September 14, 2025 • 39 mins
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!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to Life on 10.
Hello, friends and family, andall of our wonderful friends
that are listening to us indifferent countries.
I'm so excited.
I'm still excited about that.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I love how you're still just so stoked about the
international, our internationalcontingent.
Hello, all three of you.
Thank you for continuing tolisten.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
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 onthe positive?
Yes, you know so good to focuson the positive.
Yes, you know it's so good tofocus on the positive it is.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's why yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, and because I need to to keep my sanity.
So, anyway, with that said, weare truly, truly happy that you
are with us this evening, and Iam, of course, angela, and I
have with me my Vanessa, lovelyco-host.
Vanessa, welcome everyone.
My Vanessa, lovely co-host.
(01:05):
Vanessa, welcome everyone.
I am super excited about ourguest today.
Vanessa, our guest is asuperstar.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I am so stoked too, this is gonna be the best day
the best day ever.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
um so, ladies and gentlemen, um, I would like to
introduce our guest, lorna Owens.
And Lorna, I do not even knowhow to describe you Like you're
bigger than life.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
She's a renaissance woman.
She's a renaissance woman.
I mean, look at all the amazingthings she's done.
You guys have to enumerate them, because I want our listeners
to understand how amazing thiswoman is.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, lorna, yeah, renaissance is a word.
I think that definitely beginsthe description.
She's done so much Nurse,attorney, entrepreneur, author,
(02:26):
author.
Wow, I met Lorna more than 26years ago at our church, unity
on the Bay, where James, myhusband, was the minister and
Lorna, you remember this.
I remember you started thisgroup.
She started this group this wasover 26 years ago and she
called it and the women gatherOoh, let's start there.
Lorna, my question to you isthat group still vibrant?
Is it still going on?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, first of all, I'm glad that I'm on with you
guys.
This is Jack Also.
Yes, yes, yes, this group isstill going on.
As a matter of fact, we justhad one in April here in the
land.
It was amazing, but here's thedeal, angela, and you prophesied
(03:07):
this because that's what it hadto be.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Vanessa didn't know I was a prophet.
Yes, I'm a prophet.
Well, you are pretty awesometoo.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
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 tobe.
And the women gather Africa, tobe held in Ghana.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh, that's amazing.
You're giving me enough time.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Let's go back to the first one.
I remember I was in CoconutGrove at the Methodist Church.
I couldn't afford a other venue.
We worked out a thing becausethe church owed me some money
for work I'd done as a lawyer nobig deal and so we got the
church and Dr Quachy Clementhe's now a professor with a PhD.
(03:56):
He went to one of thesefabulous schools that you
understand tech, and I rememberhe brought things in and boost
the sound, and so we have thisbeautiful sound in the church
and I invited maybe seven or sopeople, thinking three will say
yes.
Everybody said yes.
(04:17):
So we had this huge dance.
And I don't remember AngelaPhilip Michael Thomas from my
advisors there.
He's still a good friend.
But here's what I never forgetit's the morning after you
called me very, very early.
I don't even remember this andyou said Lorna, I just saw this,
(04:37):
it's going to be huge.
It's this, this is going to behuge.
You have no idea.
I never say this to anybodybefore, but this is going to be
huge.
And every year when I did itand it was huge I remembered it.
So from the day you told me, atleast once a year, I remember
that.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I remember saying that, lorna, I just knew what I
felt.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I was going to say I bet you could just feel the
energy.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
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 (05:16):
And the women get the literary jazz brunch at the
Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Groveand we would only have women,
authors and their best-sellingauthors, and they came from
everywhere and we had about 500women.
But the thing about it is itwas our day to be and just feel
(05:38):
fabulous.
So the energy of the room wasthere 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 therewere women who came to the
Ritz-Carlton, who kind of savedto come, and they were just glad
to be there, and there werethose who could have bought the
(06:00):
whole Ritz-Carlton Fabulous mixof people.
But the way we did it was wedidn'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 fabulousand they would come and they
(06:21):
would make up as many women asthey could.
Oh, I love that, yeah.
So we had this marketplacecalled the Marketplace, and so
the only thing in there would bemakeup, 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.
(06:47):
But when you inside theritz-carlton even though it's
ritz-carlton and everything isnice we designed our own stage
and our partner in that was westelm.
So every year we would tellwest elm what the theme would be
.
I had nothing to do with it.
I would arrive at theritz-carlton and my stage was
already beautiful, nice uh.
We also had a lot of flowers.
So if one year the flowers wasorchids, you'd have maybe like
(07:11):
50 orchid plants all over.
Wow, and remember this we havepeople like the great
international, best performer,best artist, nicole Henry.
Yes, the year Nicole Henry wasthat person.
It was always jazz and about.
Say we started at 11 o'clock orwhatever.
(07:31):
Like a few minutes before thattime you'd hear Nicole in the
room singing to an empty roomand exactly at 11 o'clock the
doors would swing open andprofessional women poured in.
I remember one year this doctorshe's a cardiologist she ran in
(07:54):
screaming and I'm like why areyou screaming?
She's like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Just so it filled with joy, right.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
But it was one of those things you laugh, you cry.
I remember when, uh, he wasjust not that into you.
Uh, she was there.
Oh my god, we had the best ofthe best and yeah, yeah, you
have done some fabulous amazingthings, lorna, um, so there's so
much to unpack here.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I have a question for you, based on something Vanessa
said to me earlier.
I kind of would love to hearyour perspective on this, and I
think it'll tie into all theother things that you have
gifted this earth with.
So Vanessa was sharing with metoday that well, you say it,
(08:45):
vanessa it's your husband.
It's my husband, but you know Ilove him dearly too.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So we were Robert, hopefully.
Hopefully, our listeners havelistened to us long enough to
know that Robert is astay-at-home dad and he is a.
He chose to be a stay-at-homedad.
It wasn't a, it wasn't thrustupon him.
Um, you know, unwillingly, itwas a conscious decision that we
made, that we wanted a parentto stay home and he was the one
that made the most sense.
(09:12):
And so, um, he has been a stayat 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'swhat he's, he's, he loves it,
he's great at it.
Um, and people will ask him whenwe go out, you know, and
they'll say, oh, you know, hi,what do you do for a living?
And he just hates that questionbecause immediately, especially
(09:37):
when he says, oh, I'm a stay athome dad, um, it's almost like
they're like oh, or they thinklike, oh, yeah, you couldn't get
a job, you're unemployed, orsomething like that.
So he, he automatically hasthat kind of, a lot of times, a
negative reaction.
Very rarely is it like that isthe coolest thing ever.
Sometimes it is Sometimesyou'll, you'll, I'll meet a guy
that goes man, how do I get thatjob, you know, of course, cause
(10:00):
they all think it's easy, right?
How do I just sit at home and donothing all day, like whatever,
anyway?
