole in the room singing to an empty room and exactly at 11 o'clock the doors would swing open and professional women poured in. I remember one year this doctor she's a cardiologist she ran in screaming and I'm like why are you screaming? She's like I don't know.
Speaker 2:Just so it filled with joy, right.
Speaker 3:But it was one of those things you laugh, you cry. I remember when, uh, he was just not that into you. Uh, she was there. Oh my god, we had the best of the best and yeah, yeah, you have done some fabulous amazing things, lorna, um, so there's so much to unpack here.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you, based on something Vanessa said to me earlier. I kind of would love to hear your perspective on this, and I think it'll tie into all the other things that you have gifted this earth with. So Vanessa was sharing with me today that well, you say it, vanessa it's your husband. It's my husband, but you know I love him dearly too.
Speaker 2:So we were Robert, hopefully. Hopefully, our listeners have listened to us long enough to know that Robert is a stay-at-home dad and he is a. He chose to be a stay-at-home dad. It wasn't a, it wasn't thrust upon him. Um, you know, unwillingly, it was a conscious decision that we made, that we wanted a parent to stay home and he was the one that made the most sense. And so, um, he has been a stay at home dad now, a dad now for 11 years, our daughter's 11, it'll almost be 12 years now and he loves it Like it's, it's what he's, he's, he loves it, he's great at it.
Speaker 2:Um, and people will ask him when we go out, you know, and they'll say, oh, you know, hi, what do you do for a living? And he just hates that question because immediately, especially when he says, oh, I'm a stay at home dad, um, it's almost like they're like oh, or they think like, oh, yeah, you couldn't get a job, you're unemployed, or something like that. So he, he automatically has that kind of, a lot of times, a negative reaction. Very rarely is it like that is the coolest thing ever. Sometimes it is Sometimes you'll, you'll, I'll meet a guy that goes man, how do I get that job, you know, of course, cause they all think it's easy, right?
Speaker 2:How do I just sit at home and do nothing all day, like whatever, anyway? So he just he commented to me about how much he hates that question. He's like what I choose to do to make money, if I were to do that, he's like does not define me, and I hate how people ask me what do I do for a living? He's like I live for a living. That's what I do for a living. I live for a living. So somebody like yourself who does so many wonderful things but I feel like all of those wonderful things still don't define you, how do you respond to that question when they ask you that?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, you know, robert, let me I hate that question as well. I remember I was at a like a cocktail party or so, and this gentleman came up to me and he introduced himself and I don't remember what his last name was, but he said something like Robert attorney. So I thought that was his last name because I knew being a nurse. I knew a woman in Jamaica and her surname was Nurse. That was her surname, so I assumed that was his last name. And then somehow in the conversation he asked me like you know, what do you do?
Speaker 1:Or he said something and I said attorney's, not your last name. He says no, that's not who I am.
Speaker 2:So that's how he introduced himself, Robert attorney.
Speaker 3:Interesting. And so I said well, lorna Owens attorney. So yes, and we have a way I'm so glad you asked so I come back from Ghana. A way I'm so glad you asked so I come back from Ghana. And in Ghana people really don't ask you what you do. They ask you how are you and they wait for the answer. So it's a richer texture of a conversation because now I don't have to pull out my resume. I don't care what I do. You know, what I do is save the lives of moms and babies around the world. That's kind of what I do. I love it. And I remember saying to somebody recently look, I could just go around the world and be a mom. I really I've never cared what I did world and be a bomb.
Speaker 3:I really I've never cared what I did, it was more how I could serve. That's wired in my DNA. So yes, I'm a nurse, I'm a midwife, I have books. I actually have two new books coming out now. I have, you know, nancy Grace and stuff like that. And sometimes when I hear people read off my resume from States, I'm like who are they talking?
Speaker 3:about and I'm like oh, oh it's me, because I really don't care I moved from Miami to a small town called Atlanta it's an hour or so from Orlando and when Prusa finally started finding out who I was because I kind of just arrived in town and you know I'm just me and she said are you in the witness protection program or something I'm like not yet, you know, because I don't, because I don't care, and I asked folks, you are not your job, please, you're not your job. You know there has to be more to the conversation. So I know people do it. I think it's a Western thing, but more so it's an American thing. By the time you're in the air and in Europe, you know people kind of don't ask you what you do. They talk about intellectual things. So maybe that's something we can work on next year as Americans, that and many other things.
