Family & Friends

One of the most important reasons for wanting to work here is the people. I speak so often of the beautiful Zambian children and how rewarding the work is but I truly cannot say enough about the Lifespring team and the family I've come to know as my own during my 6 month stay.

We work on so many different projects with the Foundation, plus ongoing farming duties can call for a very busy environment -- just my cuppu tea!

Last night, three sets of visitors arrived to stay in our lodge guest houses and we had a total 15 people sitting down at the dinner table! The hospitality is superb and the food spectacular.

Working on the hospitality side has been right up my alley! I'm quite excited as 2 musungu (white) children are here visiting at the moment. There is a 4 year old blond girl named Nala who reminds me so much of my niece, Ellie (only 6 weeks apart). She's just a ball of joy! See photo at bottom...

Tony likes to take the dogs for a walk before tea time/sunset and this time the dogs were caught chasing what they thought to be a good meal! Tony is my 'partner in crime' on the golf course, we try to play 9 holes every Tuesday. He spent 30 years on the Metropolitan Police service.


Josie & Derry are Directors of the Lifespring Foundation and basically juggle running both the household & the charity. Both previous nurses, they are such lovingly mother types but also carry a corporate mindset which I LOVE! Any day in the office with these beautiful women is a blessed day.

Michel, retired Research Engineer comes from Switzerland. He loves a great chat about Canada and his cross-country trip back in 1973. He is very handy, always running around fixing things... Mike built his own rickety wooden step-ladder, woobly as it may be, this man is so very creative and I can't get enough of his unique personality.

Womba is the Sobia Co-ordinator and mother of 2. She lives next door at the Commandos/ Barracks and comes to work for 7:00a.m. - knocking off at 4:30p.m. from Monday-Saturday.

It has been a pleasure working alongside Womba over these months --we've reorganized the cellar donations, built 4 libraries for the Foundation, and organized games for children at the day centres. To work so closely with the Zambians has been a blessing --we have plenty of laughs despite our different circumstances...

Many international visitors come to stay at the farm. This is the Brubacher family from Canada/USA who work in Samfya (northern province) and stopped in for 2 days. As noted above, Ellie's twin is in the middle of the photo...

We all take different paths in life,
but no matter where we go,
we take a little of each other everywhere.
- Tim McGraw

Similarities....

It’s easy to romanticize our perceptions of Africa;

it’s much harder to come, on a human level,

to realize that we’re not all that different from one another.

Teach a Child

Train a child in the way he should go
and when he is old,
he will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Vanity Fair – Africa July 2007 Issue:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $8 billion on global health, including the fight against AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa and elsewhere. "I'm optimistic," says Bill, "that people's thinking will evolve on the question of health inequity—that people will finally accept that the death of a child in the developing world is just as tragic and worthy of our attention as the death of a child in the rich world." Melinda adds, "I believe the connection happens when you see people as neighbors and not as strangers. The people of Africa are our neighbors."

BONO: Musician, activist, and V.F.'s first-ever guest editor, Bono is in favor of erecting a very big tent when it comes to the AIDS epidemic. "This is an emergency—normal rules don't apply. There are no good or bad guys," he says. "Do you think an African mother cares if the drugs keeping her child alive are thanks to an iPod or a church plate? Or a Democrat or a Republican? I don't think that mother gives a damn about where that 20-cent pill comes from, so why should we. It can lead to some uncomfortable bedfellows, but sometimes less sleep means you are more awake."

BARACK OBAMA says, “To return filled me with hope—because while significant obstacles remain, I believe we have the chance to build more equitable and just societies so that all people have the chance to control their own destinies."

Philanthropist OPRAH WINFREY has helped fund 28 schools in five African countries as well as personally creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in South Africa, in 2007. She says, "Education is freedom; it's the only way out. Despite the poverty and despair many of these young African children face every day, they have a fierce determination to get an education. I want to help give them the chance they deserve."

MADONNA: "I asked one of the children in Malawi, 'If you've got the world listening to you, if there's one thing you could say to the world, what would you say?" Madonna told Dr. Jim Yong Kim, former director of the World Health Organization's H.I.V./AIDS department. "And the boy said, 'Please just help us forget that we're orphans.'"

