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Dear Family and Friends,

This part Southern Africa just can’t seem to get a break. The rains simply won’t stop. Everyone here says they have never seen this much rain in their lives. In Church last week the congregation was praying for the rain to stop! This is unprecedented. At every service I’ve been to for the past two years the prayers have been for rain. “Be careful what you wish for”, has gained a whole new significance.

The road (if you could call it a road – a track really) to this village is now entirely washed out. Not even 4×4s can get within several kilometers of the village. I’ve had to do a lot of village to village traveling these last few weeks and every trip has been a very wet adventure. There is one area that is a series of sandstone rocks that has to be climbed either up or down to get to and from a neighboring village. It is no a waterfall that must be scaled. To say I’ve been getting wet is such an understatement. Yesterday I rode Lance to a meeting in Mate. We had to cross a river. I gave him his head and balanced with my feet up on the saddle. The water came over his stomach but my brave horse kept his footing and we didn’t have to swim. Just my trailing skirt got wet. The ever-watching villagers ululated and clapped when we reached the other side. Sometimes this job is really fun!

But the rain is exacting a terrible toll on the fragile economy here. Some crops are rotting in the fields. It’s time for the corn and sorghum to be drying out for harvest but it just keeps raining. Our winter vegetable fields, which lie in lowland close to the river, were completely washed out just after planting. We lost every seed and every seedling and had to spend valuable resources replanting. At the moment they are OK.

Here’s the worst part. The group that determines where the UNWFP food will be delivered –a totally corrupt group of officials collectively called the DMC (disaster management committee) just issued the edict that because northern Lesotho has been getting such wonderful rain, we have no more need for food deliveries – they are diverting our food elsewhere. My guess is into somebody’s pocket. Without even visiting our projects to determine the consequences of this decision they gave us 30 days notice. This is such a disaster for our projects. The 95 families that are fed by the UNWFP work projects are the poorest of the poor. Either they don’t have fields to plant or they didn’t have money to buy seeds for their fields or they are too old or sick to do the grueling labor that farming their land requires. We have an additional 57 families that are caring for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) that we’ve finally, after months of negotiations been able to get onto a UNWFP program for food aid and they too are now cut off. This DMC decision spells potential starvation for many of these good people.

I’ve just sent a letter to the head of the UNWFP protesting this decision. I wrote it but it was signed by the Member of Parliament for this area, the chairman of the Menkhoaneng Community Development Association and several chiefs. I’m hoping it will make a difference. As Peace Corps volunteers we are supposed to avoid any political involvement but this situation is testing my resolve to remain politically neutral. I have good friends at the newspapers that I would like to ask to write an expose on the DMC. We’ll see. The DMC is the same group that allowed 400 50kgt bags of cornmeal to rot in a warehouse because they had spent the funds for delivery on “workshops” at a posh resort in South Africa. This was during the time that we were pleading for help and being told there was no food available –a time when we were burying adult corpses weighing 80 pounds.

On the positive side, what we’re doing in face of these recent challenges is planting winter vegetables like mad. There are still lots of good fields. We’ve ceased work on the cultural village and every able-bodied man, woman and child is working on expanding our community-cooperative gardens. If the winter is mild we should have cabbage, swiss chard, beets and a type of spinach that is tough and resilient to cold. We are also buying all the excess corn and sorghum from those lucky farmers who’ve escaped the floods to help get the poorest of the poor through the coming winter months. We’ve received some generous contributions to the American Friends Fund lately and the Association is doing an admirable and intelligent job is allocating the money wisely. No one has starved to death in this or the surrounding villages for over a year now and our goal is to maintain that record. The steely determination of these good villagers to protect those in need in their community is very inspiring. It spurs my efforts to bang on the doors
of those in power.

The Village Association has applied for another PCV to replace me when I leave in July. I’m so hoping they get one. There are so many more applicants than there are volunteers. Really, the Peace Corps should be a much bigger organization. Do you know the annual budget for the entire global operation is somewhere around $350 million? We spend that in less than a week in Iraq.

I recently attended an all-volunteer conference in Maseru. The session on “best practices” made me so proud to be an American. The work that my fellow PCVs are doing here is making a real difference. You’d be astounded and proud of their accomplishments – computer labs, orphanages, traveling puppet shows to teach children about AIDS, income generating projects like pig farms and craft shops – it’s just wonderful. In this little country, where the Peace Corps has been active for almost 40 years, everyone loves Americans. They see us as helpful and generous and peaceful. In many ways this is a very comfortable place to be.

And on that note I’ll close with love from the quite soggy heart of Africa,
Peggi

By Dr. Stacey Francis, Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

Our sights are on bathing suit season. We have gotten awfully comfy in our oversized sweatshirts and baggy pants over the last few months. Are you looking at all the weight loss books wondering which one holds the magic for you? I say stop looking. I’m going to introduce you to the No-Stress way to achieve your body goals.