Speaker 3:So maybe that's something, we maybe that's something we can work on next year as Americans Um that and the many other things that are on the list.
Speaker 1:I love what you said, though, that what you do does not like it doesn't define you and you're not looking at it. Sounds like what I'm hearing is you're not looking at titles or you know how many letters are behind your name and you're not undertaking all of these wonderful things that you've done for prestige um, you know and acknowledgements, to say that is a concept that I don't feel or sense, that most Americans, um understand or or it resonates with them. I don't hear people saying, hmm, let me choose my major based on how many people I can serve I more so hear people talk about how much money can I make. How much money can I make? I also coach, and I coach people from all over the world, and I will tell you this the clients that I have that are from other countries seem to carry that more. It's about how can I show up, who can I help in the world? Americans always about money.
Speaker 1:I coach people who are so burned out, like they're, like they have one finger hanging on the, you know, just hanging onto the ledge with one little pinky, and it's like no, no, no, no, no. I can't, I can't, I can't reassess here, because why can't you? You're telling me you're burned out. You're telling me you're, you're about to just, you know, collapse. Well, yeah, but you know how much money I make? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But I tell you, though we it is. It's absolutely amazing. And with with the internet and with social media, it has gotten worse. Let me just say that, whatever the professor at Yale I forgot she's taught, she teached this course called the Science of Wellbeing, whatever her name is, and I took that course. And the studies show that Money provides happiness up to $60,000. After that it doesn't. It doesn't Because it kind of pays the basic bills. You have a roof over your head. So, yeah, up to $60,000. If you're making $35,000, you will attain some degree of happiness if you got to $60,000. But after that, no, it doesn't. And social media I don't understand what's happening to people, even very educated, well-accomplished folks. There's something in the water that says more, more, more, me, me, me, me. And so I have two examples Recently I was in Ghana and there were some Americans, professors, law professors, and they came and I kind of helped a little bit and they had this fabulous, that's true, a fabulous.
Speaker 3:They set up this fabulous seminar for this high end in a very niche area of law. Big deal, niche area of law, big deal. Except I don't know how they got it into their head to do this. They, for some interesting reason, decided to stay up 36 hours without sleeping and they were eating very little. So at noon, around little past noon, the organizer, who paid thousands of dollars to put together this very elite thing, passed out on stage. Wow, yes, I was going to the after party when I got. I'm at the hotel, I'm pulling in with my driver, about to get out where you know. My driver said Dr O, is it trying to reach you? It's somebody so-and-so passed out on stage. And yeah, yeah. So the just go, go go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how do you? Who? How do you do that 36 hours without sleep? And and one, the one who passed out was really not eating. So that was horrible. I'm like you're trying to kill yourself. When I came back and looked on linkedin, it was a whole different conversation how fabulous it was, it was and all the pretty pictures before the past and I was thinking but I was there.
Speaker 3:I saw reality it didn't go like that, you know. So you wonder where we are in our consciousness and where we are as a people, why we need that. A few examples is that I come back from. I have problems when I come back from Africa because a friend of mine who's lived there she's a white person who's lived. I say that because it gives some context she has a PhD, lived in Tanzania, did a lot of work there, and she said welcome back, my sister, re-enter slowly. It's like a of work there. And she said welcome back, my sister, re-enter slowly. It's like a re-entry, take it slow.
Speaker 3:So I go out with one of my best friends and we live an hour from Orlando. We take the train, two of us take the train down. She lives in that area and so we get there by train. We got off at the wrong station, but it was no big deal, so we walked a little bit. We get in the restaurant and I don't even know. We said hello, she started ordering the wines. It's always her responsibility to order the wines because it's she's a wine sommelier for fun. But then she never stopped. I don't even think she said how are you? She was ordering everybody's food and we're like no, no, no, I don't eat meat. No, don't you know that sort of thing. And then she started talking about herself and I don't know what happened. I just it sounded like you'd left me in an echo chamber with everybody's. I thought I was going to die. I thought my brain it triggered my vomit center.
Speaker 3:So I eventually said to her nicely, you know I'm very disappointed, you didn't ask me even how my trip went. Well, that was the last I heard of her. She wrote me and she cussed me out and that was like a month ago, because for once in the five years that we've all been together, I said ask her to give somebody else the floor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:No, it's, it's that's definitely.