So he just he commented to meabout how much he hates that
question.
He's like what I choose to doto make money, if I were to do
that, he's like does not defineme, and I hate how people ask me
(10:26):
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 whodoes so many wonderful things
but I feel like all of thosewonderful things still don't
define you, how do you respondto that question when they ask
you that?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, first of all, you know, robert, let me I hate
that question as well.
I remember I was at a like acocktail party or so, and this
gentleman came up to me and heintroduced himself and I don't
remember what his last name was,but he said something like
Robert attorney.
So I thought that was his lastname because I knew being a
(11:02):
nurse.
I knew a woman in Jamaica andher surname was Nurse.
That was her surname, so Iassumed that was his last name.
And then somehow in theconversation he asked me like
you know, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Or he said something and I said attorney's, not your
last name.
He says no, that's not who I am.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So that's how he introduced himself, Robert
attorney.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Interesting.
And so I said well, lorna Owensattorney.
So yes, and we have a way I'mso glad you asked so I come back
from Ghana.
A way I'm so glad you asked soI come back from Ghana.
And in Ghana people reallydon't ask you what you do.
(11:50):
They ask you how are you andthey wait for the answer.
So it's a richer texture of aconversation 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 thelives of moms and babies around
(12:13):
the world.
That's kind of what I do.
I love it.
And I remember saying tosomebody recently look, I could
just go around the world and bea mom.
I really I've never cared whatI did world and be a bomb.
I really I've never cared what Idid, it was more how I could
serve.
That's wired in my DNA.
So yes, I'm a nurse, I'm amidwife, I have books.
(12:34):
I actually have two new bookscoming out now.
I have, you know, nancy Graceand stuff like that.
And sometimes when I hearpeople read off my resume from
States, I'm like who are theytalking?
about and I'm like oh, oh it'sme, because I really don't care
I moved from Miami to a smalltown called Atlanta it's an hour
(12:55):
or so from Orlando and whenPrusa finally started finding
out who I was because I kind ofjust arrived in town and you
know I'm just me and she saidare you in the witness
protection program or somethingI'm like not yet, you know,
because I don't, because I don'tcare, and I asked folks, you
(13:21):
are not your job, please, you'renot your job.
You know there has to be moreto 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 airand in Europe, you know people
kind of don't ask you what youdo.
They talk about intellectualthings.
So maybe that's something wecan work on next year as
(13:45):
Americans, that and many otherthings.
So maybe that's something, wemaybe that's something we can
work on next year as AmericansUm that and the many other
things that are on the list.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I love what you said, though, that what you do does
not like it doesn't define youand you're not looking at it.
Sounds like what I'm hearing isyou're not looking at titles or
you know how many letters arebehind your name and you're not
undertaking all of thesewonderful things that you've
done for prestige um, you knowand acknowledgements, to say
(14:26):
that is a concept that I don'tfeel or sense, that most
Americans, um understand or orit resonates with them.
I don't hear people saying, hmm, let me choose my major based
(14:49):
on how many people I can serve Imore so hear people talk about
how much money can I make.
How much money can I make?
I also coach, and I coachpeople from all over the world,
and I will tell you this theclients that I have that are
(15:10):
from other countries seem tocarry that more.
It's about how can I show up,who can I help in the world?
Americans always about money.
I coach people who are so burnedout, like they're, like they
have one finger hanging on the,you know, just hanging onto the
(15:32):
ledge with one little pinky, andit's like no, no, no, no, no.
I can't, I can't, I can'treassess here, because why can't
you?
You're telling me you're burnedout.
You're telling me you're,you're about to just, you know,
collapse.
Well, yeah, but you know howmuch money I make?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah.
But I tell you, though we it is.
It's absolutely amazing.
And with with the internet andwith social media, it has gotten
worse.
Let me just say that, whateverthe professor at Yale I forgot
she's taught, she teached thiscourse called the Science of
(16:14):
Wellbeing, whatever her name is,and I took that course.
And the studies show that Moneyprovides happiness up to
$60,000.
After that it doesn't.
It doesn't Because it kind ofpays the basic bills.
You have a roof over your head.
(16:36):
So, yeah, up to $60,000.
If you're making $35,000, youwill attain some degree of
happiness if you got to $60,000.
But after that, no, it doesn't.
And social media I don'tunderstand what's happening to
people, even very educated,well-accomplished folks.
There's something in the waterthat says more, more, more, me,
(16:59):
me, me, me.
And so I have two examplesRecently I was in Ghana and
there were some Americans,professors, law professors, and
they came and I kind of helped alittle bit and they had this
fabulous, that's true, afabulous.
They set up this fabulousseminar for this high end in a
(17:21):
very niche area of law.
Big deal, niche area of law,big deal.
Except I don't know how theygot it into their head to do
this.
They, for some interestingreason, decided to stay up 36
hours without sleeping and theywere eating very little.
(17:42):
So at noon, around little pastnoon, the organizer, who paid
thousands of dollars to puttogether this very elite thing,
passed out on stage.
Wow, yes, I was going to theafter party when I got.
(18:02):
I'm at the hotel, I'm pullingin with my driver, about to get
out where you know.
My driver said Dr O, is ittrying to reach you?
It's somebody so-and-so passedout on stage.
And yeah, yeah.
So the just go, go go.
Yeah, how do you?
Who?
How do you do that 36 hourswithout sleep?
And and one, the one who passedout was really not eating.
(18:25):
So that was horrible.
I'm like you're trying to killyourself.
When I came back and looked onlinkedin, it was a whole
different conversation howfabulous it was, it was and all
the pretty pictures before thepast and I was thinking but I
(18:46):
was there.
I saw reality it didn't go likethat, you know.
So you wonder where we are inour consciousness and where we
are as a people, why we needthat.
A few examples is that I comeback from.
(19:07):
I have problems when I comeback from Africa because a
friend of mine who's lived thereshe's a white person who's
lived.
I say that because it givessome context she has a PhD,
lived in Tanzania, did a lot ofwork there, and she said welcome
back, my sister, re-enterslowly.
(19:27):
It's like a of work there.
And she said welcome back, mysister, re-enter slowly.
It's like a re-entry, take itslow.
So I go out with one of my bestfriends and we live an hour from
Orlando.
We take the train, two of ustake the train down.
She lives in that area and sowe 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 Idon't even know.
(19:51):
We said hello, she startedordering the wines.
It's always her responsibilityto 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 howare you?
She was ordering everybody'sfood and we're like no, no, no,
I don't eat meat.
No, don't you know that sort ofthing.
(20:13):
And then she started talkingabout herself and I don't know
what happened.
I just it sounded like you'dleft me in an echo chamber with
everybody's.
I thought I was going to die.
I thought my brain it triggeredmy vomit center.
(20:33):
So I eventually said to hernicely, you know I'm very
disappointed, you didn't ask meeven how my trip went.