ALICIA KEYS won five Grammys with her 2001 debut album, Songs in A Minor. But her world changed even more when she traveled to South Africa for her first concert there, in 2002, and became involved with Keep a Child Alive—a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing anti-retroviral treatment to children and adults with H.I.V./AIDS in Africa. "When you go to Africa, there is a spirit that is very resilient," she says, "and it's a very inspiring thing to be around; it definitely gives me a sense of purpose, something to work for."

MUHAMMAD ALI said, "It is true, Africa has endured famine, drought, and the AIDS epidemic, but what is more important is that the people have endured … with dignity and hope. It is their hope and mine that this rich and magnificent land will one day be restored to the majesty of its ancestors."

STEPHEN LEWIS:"I believe that the breakthrough will come – not a subduing of the pandemic, which will take years, but a momentum around treatment that will unleash a tremendous reservoir of hope," he says. "I am consumed by the need to keep at it because it speaks to keeping people alive. It's as simple as that."

A new day

When the sky blushes
the water still as silvered grass
and stars shine one more time at their brightest,
before the stretch of dawn,
I sit with silence to greet the day

L O V E

“What does love look like?
It has the hands to help others.
It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.
It has eyes to see misery and want.
It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of human beings.
That is what love looks like.”
-- St. Augustine

Happy Valentine's Day! xoxo

The Beizel Farm

Our neighbouring farm is run by a lovely Zimbabwean couple -- Andrew & Juliet. They have 3 small children who have fabulous africana accents.

Sue and I spent Christmas day at their farm and returned the favour on New Years Eve here at Lifespring farm.





Baby Philipa, 7 months


















Jeremy, Age 5 and Dominic Age 2

The beauty is, that it’s only a 1/2 hour bike ride through the bush to go for visits.

The 450 acre farm has approx. 1000 cattle, 250 ewes with 1.5 lambs per sheep, 200 breeding cattle (1.75 calves per cow) which provide meat sales for the local Quiksave.

They have 2 dogs Penny & Lela & their passion is horse-back riding with riding beauties named Silky & Midnight. I was able to go riding on Christmas day which was a true highlight!

Preparing the horses for a sunset ride!!

Baby calf -- a week old

Last August, Andrew found some unusual footprint markings on his farm (called spooring) and sent photographs to his fellow South African hunter friend who confirmed that a lioness and her baby cub had walked through their farm and over towards our banana crops!!

Then, this past Saturday, Andrew's guards heard an animal cry and went to find an old bushbuck recently killed behind the farm, with 2 distinct pawprint markings on it's body. Photographs were forwarded once again and confirmed that the prints belonged to a leopard!

They were more excited about the Bushbuck as these antelope are rarely found in our area. Leopards travel great distances to hunt their prey and then move very quickly on to the next place. Andrew has sent the pelt down to Lusaka to be preserved as this skin coat is so beautiful and extra special due to the leopard claw markings on the hind and front chest area.

To think, Sue & I went all the way to South Luangwa to catch a glimpse of a leopard, with no luck and here was one right in our backyard!!!

Philipa & Sue

This family were kicked off their farm in Zimbabwe, where they left many worldly possessions, packed what little they could, and set for Zambia where they’ve made their home these past 3 years. We can only pray good things for struggling Zim at this time…

Albert Einstein said...

Strange is our situation here on Earth.

Each of us comes for a short visit,

not knowing why,

yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

From the standpoint of daily life,

however, there is one thing we do know:

that man is here for the sake of other men.

- Albert Einstein

Where is God?

God is in the slums,
in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.

God is in the silence of a mother who has infected
her child with a virus that will end both of their lives.

God is the cries heard under the rubble of war.

God is in the debris of opportunity and lives,
and God is with us if we are with them”
- Bono

Our friend Cencio

Cencio & Mike







We have a dear Italian friend in town called Cencio, well his first name is Oliver but he is called by his nickname (part of his surname).

His beautiful South African wife is named Charmaine and they always host the most wonderful dinner parties at their lovely home in Ndola. They live part-time in JoBerg and half time here.















Nights with Cencio are always filled with lots of great food, good drinks, funny hats, & much dancing into the late night.
Photos speak the words… ex game hunter with '70's catch still hanging from the walls and pistols by the plenty, yikes!

Thanks for the laughter, Cencio!!!

We all need a little bit of that with the work we do…

People living with HIV/AIDS

The situation of people living and dying with AIDS in parts of Africa

is so desperate that even the most basic help

will bring solace and hope.

- Stephen Lewis