Speaker 2:Um, it is obviously an American problem that we're I mean I think people like that are all over the world right, we're just really good at it.
Speaker 2:Here we are highly highly successful at making sure that we are the center of attention, and Americans are very American centric. We see everything through the lens that when the way we do things is the best way and everybody should be doing it more like us, and then when, in reality, every country and every people have a unique way or something to offer that we can learn so much from that's why travel is so important.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you travel not as an American, but just be. Just go to the people's country.
Speaker 1:Just be. It's like what you were sharing on our last podcast when you went on the cruise. And I have friends that say, oh, you know, and it's interesting because they're white, and they said, oh, we don't like to go out of the country, we don't like to, you know travel like that and I'm curious like what is that? And and you don't know what you're missing, like you have no idea, because then your worldview is very, very limited, I agree.
Speaker 2:I mean I don't. I don't know if it's um uh, you know, I know cause.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't, I don't know if it's you know, I know because I know lots of people of every different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just saying I was, I'm saying I don't know. So that's me, that's me.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that was there. Was that racist? I don't know. You know what it was. It was that they are in a position that they could travel Like they have the resources.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're choosing not to.
Speaker 1:And they're choosing not to travel, and travel is so important to me. Yeah, like if I had your resources.
Speaker 2:I would be gone 365, you know. I get it.
Speaker 1:I think that's what, that's what.
Speaker 2:I just did in my brain and Robert and I do that on our planning, like for retirement our plan, like the first thing we were going to do is like we're going to go on a cruise around the world the day we retire because we just love to travel. Now I will say I also do not love. I don't like love traveling and being in, like I'm not, you're not going to. I'm not going to go to Africa and like go on a safari in a tent, that's never going to happen.
Speaker 1:I will never do that. Don't be saying that. Don't be saying that. Okay, you're going to have to tell me about a bougie tent because I am so. First, of, all, I'm not going on a safari. I don't know what you're doing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:Okay, wait, hold up, we have so much, go ahead, y'all stop talking about me, because I'm going. Nobody, I hope nobody, nobody, nobody knows in my group. I am going and you're gonna stand at the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wonderful I wish I were adventurous?
Speaker 2:I'm just not.
Speaker 1:I'm just not as adventurous, I'm not standing in his hand um lorna lorna, I don't want I want to make sure I get all of this in um, so let's pivot a little bit. Can you talk to us about what you're doing in the congo? The midwifery that I want to. I want people to hear that as well yes, so 2010.
Speaker 3:I saw a cnn piece called rape as a weapon of war and he told the story about the women about 2 million women being raped in the Congo and I was like how come I didn't know about it, how come the world isn't talking about it? And next day I called Harvard and, before you know it, in six weeks I'm on the way to the Congo. I traveled through Rwanda, was met by a priest there, stayed at a monastery. Myself and another attorney friend crossed over Rwanda and they've rebuilt their country beautifully into Goma.
Speaker 3:Actually, there's full-blown war right now in the Congo, the area in Goma where we entered first, and our doctors several doctors, we know they're there, we're always checking on them, people hiding on the beds and all like that. But anyhow, we went to the Congo and we met several other rape survivors and we sat with them and we heard their story and we cried and so forth. And then we took a boat over Lake Kivu and went to another part of the Congo called Bukavo, which is where we eventually settled and did most of our work, and it's in there you meet a gentleman called Dennis McQuakey who is doing fistula repairs as fast as he can. He got a Nobel Peace Prize for that?
Speaker 1:What kind of repairs? What was that Fistula?
Speaker 3:repairs.
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 3:What happened is yeah.
Speaker 2:You want to say Well, so I'm not sure where, because fistulas can be anywhere. Yes, that's true.
Speaker 3:But it's a retrovaginal fistula.