Well, that was the last I heardof her.
She wrote me and she cussed meout and that was like a month
ago, because for once in thefive years that we've all been
together, I said ask her to givesomebody else the floor.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
No, it's, it's that's definitely.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Um, it is obviously an American problem that we're I
mean I think people like thatare all over the world right,
we're just really good at it.
Here we are highly highlysuccessful at making sure that
we are the center of attention,and Americans are very American
(21:21):
centric.
We see everything through thelens that when the way we do
things is the best way andeverybody should be doing it
more like us, and then when, inreality, every country and every
people have a unique way orsomething to offer that we can
learn so much from that's whytravel is so important.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yes, and you travel not as an American, but just be.
Just go to the people's country.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Just be.
It's like what you were sharingon 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 theysaid, oh, we don't like to go
out of the country, we don'tlike to, you know travel like
that and I'm curious like whatis that?
And and you don't know whatyou're missing, like you have no
(22:16):
idea, because then yourworldview is very, very limited,
I agree.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean I don't.
I don't know if it's um uh, youknow, I know cause.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I mean I don't, I don't know if it's you know, I
know because I know lots ofpeople of every different.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm just saying I was, I'm saying I don't know.
So that's me, that's me.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
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 aposition that they could travel
Like they have the resources.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, and they're choosing not to.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And they're choosing not to travel, and travel is so
important to me.
Yeah, like if I had yourresources.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I would be gone 365, you know.
I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think that's what, that's what.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I just did in my brain and Robert and I do that
on our planning, like forretirement our plan, like the
first thing we were going to dois like we're going to go on a
cruise around the world the daywe retire because we just love
to travel.
Now I will say I also do notlove.
I don't like love traveling andbeing in, like I'm not, you're
(23:18):
not going to.
I'm not going to go to Africaand like go on a safari in a
tent, that's never going tohappen.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I will never do that.
Don't be saying that.
Don't be saying that.
Okay, you're going to have totell me about a bougie tent
because I am so.
First, of, all, I'm not goingon a safari.
I don't know what you're doing.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Okay, wait, hold up, we have so much, go ahead, y'all
stop talking about me, becauseI'm going.
Nobody, I hope nobody, nobody,nobody knows in my group.
I am going and you're gonnastand at the end.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, that's wonderful I wish I were
adventurous?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I'm just not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I'm just not as adventurous, I'm not standing in
his hand um lorna lorna, Idon't want I want to make sure I
get all of this in um, so let'spivot a little bit.
Can you talk to us about whatyou're doing in the congo?
The midwifery that I want to.
I want people to hear that aswell yes, so 2010.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I saw a cnn piece called rape as a weapon of war
and he told the story about thewomen about 2 million women
being raped in the Congo and Iwas like how come I didn't know
about it, how come the worldisn't talking about it?
And next day I called Harvardand, before you know it, in six
(24:38):
weeks I'm on the way to theCongo.
I traveled through Rwanda, wasmet by a priest there, stayed at
a monastery.
Myself and another attorneyfriend crossed over Rwanda and
they've rebuilt their countrybeautifully into Goma.
Actually, there's full-blown warright now in the Congo, the
(25:01):
area in Goma where we enteredfirst, and our doctors several
doctors, we know they're there,we're always checking on them,
people hiding on the beds andall like that.
But anyhow, we went to theCongo and we met several other
rape survivors and we sat withthem and we heard their story
(25:24):
and we cried and so forth.
And then we took a boat overLake 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 McQuakeywho is doing fistula repairs as
(25:50):
fast as he can.
He got a Nobel Peace Prize forthat?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
What kind of repairs?
What was that Fistula?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
repairs.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (25:55):
What happened is yeah .
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You want to say Well, so I'm not sure where, because
fistulas can be anywhere.
Yes, that's true.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
But it's a retrovaginal fistula.
What happened is that the womanthere raped with sticks or
stones or whatever, and theydevelop.
You know there's so much damageas a whole, you know, between
the bladder and the rectum andall of that, and so he is doing,
(26:25):
you know, repairs as fast as hecould, and he was a gentleman
that I saw in the piece.
Over time, you know, becomefriends.
But one of the things he alwayssaid to me every time we used
to go back to the Congo, maybeevery three months or so, with
doctors Dr Mary Jo Sullivan,Professor Emeritus University of
(26:47):
Miami, and so forth, NahidaShatoura, who is at NIH we used
to go back and he'd always sayto me, always sitting with
international press and they'rewriting like every word from his
mouth is diamond and it sure is.
And he'd always get up and sayto me you're back, yeah, because
you're back.
Yeah, because you know we walkedamong rebels.
(27:09):
We went up in an area where youhave M23, where they're
fighting and raping because ofminerals the coltrane, that
mineral in our electronics.
Yeah, most of that comes fromthe Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
I remember going up there and Iturned the corner.
(27:30):
There was a big group of womenin beautiful clothes.
It was about I don't know,maybe about 11, 12 o'clock,
because we left early in themorning 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'rehere to see you.
And I just lost it.
(27:51):
I just started crying because Iknew that they had walked maybe
a day and I'm like to come seesomebody they don't know.
You know what I mean.
And where they were was an areawhere in Mowinga, where several
years ago they had buried 13people alive, put them in a vat
of hot water and stuff like that, and that's where we were
(28:13):
paying homage and stuff likethat.
And then they led us into thebush and the women stopped at an
area in like a little patch andthere was a stone and because
they were going to, I thoughtthey were going to take us to
see a birthing hut, you know.
And they stopped and itsuddenly dawned on us that this
is where the delivery has beendone, on the bare ground, in the
(28:36):
rainforest, right.
So for years we sent thousandsof clean birthing kits to them
and what that was was a littleZiploc bag that we'd assemble in
churches and stuff like that,and it had cord tie, razor blade
, some gloves, some soap andgauze and alcohol swab and
(29:00):
you'll wrap it up and thebiodegradable garbage bag.
You all wrapped it up and itheld in a pine ziploc bag and
that was the birthing kit.
Oh my gosh, okay, I, I, yeah, wesent the houses.
I remember one time we werecoming down off the mountain and
(29:20):
, um, we saw some dead bodies onthe ground.
There was a massacre on thevillage that night.
You know, I will tell you guysthat every time we went you know
my doctors and the nurses therewas a likelihood that we would
not come back.
Yeah, because you know I'vewalked, I've been there, I've
walked among them.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I did the work.
What?
An amazing life you're living.
What an amazing.
It's not amazing, does not dojustice to it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
You're serving.
I was going to say it's theservice, it's not even work,
it's service, I mean it's hard.
I'm not saying it's not hardand challenging, but you're
serving others and it'swonderful yeah but there's an
adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
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 youcan.
You know, when we had COVID, Iflew to a little country called
Somaliland.
It's in the Horn of Africa,between Somalia and Djibouti and
I got into that because I wentto a conference in Ethiopia.
(30:26):
I signed Dr O'Sullivan andmyself up to do a poster
presentation at a OBGYNconference 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 wedoing?
So we're going to do thisconference, so we're doing stuff
(30:46):
.
And she's like what are wedoing?
I'm so we're going to do thisposter presentation.
And she looks at me and shesays you don't know what that is
, do you?
I'm like no, but you do, so wego.
So marriage here that we go.
And I meet this woman callededna adam.
Dear god, what an amazing woman.
She is one woman holding she'sin the book Half the Sky, right.
(31:08):
One woman, and people likeDiane Lane love her.
And I just kind of off the cuff, as I sometimes do, say, oh, dr
O'Sullivan and I, we're goingto come to Smileyland and help
you with some teaching.
During the conference I keptrunning into people and when
they found out who I was, theywere like oh, it's you, edna is
(31:28):
looking for you, right.
So so now I have to go.
I have to go, so, um, covidcomes around and I'm going and
everybody's, you know, callingobviously COVID, not COVID.
Um, ebola, that's no joke,right.
And I'm going and I'm like youall don't know geography, I'm
(31:49):
going to smilin and they don'thave any there, right, and
people are calling me at theairport and my sister's asking
for power, for dirt.
It was a mess, but I, but I, butI, you know, but I go, I, you
know, I fly to um et throughEthiopia first time and somebody
knew somebody.
And I get to the desk andthey're like oh, there's
(32:09):
something here for you, and it'sanother attorney.
She says hey, sis, I don't knowwhy you're here, but here is a
SIM card.
Put it in your phone and callme in the morning so I can
figure out what we need, how wecan help you.
That is the Africa, I know, youknow.
And I get on a plane and you goto Somaliland and,
(32:32):
interestingly, in Ethiopia youdon't have to wear a head wrap
or anything like that.
But as you enter Somalilandairspace, it's like a plume of
cloud in the aircraft becauseall of us were putting on your
head.
(32:53):
I think I misunderstood.
I didn't know I was supposed toget a visa.
Oh my gosh, I don't have a visato go, but I had the right name
.
So I get there and immigrationmeets me and says, oh, you're
here to see Edna.
And I'm like, yeah, thatwouldn't be coming into your
country without a visa, you know.
But so I did, I went and Itaught there.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And they're like are you staying around?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I'm like no, no, no, I'm not staying around because
you can't drink in Somaliland.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I'm going back to Ethiopia and I'm going back to
Ethiopia, Lorna, just because oftime, I wanted us.
You want to talk about theUSAID before we let her go.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, because we appreciate obviously the fact
that you've been there on theground firsthand so many
different places in Africa.
And we just kind of wanted yourtake on what it's like or, I
guess, what your thoughts are onthe basically complete shutdown
of USAID to.
You know countries all aroundthe world, but you know
(33:55):
predominantly a lot of Africancountries.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Yes, and my position is a double sword, I think,
where it's cruel and it's theway it was done.
I believe that there has alwaysbeen concern about
international aid agencies, notonly USAID how monies are spent
and how the donor country eitheruse most of the money in terms
(34:23):
of living for its people that goto these countries you know,
they stay in really expensiveplaces with drivers and stuff
like that and there's alwaysbeen that concern that enough of
the money was not getting tothe people who need it.
So right now that it's notthere, it's an opportunity for
(34:45):
Africa that's rising, with apopulation 60% of the population
is under 25, and they'reeducated and they want to chart
their course.
You just have to look at placeslike Burkina Faso.
You just have to look at placeslike Namibia, where you have a
female president, a female vicepresident and the chief justice
(35:09):
is female.
So Africa, the Africa.
I see the work I do in placeslike Ghana, what we do in Ghana.
We partner with WisconsinInternational University there
and we provide full scholarshipsfor young women to become
midwives in Africa, and so thatis our focus, because we believe
(35:30):
that every mother, by right,should be delivered by a trained
birth attendant.
We do believe that's how youreduce maternal infant mortality
.
I have a little company in theland called Desert Sage, and 15%
of everything in our store, beit our teas or candles, have two
new books that's come out, oneabout tea, the history of tea,
(35:54):
and the new one that's comingout is called Becoming Whole
Letters to the Woman I Am.
All of that goes.
15% goes to providescholarships and we've been
doing that.
I just got back from Ghanameeting about three weeks ago
(36:15):
and there I met the recipientsof our scholarships that we've
been given.
I was able to teach, do aseminar on compassionate patient
care.
I was able to meet with themidwives in the villages to
understand their needs and meetwith some of the mothers and the
beautiful thing that came outof that meeting is that one of
(36:42):
the drivers for maternalmortality is hemorr, of work
with herbs and so forth for mybusiness, and there is a berry
that there's a lot of sciencebehind it, called turkey berry
some orange to give you thevitamin C to help with the iron
(37:14):
and pineapple.
It tastes good, and so we paidfor all the equipment to make
that happen and they did theirfirst class last week.
A hundred mothers, but thething that warms my heart.
That's why I don't have to tellpeople what I do.
They call this drink MamaLorna's Blessing.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
That's wonderful, wow , wow.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
So the women are drinking Mama Lorna's Blessing
and it's only $6.
So we ask people to go to ourwebsite and just buy it
virtually, and it's only $6, youknow that sort of thing.
So that is what's going on.
That is the kind of work thatneeds to happen on the continent
(37:55):
, and so this is a time I wish.
I wish that the removal wasslow.
You can't just yank an aidorganization like that.
Yes, people will die and it iscruel, and but I think we all,
as people of goodwill andconscience, we can stand in the
(38:19):
gap.
So, you know, somebody cansupport Mama Lana's blessing, or
whatever it is, or do andpartner.
What Africa needs ispartnership where respect is
given.
When you are talking about howwe're going to do things, not
because you're giving the aid,you can disrespect the recipient
(38:40):
, yeah.
So I think we need to look inour hearts and make a difference
.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I love that, lorna, and we're coming to a close of
this episode.
First, I just want to pause andjust give you a heartfelt thank
you.
Thank you so much, not for justbeing our guest today, but
thank you for being the personthat you are.
Thank you for having the heartthat you have, the compassion
(39:11):
and the consciousness.
I feel like I got like I have,so I got to up my game.
I know all the things that youhave done with your life.
I'm like I got to up my game.
I'm feeling lazy here, so youhave inspired me to do more.
We're going to put all of yourinformation on our episodes so
(39:33):
people will be able to link toyour site, be able to go to your
site.
Again, thank you so very much,and friends and family, thank
you, thank you, friends, andfamily.
I you Thank you, friends andfamily.
I leave you, as always, liveyour life on 10.
Your 10.
Bye-bye.