Speaker 3:What happened is that the woman there raped with sticks or stones or whatever, and they develop. You know there's so much damage as a whole, you know, between the bladder and the rectum and all of that, and so he is doing, you know, repairs as fast as he could, and he was a gentleman that I saw in the piece. Over time, you know, become friends. But one of the things he always said to me every time we used to go back to the Congo, maybe every three months or so, with doctors Dr Mary Jo Sullivan, Professor Emeritus University of Miami, and so forth, Nahida Shatoura, who is at NIH we used to go back and he'd always say to me, always sitting with international press and they're writing like every word from his mouth is diamond and it sure is. And he'd always get up and say to me you're back, yeah, because you're back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know we walked among rebels. We went up in an area where you have M23, where they're fighting and raping because of minerals the coltrane, that mineral in our electronics. Yeah, most of that comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I remember going up there and I turned the corner. There was a big group of women in beautiful clothes. It was about I don't know, maybe about 11, 12 o'clock, because we left early in the morning to go so we could at least be safe. And so I said, oh my goodness, are they having like a market? And my doctor says no, they're here to see you. And I just lost it.
Speaker 3:I just started crying because I knew that they had walked maybe a day and I'm like to come see somebody they don't know. You know what I mean. And where they were was an area where in Mowinga, where several years ago they had buried 13 people alive, put them in a vat of hot water and stuff like that, and that's where we were paying homage and stuff like that. And then they led us into the bush and the women stopped at an area in like a little patch and there was a stone and because they were going to, I thought they were going to take us to see a birthing hut, you know. And they stopped and it suddenly dawned on us that this is where the delivery has been done, on the bare ground, in the rainforest, right. So for years we sent thousands of clean birthing kits to them and what that was was a little Ziploc bag that we'd assemble in churches and stuff like that, and it had cord tie, razor blade, some gloves, some soap and gauze and alcohol swab and you'll wrap it up and the biodegradable garbage bag. You all wrapped it up and it held in a pine ziploc bag and that was the birthing kit.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, okay, I, I, yeah, we sent the houses. I remember one time we were coming down off the mountain and, um, we saw some dead bodies on the ground. There was a massacre on the village that night. You know, I will tell you guys that every time we went you know my doctors and the nurses there was a likelihood that we would not come back. Yeah, because you know I've walked, I've been there, I've walked among them.
Speaker 1:I did the work. What? An amazing life you're living. What an amazing. It's not amazing, does not do justice to it.
Speaker 2:You're serving. I was going to say it's the service, it's not even work, it's service, I mean it's hard. I'm not saying it's not hard and challenging, but you're serving others and it's wonderful yeah but there's an adrenaline.
Speaker 3:When you see the work and the need, there's an adrenaline. It's like you're walking on air. You're walking as fast as you can.
Speaker 3:You know, when we had COVID, I flew to a little country called Somaliland. It's in the Horn of Africa, between Somalia and Djibouti and I got into that because I went to a conference in Ethiopia. I signed Dr O'Sullivan and myself up to do a poster presentation at a OBGYN conference in Africa in Africa held in Ethiopia the first. And I said to Dr oh, you know, we're going to do this conference, so we're doing stuff. And she's like what are we doing? So we're going to do this conference, so we're doing stuff. And she's like what are we doing? I'm so we're going to do this poster presentation. And she looks at me and she says you don't know what that is, do you? I'm like no, but you do, so we go. So marriage here that we go. And I meet this woman called edna adam. Dear god, what an amazing woman. She is one woman holding she's in the book Half the Sky, right. One woman, and people like Diane Lane love her. And I just kind of off the cuff, as I sometimes do, say, oh, dr O'Sullivan and I, we're going to come to Smileyland and help you with some teaching.
Speaker 3:During the conference I kept running into people and when they found out who I was, they were like oh, it's you, edna is looking for you, right. So so now I have to go. I have to go, so, um, covid comes around and I'm going and everybody's, you know, calling obviously COVID, not COVID. Um, ebola, that's no joke, right. And I'm going and I'm like you all don't know geography, I'm going to smilin and they don't have any there, right, and people are calling me at the airport and my sister's asking for power, for dirt.
Speaker 3:It was a mess, but I, but I, but I, you know, but I go, I, you know, I fly to um et through Ethiopia first time and somebody knew somebody. And I get to the desk and they're like oh, there's something here for you, and it's another attorney. She says hey, sis, I don't know why you're here, but here is a SIM card. Put it in your phone and call me in the morning so I can figure out what we need, how we can help you. That is the Africa, I know, you know. And I get on a plane and you go to Somaliland and, interestingly, in Ethiopia you don't have to wear a head wrap or anything like that. But as you enter Somaliland airspace, it's like a plume of cloud in the aircraft because all of us were putting on your head.