Hello and welcome to Life on 10.
Hello, friends and family, andall of our wonderful friends
that are listening to us indifferent countries.
I'm so excited.
I'm still excited about that.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I love how you're still just so stoked about the
international, our internationalcontingent.
Hello, all three of you.
Thank you for continuing tolisten.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
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 onthe positive?
Yes, you know so good to focuson the positive.
Yes, you know it's so good tofocus on the positive it is.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's why yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, and because I need to to keep my sanity.
So, anyway, with that said, weare truly, truly happy that you
are with us this evening, and Iam, of course, angela, and I
have with me my Vanessa, lovelyco-host.
Vanessa, welcome everyone.
My Vanessa, lovely co-host.
(01:05):
Vanessa, welcome everyone.
I am super excited about ourguest today.
Vanessa, our guest is asuperstar.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I am so stoked too, this is gonna be the best day
the best day ever.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
um so, ladies and gentlemen, um, I would like to
introduce our guest, lorna Owens.
And Lorna, I do not even knowhow to describe you Like you're
bigger than life.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
She's a renaissance woman.
She's a renaissance woman.
I mean, look at all the amazingthings she's done.
You guys have to enumerate them, because I want our listeners
to understand how amazing thiswoman is.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, lorna, yeah, renaissance is a word.
I think that definitely beginsthe description.
She's done so much Nurse,attorney, entrepreneur, author,
(02:26):
author.
Wow, I met Lorna more than 26years ago at our church, unity
on the Bay, where James, myhusband, was the minister and
Lorna, you remember this.
I remember you started thisgroup.
She started this group this wasover 26 years ago and she
called it and the women gatherOoh, let's start there.
Lorna, my question to you isthat group still vibrant?
Is it still going on?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, first of all, I'm glad that I'm on with you
guys.
This is Jack Also.
Yes, yes, yes, this group isstill going on.
As a matter of fact, we justhad one in April here in the
land.
It was amazing, but here's thedeal, angela, and you prophesied
(03:07):
this because that's what it hadto be.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Vanessa didn't know I was a prophet.
Yes, I'm a prophet.
Well, you are pretty awesometoo.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
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 tobe.
And the women gather Africa, tobe held in Ghana.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh, that's amazing.
You're giving me enough time.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Let's go back to the first one.
I remember I was in CoconutGrove at the Methodist Church.
I couldn't afford a other venue.
We worked out a thing becausethe church owed me some money
for work I'd done as a lawyer nobig deal and so we got the
church and Dr Quachy Clementhe's now a professor with a PhD.
(03:56):
He went to one of thesefabulous schools that you
understand tech, and I rememberhe brought things in and boost
the sound, and so we have thisbeautiful sound in the church
and I invited maybe seven or sopeople, thinking three will say
yes.
Everybody said yes.
(04:17):
So we had this huge dance.
And I don't remember AngelaPhilip Michael Thomas from my
advisors there.
He's still a good friend.
But here's what I never forgetit's the morning after you
called me very, very early.
I don't even remember this andyou said Lorna, I just saw this,
(04:37):
it's going to be huge.
It's this, this is going to behuge.
You have no idea.
I never say this to anybodybefore, but this is going to be
huge.
And every year when I did itand it was huge I remembered it.
So from the day you told me, atleast once a year, I remember
that.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I remember saying that, lorna, I just knew what I
felt.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I was going to say I bet you could just feel the
energy.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
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 (05:16):
And the women get the literary jazz brunch at the
Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Groveand we would only have women,
authors and their best-sellingauthors, and they came from
everywhere and we had about 500women.
But the thing about it is itwas our day to be and just feel
(05:38):
fabulous.
So the energy of the room wasthere 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 therewere women who came to the
Ritz-Carlton, who kind of savedto come, and they were just glad
to be there, and there werethose who could have bought the
(06:00):
whole Ritz-Carlton Fabulous mixof people.
But the way we did it was wedidn'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 fabulousand they would come and they
(06:21):
would make up as many women asthey could.
Oh, I love that, yeah.
So we had this marketplacecalled the Marketplace, and so
the only thing in there would bemakeup, 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.
(06:47):
But when you inside theritz-carlton even though it's
ritz-carlton and everything isnice we designed our own stage
and our partner in that was westelm.
So every year we would tellwest elm what the theme would be
.
I had nothing to do with it.
I would arrive at theritz-carlton and my stage was
already beautiful, nice uh.
We also had a lot of flowers.
So if one year the flowers wasorchids, you'd have maybe like
(07:11):
50 orchid plants all over.
Wow, and remember this we havepeople like the great
international, best performer,best artist, nicole Henry.
Yes, the year Nicole Henry wasthat person.
It was always jazz and about.
Say we started at 11 o'clock orwhatever.
(07:31):
Like a few minutes before thattime you'd hear Nicole in the
room singing to an empty roomand exactly at 11 o'clock the
doors would swing open andprofessional women poured in.
I remember one year this doctorshe's a cardiologist she ran in
(07:54):
screaming and I'm like why areyou screaming?
She's like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Just so it filled with joy, right.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
But it was one of those things you laugh, you cry.
I remember when, uh, he wasjust not that into you.
Uh, she was there.
Oh my god, we had the best ofthe best and yeah, yeah, you
have done some fabulous amazingthings, lorna, um, so there's so
much to unpack here.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I have a question for you, based on something Vanessa
said to me earlier.
I kind of would love to hearyour perspective on this, and I
think it'll tie into all theother things that you have
gifted this earth with.
So Vanessa was sharing with metoday that well, you say it,
(08:45):
vanessa it's your husband.
It's my husband, but you know Ilove him dearly too.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So we were Robert, hopefully.
Hopefully, our listeners havelistened to us long enough to
know that Robert is astay-at-home dad and he is a.
He chose to be a stay-at-homedad.
It wasn't a, it wasn't thrustupon him.
Um, you know, unwillingly, itwas a conscious decision that we
made, that we wanted a parentto stay home and he was the one
that made the most sense.
(09:12):
And so, um, he has been a stayat 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'swhat he's, he's, he loves it,
he's great at it.
Um, and people will ask him whenwe go out, you know, and
they'll say, oh, you know, hi,what do you do for a living?
And he just hates that questionbecause immediately, especially
(09:37):
when he says, oh, I'm a stay athome dad, um, it's almost like
they're like oh, or they thinklike, oh, yeah, you couldn't get
a job, you're unemployed, orsomething like that.
So he, he automatically hasthat kind of, a lot of times, a
negative reaction.
Very rarely is it like that isthe coolest thing ever.
Sometimes it is Sometimesyou'll, you'll, I'll meet a guy
that goes man, how do I get thatjob, you know, of course, cause
(10:00):
they all think it's easy, right?
How do I just sit at home and donothing all day, like whatever,
anyway?
So he just he commented to meabout how much he hates that
question.
He's like what I choose to doto make money, if I were to do
that, he's like does not defineme, and I hate how people ask me
(10:26):
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 whodoes so many wonderful things
but I feel like all of thosewonderful things still don't
define you, how do you respondto that question when they ask
you that?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, first of all, you know, robert, let me I hate
that question as well.
I remember I was at a like acocktail party or so, and this
gentleman came up to me and heintroduced himself and I don't
remember what his last name was,but he said something like
Robert attorney.
So I thought that was his lastname because I knew being a
(11:02):
nurse.
I knew a woman in Jamaica andher surname was Nurse.
That was her surname, so Iassumed that was his last name.
And then somehow in theconversation he asked me like
you know, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Or he said something and I said attorney's, not your
last name.
He says no, that's not who I am.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So that's how he introduced himself, Robert
attorney.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Interesting.
And so I said well, lorna Owensattorney.
So yes, and we have a way I'mso glad you asked so I come back
from Ghana.
A way I'm so glad you asked soI come back from Ghana.
And in Ghana people reallydon't ask you what you do.
(11:50):
They ask you how are you andthey wait for the answer.
So it's a richer texture of aconversation 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 thelives of moms and babies around
(12:13):
the world.
That's kind of what I do.
I love it.
And I remember saying tosomebody recently look, I could
just go around the world and bea mom.
I really I've never cared whatI did world and be a bomb.
I really I've never cared what Idid, it was more how I could
serve.
That's wired in my DNA.
So yes, I'm a nurse, I'm amidwife, I have books.
(12:34):
I actually have two new bookscoming out now.
I have, you know, nancy Graceand stuff like that.
And sometimes when I hearpeople read off my resume from
States, I'm like who are theytalking?
about and I'm like oh, oh it'sme, because I really don't care
I moved from Miami to a smalltown called Atlanta it's an hour
(12:55):
or so from Orlando and whenPrusa finally started finding
out who I was because I kind ofjust arrived in town and you
know I'm just me and she saidare you in the witness
protection program or somethingI'm like not yet, you know,
because I don't, because I don'tcare, and I asked folks, you
(13:21):
are not your job, please, you'renot your job.
You know there has to be moreto 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 airand in Europe, you know people
kind of don't ask you what youdo.
They talk about intellectualthings.
So maybe that's something wecan work on next year as
(13:45):
Americans, that and many otherthings.
So maybe that's something, wemaybe that's something we can
work on next year as AmericansUm that and the many other
things that are on the list.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I love what you said, though, that what you do does
not like it doesn't define youand you're not looking at it.
Sounds like what I'm hearing isyou're not looking at titles or
you know how many letters arebehind your name and you're not
undertaking all of thesewonderful things that you've
done for prestige um, you knowand acknowledgements, to say
(14:26):
that is a concept that I don'tfeel or sense, that most
Americans, um understand or orit resonates with them.
I don't hear people saying, hmm, let me choose my major based
(14:49):
on how many people I can serve Imore so hear people talk about
how much money can I make.
How much money can I make?
I also coach, and I coachpeople from all over the world,
and I will tell you this theclients that I have that are
(15:10):
from other countries seem tocarry that more.
It's about how can I show up,who can I help in the world?
Americans always about money.
I coach people who are so burnedout, like they're, like they
have one finger hanging on the,you know, just hanging onto the
(15:32):
ledge with one little pinky, andit's like no, no, no, no, no.
I can't, I can't, I can'treassess here, because why can't
you?
You're telling me you're burnedout.
You're telling me you're,you're about to just, you know,
collapse.
Well, yeah, but you know howmuch money I make?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah.
But I tell you, though we it is.
It's absolutely amazing.
And with with the internet andwith social media, it has gotten
worse.
Let me just say that, whateverthe professor at Yale I forgot
she's taught, she teached thiscourse called the Science of
(16:14):
Wellbeing, whatever her name is,and I took that course.
And the studies show that Moneyprovides happiness up to
$60,000.
After that it doesn't.
It doesn't Because it kind ofpays the basic bills.
You have a roof over your head.
(16:36):
So, yeah, up to $60,000.
If you're making $35,000, youwill attain some degree of
happiness if you got to $60,000.
But after that, no, it doesn't.
And social media I don'tunderstand what's happening to
people, even very educated,well-accomplished folks.
There's something in the waterthat says more, more, more, me,
(16:59):
me, me, me.
And so I have two examplesRecently I was in Ghana and
there were some Americans,professors, law professors, and
they came and I kind of helped alittle bit and they had this
fabulous, that's true, afabulous.
They set up this fabulousseminar for this high end in a
(17:21):
very niche area of law.
Big deal, niche area of law,big deal.
Except I don't know how theygot it into their head to do
this.
They, for some interestingreason, decided to stay up 36
hours without sleeping and theywere eating very little.
(17:42):
So at noon, around little pastnoon, the organizer, who paid
thousands of dollars to puttogether this very elite thing,
passed out on stage.
Wow, yes, I was going to theafter party when I got.
(18:02):
I'm at the hotel, I'm pullingin with my driver, about to get
out where you know.
My driver said Dr O, is ittrying to reach you?
It's somebody so-and-so passedout on stage.
And yeah, yeah.
So the just go, go go.
Yeah, how do you?
Who?
How do you do that 36 hourswithout sleep?
And and one, the one who passedout was really not eating.
(18:25):
So that was horrible.
I'm like you're trying to killyourself.
When I came back and looked onlinkedin, it was a whole
different conversation howfabulous it was, it was and all
the pretty pictures before thepast and I was thinking but I
(18:46):
was there.
I saw reality it didn't go likethat, you know.
So you wonder where we are inour consciousness and where we
are as a people, why we needthat.
A few examples is that I comeback from.
(19:07):
I have problems when I comeback from Africa because a
friend of mine who's lived thereshe's a white person who's
lived.
I say that because it givessome context she has a PhD,
lived in Tanzania, did a lot ofwork there, and she said welcome
back, my sister, re-enterslowly.
(19:27):
It's like a of work there.
And she said welcome back, mysister, re-enter slowly.
It's like a re-entry, take itslow.
So I go out with one of my bestfriends and we live an hour from
Orlando.
We take the train, two of ustake the train down.
She lives in that area and sowe 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 Idon't even know.
(19:51):
We said hello, she startedordering the wines.
It's always her responsibilityto 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 howare you?
She was ordering everybody'sfood and we're like no, no, no,
I don't eat meat.
No, don't you know that sort ofthing.
(20:13):
And then she started talkingabout herself and I don't know
what happened.
I just it sounded like you'dleft me in an echo chamber with
everybody's.
I thought I was going to die.
I thought my brain it triggeredmy vomit center.
(20:33):
So I eventually said to hernicely, you know I'm very
disappointed, you didn't ask meeven how my trip went.