Speaker 3:I think I misunderstood. I didn't know I was supposed to get a visa. Oh my gosh, I don't have a visa to go, but I had the right name. So I get there and immigration meets me and says, oh, you're here to see Edna. And I'm like, yeah, that wouldn't be coming into your country without a visa, you know. But so I did, I went and I taught there.
Speaker 1:And they're like are you staying around?
Speaker 3:I'm like no, no, no, I'm not staying around because you can't drink in Somaliland.
Speaker 1:I'm going back to Ethiopia and I'm going back to Ethiopia, Lorna, just because of time, I wanted us. You want to talk about the USAID before we let her go.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, because we appreciate obviously the fact that you've been there on the ground firsthand so many different places in Africa. And we just kind of wanted your take on what it's like or, I guess, what your thoughts are on the basically complete shutdown of USAID to. You know countries all around the world, but you know predominantly a lot of African countries.
Speaker 3:Yes, and my position is a double sword, I think, where it's cruel and it's the way it was done. I believe that there has always been concern about international aid agencies, not only USAID how monies are spent and how the donor country either use most of the money in terms of living for its people that go to these countries you know, they stay in really expensive places with drivers and stuff like that and there's always been that concern that enough of the money was not getting to the people who need it. So right now that it's not there, it's an opportunity for Africa that's rising, with a population 60% of the population is under 25, and they're educated and they want to chart their course. You just have to look at places like Burkina Faso. You just have to look at places like Namibia, where you have a female president, a female vice president and the chief justice is female. So Africa, the Africa.
Speaker 3:I see the work I do in places like Ghana, what we do in Ghana. We partner with Wisconsin International University there and we provide full scholarships for young women to become midwives in Africa, and so that is our focus, because we believe that every mother, by right, should be delivered by a trained birth attendant. We do believe that's how you reduce maternal infant mortality. I have a little company in the land called Desert Sage, and 15% of everything in our store, be it our teas or candles, have two new books that's come out, one about tea, the history of tea, and the new one that's coming out is called Becoming Whole Letters to the Woman I Am. All of that goes. 15% goes to provide scholarships and we've been doing that.
Speaker 3:I just got back from Ghana meeting about three weeks ago and there I met the recipients of our scholarships that we've been given. I was able to teach, do a seminar on compassionate patient care. I was able to meet with the midwives in the villages to understand their needs and meet with some of the mothers and the beautiful thing that came out of that meeting is that one of the drivers for maternal mortality is hemorr, of work with herbs and so forth for my business, and there is a berry that there's a lot of science behind it, called turkey berry some orange to give you the vitamin C to help with the iron and pineapple.
Speaker 3:It tastes good, and so we paid for all the equipment to make that happen and they did their first class last week. A hundred mothers, but the thing that warms my heart. That's why I don't have to tell people what I do. They call this drink Mama Lorna's Blessing.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful, wow, wow.
Speaker 3:So the women are drinking Mama Lorna's Blessing and it's only $6. So we ask people to go to our website and just buy it virtually, and it's only $6, you know that sort of thing. So that is what's going on. That is the kind of work that needs to happen on the continent, and so this is a time I wish. I wish that the removal was slow. You can't just yank an aid organization like that. Yes, people will die and it is cruel, and but I think we all, as people of goodwill and conscience, we can stand in the gap. So, you know, somebody can support Mama Lana's blessing, or whatever it is, or do and partner. What Africa needs is partnership where respect is given. When you are talking about how we're going to do things, not because you're giving the aid, you can disrespect the recipient, yeah. So I think we need to look in our hearts and make a difference.
Speaker 1:I love that, lorna, and we're coming to a close of this episode. First, I just want to pause and just give you a heartfelt thank you. Thank you so much, not for just being our guest today, but thank you for being the person that you are. Thank you for having the heart that you have, the compassion and the consciousness. I feel like I got like I have, so I got to up my game. I know all the things that you have done with your life. I'm like I got to up my game. I'm feeling lazy here, so you have inspired me to do more. We're going to put all of your information on our episodes so people will be able to link to your site, be able to go to your site. Again, thank you so very much, and friends and family, thank you, thank you, friends, and family.
Speaker 1:I you Thank you, friends and family. I leave you, as always, live your life on 10. Your 10. Bye-bye.