Well, that was the last I heardof her.
She wrote me and she cussed meout and that was like a month
ago, because for once in thefive years that we've all been
together, I said ask her to givesomebody else the floor.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
No, it's, it's that's definitely.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Um, it is obviously an American problem that we're I
mean I think people like thatare all over the world right,
we're just really good at it.
Here we are highly highlysuccessful at making sure that
we are the center of attention,and Americans are very American
(21:21):
centric.
We see everything through thelens that when the way we do
things is the best way andeverybody should be doing it
more like us, and then when, inreality, every country and every
people have a unique way orsomething to offer that we can
learn so much from that's whytravel is so important.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Yes, and you travel not as an American, but just be.
Just go to the people's country.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Just be.
It's like what you were sharingon 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 theysaid, oh, we don't like to go
out of the country, we don'tlike to, you know travel like
that and I'm curious like whatis that?
And and you don't know whatyou're missing, like you have no
(22:16):
idea, because then yourworldview is very, very limited,
I agree.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I mean I don't.
I don't know if it's um uh, youknow, I know cause.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I mean I don't, I don't know if it's you know, I
know because I know lots ofpeople of every different.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm just saying I was, I'm saying I don't know.
So that's me, that's me.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
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 aposition that they could travel
Like they have the resources.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, and they're choosing not to.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And they're choosing not to travel, and travel is so
important to me.
Yeah, like if I had yourresources.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I would be gone 365, you know.
I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think that's what, that's what.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I just did in my brain and Robert and I do that
on our planning, like forretirement our plan, like the
first thing we were going to dois like we're going to go on a
cruise around the world the daywe retire because we just love
to travel.
Now I will say I also do notlove.
I don't like love traveling andbeing in, like I'm not, you're
(23:18):
not going to.
I'm not going to go to Africaand like go on a safari in a
tent, that's never going tohappen.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I will never do that.
Don't be saying that.
Don't be saying that.
Okay, you're going to have totell me about a bougie tent
because I am so.
First, of, all, I'm not goingon a safari.
I don't know what you're doing.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Okay, wait, hold up, we have so much, go ahead, y'all
stop talking about me, becauseI'm going.
Nobody, I hope nobody, nobody,nobody knows in my group.
I am going and you're gonnastand at the end.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, that's wonderful I wish I were
adventurous?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I'm just not.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I'm just not as adventurous, I'm not standing in
his hand um lorna lorna, Idon't want I want to make sure I
get all of this in um, so let'spivot a little bit.
Can you talk to us about whatyou're doing in the congo?
The midwifery that I want to.
I want people to hear that aswell yes, so 2010.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I saw a cnn piece called rape as a weapon of war
and he told the story about thewomen about 2 million women
being raped in the Congo and Iwas like how come I didn't know
about it, how come the worldisn't talking about it?
And next day I called Harvardand, before you know it, in six
(24:38):
weeks I'm on the way to theCongo.
I traveled through Rwanda, wasmet by a priest there, stayed at
a monastery.
Myself and another attorneyfriend crossed over Rwanda and
they've rebuilt their countrybeautifully into Goma.
Actually, there's full-blown warright now in the Congo, the
(25:01):
area in Goma where we enteredfirst, and our doctors several
doctors, we know they're there,we're always checking on them,
people hiding on the beds andall like that.
But anyhow, we went to theCongo and we met several other
rape survivors and we sat withthem and we heard their story
(25:24):
and we cried and so forth.
And then we took a boat overLake 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 McQuakeywho is doing fistula repairs as
(25:50):
fast as he can.
He got a Nobel Peace Prize forthat?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
What kind of repairs?
What was that Fistula?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
repairs.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (25:55):
What happened is yeah .
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You want to say Well, so I'm not sure where, because
fistulas can be anywhere.
Yes, that's true.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
But it's a retrovaginal fistula.
What happened is that the womanthere raped with sticks or
stones or whatever, and theydevelop.
You know there's so much damageas a whole, you know, between
the bladder and the rectum andall of that, and so he is doing,
(26:25):
you know, repairs as fast as hecould, and he was a gentleman
that I saw in the piece.
Over time, you know, becomefriends.
But one of the things he alwayssaid to me every time we used
to go back to the Congo, maybeevery three months or so, with
doctors Dr Mary Jo Sullivan,Professor Emeritus University of
(26:47):
Miami, and so forth, NahidaShatoura, who is at NIH we used
to go back and he'd always sayto me, always sitting with
international press and they'rewriting like every word from his
mouth is diamond and it sure is.
And he'd always get up and sayto me you're back, yeah, because
you're back.
Yeah, because you know we walkedamong rebels.
(27:09):
We went up in an area where youhave M23, where they're
fighting and raping because ofminerals the coltrane, that
mineral in our electronics.
Yeah, most of that comes fromthe Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
I remember going up there and Iturned the corner.
(27:30):
There was a big group of womenin beautiful clothes.
It was about I don't know,maybe about 11, 12 o'clock,
because we left early in themorning 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'rehere to see you.
And I just lost it.
(27:51):
I just started crying because Iknew that they had walked maybe
a day and I'm like to come seesomebody they don't know.
You know what I mean.
And where they were was an areawhere in Mowinga, where several
years ago they had buried 13people alive, put them in a vat
of hot water and stuff like that, and that's where we were
(28:13):
paying homage and stuff likethat.
And then they led us into thebush and the women stopped at an
area in like a little patch andthere was a stone and because
they were going to, I thoughtthey were going to take us to
see a birthing hut, you know.
And they stopped and itsuddenly dawned on us that this
is where the delivery has beendone, on the bare ground, in the
(28:36):
rainforest, right.
So for years we sent thousandsof clean birthing kits to them
and what that was was a littleZiploc bag that we'd assemble in
churches and stuff like that,and it had cord tie, razor blade
, some gloves, some soap andgauze and alcohol swab and
(29:00):
you'll wrap it up and thebiodegradable garbage bag.
You all wrapped it up and itheld in a pine ziploc bag and
that was the birthing kit.
Oh my gosh, okay, I, I, yeah, wesent the houses.
I remember one time we werecoming down off the mountain and
(29:20):
, um, we saw some dead bodies onthe ground.
There was a massacre on thevillage that night.
You know, I will tell you guysthat every time we went you know
my doctors and the nurses therewas a likelihood that we would
not come back.
Yeah, because you know I'vewalked, I've been there, I've
walked among them.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I did the work.
What?
An amazing life you're living.
What an amazing.
It's not amazing, does not dojustice to it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
You're serving.
I was going to say it's theservice, it's not even work,
it's service, I mean it's hard.
I'm not saying it's not hardand challenging, but you're
serving others and it'swonderful yeah but there's an
adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
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 youcan.
You know, when we had COVID, Iflew to a little country called
Somaliland.
It's in the Horn of Africa,between Somalia and Djibouti and
I got into that because I wentto a conference in Ethiopia.
(30:26):
I signed Dr O'Sullivan andmyself up to do a poster
presentation at a OBGYNconference 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 wedoing?
So we're going to do thisconference, so we're doing stuff
(30:46):
.
And she's like what are wedoing?
I'm so we're going to do thisposter presentation.
And she looks at me and shesays you don't know what that is
, do you?
I'm like no, but you do, so wego.
So marriage here that we go.
And I meet this woman callededna adam.
Dear god, what an amazing woman.
She is one woman holding she'sin the book Half the Sky, right.
(31:08):
One woman, and people likeDiane Lane love her.
And I just kind of off the cuff, as I sometimes do, say, oh, dr
O'Sullivan and I, we're goingto come to Smileyland and help
you with some teaching.
During the conference I keptrunning into people and when
they found out who I was, theywere like oh, it's you, edna is
(31:28):
looking for you, right.
So so now I have to go.
I have to go, so, um, covidcomes around and I'm going and
everybody's, you know, callingobviously COVID, not COVID.
Um, ebola, that's no joke,right.
And I'm going and I'm like youall don't know geography, I'm
(31:49):
going to smilin and they don'thave any there, right, and
people are calling me at theairport and my sister's asking
for power, for dirt.
It was a mess, but I, but I, butI, you know, but I go, I, you
know, I fly to um et throughEthiopia first time and somebody
knew somebody.
And I get to the desk andthey're like oh, there's
(32:09):
something here for you, and it'sanother attorney.
She says hey, sis, I don't knowwhy you're here, but here is a
SIM card.
Put it in your phone and callme in the morning so I can
figure out what we need, how wecan help you.
That is the Africa, I know, youknow.
And I get on a plane and you goto Somaliland and,
(32:32):
interestingly, in Ethiopia youdon't have to wear a head wrap
or anything like that.
But as you enter Somalilandairspace, it's like a plume of
cloud in the aircraft becauseall of us were putting on your
head.
(32:53):
I think I misunderstood.
I didn't know I was supposed toget a visa.
Oh my gosh, I don't have a visato go, but I had the right name
.
So I get there and immigrationmeets me and says, oh, you're
here to see Edna.
And I'm like, yeah, thatwouldn't be coming into your
country without a visa, you know.
But so I did, I went and Itaught there.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And they're like are you staying around?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
I'm like no, no, no, I'm not staying around because
you can't drink in Somaliland.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I'm going back to Ethiopia and I'm going back to
Ethiopia, Lorna, just because oftime, I wanted us.
You want to talk about theUSAID before we let her go.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, because we appreciate obviously the fact
that you've been there on theground firsthand so many
different places in Africa.
And we just kind of wanted yourtake on what it's like or, I
guess, what your thoughts are onthe basically complete shutdown
of USAID to.
You know countries all aroundthe world, but you know
(33:55):
predominantly a lot of Africancountries.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Yes, and my position is a double sword, I think,
where it's cruel and it's theway it was done.
I believe that there has alwaysbeen concern about
international aid agencies, notonly USAID how monies are spent
and how the donor country eitheruse most of the money in terms
(34:23):
of living for its people that goto these countries you know,
they stay in really expensiveplaces with drivers and stuff
like that and there's alwaysbeen that concern that enough of
the money was not getting tothe people who need it.
So right now that it's notthere, it's an opportunity for
(34:45):
Africa that's rising, with apopulation 60% of the population
is under 25, and they'reeducated and they want to chart
their course.
You just have to look at placeslike Burkina Faso.
You just have to look at placeslike Namibia, where you have a
female president, a female vicepresident and the chief justice
(35:09):
is female.
So Africa, the Africa.
I see the work I do in placeslike Ghana, what we do in Ghana.
We partner with WisconsinInternational University there
and we provide full scholarshipsfor young women to become
midwives in Africa, and so thatis our focus, because we believe
(35:30):
that every mother, by right,should be delivered by a trained
birth attendant.
We do believe that's how youreduce maternal infant mortality
.
I have a little company in theland called Desert Sage, and 15%
of everything in our store, beit our teas or candles, have two
new books that's come out, oneabout tea, the history of tea,
(35:54):
and the new one that's comingout is called Becoming Whole
Letters to the Woman I Am.
All of that goes.
15% goes to providescholarships and we've been
doing that.
I just got back from Ghanameeting about three weeks ago
(36:15):
and there I met the recipientsof our scholarships that we've
been given.
I was able to teach, do aseminar on compassionate patient
care.
I was able to meet with themidwives in the villages to
understand their needs and meetwith some of the mothers and the
beautiful thing that came outof that meeting is that one of
(36:42):
the drivers for maternalmortality is hemorr, of work
with herbs and so forth for mybusiness, and there is a berry
that there's a lot of sciencebehind it, called turkey berry
some orange to give you thevitamin C to help with the iron
(37:14):
and pineapple.
It tastes good, and so we paidfor all the equipment to make
that happen and they did theirfirst class last week.
A hundred mothers, but thething that warms my heart.
That's why I don't have to tellpeople what I do.
They call this drink MamaLorna's Blessing.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
That's wonderful, wow , wow.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
So the women are drinking Mama Lorna's Blessing
and it's only $6.
So we ask people to go to ourwebsite and just buy it
virtually, and it's only $6, youknow that sort of thing.
So that is what's going on.
That is the kind of work thatneeds to happen on the continent
(37:55):
, and so this is a time I wish.
I wish that the removal wasslow.
You can't just yank an aidorganization like that.
Yes, people will die and it iscruel, and but I think we all,
as people of goodwill andconscience, we can stand in the
(38:19):
gap.
So, you know, somebody cansupport Mama Lana's blessing, or
whatever it is, or do andpartner.
What Africa needs ispartnership where respect is
given.
When you are talking about howwe're going to do things, not
because you're giving the aid,you can disrespect the recipient
(38:40):
, yeah.
So I think we need to look inour hearts and make a difference
.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I love that, lorna, and we're coming to a close of
this episode.
First, I just want to pause andjust give you a heartfelt thank
you.
Thank you so much, not for justbeing our guest today, but
thank you for being the personthat you are.
Thank you for having the heartthat you have, the compassion
(39:11):
and the consciousness.
I feel like I got like I have,so I got to up my game.
I know all the things that youhave done with your life.
I'm like I got to up my game.
I'm feeling lazy here, so youhave inspired me to do more.
We're going to put all of yourinformation on our episodes so
(39:33):
people will be able to link toyour site, be able to go to your
site.
Again, thank you so very much,and friends and family, thank
you, thank you, friends, andfamily.
I you Thank you, friends andfamily.
I leave you, as always, liveyour life on 10.
Your 10.
Bye-bye.
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