Most importantly, be realistic with yourself. Are you going to the gym just so you can eat those late night potato chips or that pint of choco-lishis ice cream? Or are you eating barely anything because you tell yourself you can’t make it to the gym? I hate to inform you of something you already know, but these strategies are not going to get you into the cute shorts you have your eyes on. So cut out the self sabotage.

Start with eating. In fact, eat lots! Eat a lot of Fruit and vegetables. Eat lean proteins and eat (but don’t overeat) whole grains. Choose low glycemic index foods. These are foods that don’t increase your blood sugar quickly. They are the foods I just mentioned, they are not white bread, white pasta, white potatoes, corn, or sugar.

Eat often. Eating every 2 ½ to 3 hours will maintain your blood sugar. This will help you feel satisfied throughout the day and help you prevent diabetes and heart disease. Eat smaller meals since you are eating more frequently and if you are at a restaurant, ask them to bring you a take out container when they bring your meal. I know it tastes great and you want to eat it all in one sitting, but remember you get to eat that wonderful food again in just a few hours.

Eat a lean protein at every meal. That means you are eating a protein every 2 ½-3 hours. Muscle is made of protein and increasing muscle helps to increase your metabolic rate, the rate at which you burn calories. And we want to burn calories right? But we don’t want to lose muscle, we only want to lose extra fat.

“What about exercise?” you may ask. Well of course you need to exercise, you already knew that, but take the stress out. Find 20 minutes in the morning to do your thing. That can be chasing your kids in the snow, salsa dancing or sweating it out at the gym, but do it for 20 minutes every day. If you are lifting weights, also called strength training, that will help you build muscles and now you know that increasing muscle increases your metabolic rate which means you are burning more calories.

Guess what? It’s not easy. We want it to be easy, it’s not easy. But it doesn’t have to be work. Make it fun. Say it’s fun to yourself and everyone you come in contact with. Create eating to improve your body and your health to be the most fun and least stressful thing you do for yourself. Then enjoy those shorts.

As we celebrate Love this month, ask yourself if you are living fully with joy, abundance and following your passion.

Ask yourself these questions:

• In what areas have you been holding back in life?
• What is it you have always wanted to do, but perhaps put other’s needs first?
  
• What are the hobbies that you used to enjoy that you no longer have time for? 

Spend some time journaling about where you are and where you want to be in a few years and how you want to spend the second half of your life.  You have the power to reinvent your life any way you wish, so close your eyes for a moment and dream away…then reach out and get the support that you need to make it happen because you deserve it!  Jill and I want to thank you for being part of our community and we look forward to getting to know you better.

I want to share one of my favorite quotes from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make and manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Marianne Williamson
“Our Greatest Fear” from her book A Return To Love

I served in the Peace Corps from 2004 to 2006 in Menkhoaneng, Lesotho.  As a Community Development volunteer, I was able to organize a group of village elders and chiefs into a registered CBO, the Menkhoaneng Community Development Association.  Although we got several projects underway, the one issue we were never able to address was getting clean drinking water to the village.  Now, I am returning to Lesotho as a private citizen to complete this task.

Water was a critical need then and is more so now.  As you probably know the area has suffered two more years of drought and crop failure.  When water is scarce it becomes even more highly infected with parasites but the people drink it anyway.  There is neither the cultural imperative to boil drinking water nor is there the fuel necessary to make it a feasible option.  Intestinal parasites and chronic diarrhea are endemic   My sister, who is traveling with me and I have made arrangements with a well contractor to drill a bore hole in the village of Menkhoaneng that will bring clean drinking water for the first time ever to the men, women and children of the area.  We think the well should service between 1,000 to 1,500 people.

Some good friends who run a foundation called Rainbow Hope have offered to accept contributions on our behalf.  Rainbow Hope is a 501c3 organization so your contribution would be completely tax-deductible.

If you would like to contribute please send a check to:

Rainbow Hope
5693 South Ashford Way
Ypsilanti, MI 48197

If you write Menkhoaneng Well on the check they will be sure to allocate the funds to our project.

The contractor has estimated a base cost of R63,128 to drill the borehole.  However having done business there before, I know this price will not cover the costs of the project.  We will have to hold several Pitsos, travel often from the remote village to Maseru (which requires a 4×4 vehicle) figure out how to get the equipment to the village, employ as many local villagers as possible to work on the project.  Our estimate for the project cost is $20,000.

My sister and I have committed to complete this project.  We have sold $20,000 in stock to assure it’s completion but we would be very grateful for any part of these costs that you could help with.  We have raised about $3,000.00 so far to defray costs. Although we leave on February 7th, the Rainbow Hope people can accept donations all this year.  We will be able to supply receipts and a cost breakdown to them and to you upon our return in late March.  If the project runs beyond that time, a situation which we are trying to avoid, we will hand the management of the project over to a college educated Basotho named Molise Faratsi.  He heads the Community Association and is a completely trustworthy individual.

Dear Family & Friends,

Some of the lessons I’m learning in this Peace Corps assignment are very
difficult to accept.  Perhaps the most challenging one is that “different”
does not necessarily mean “wrong”.

Let me tell you the story of one of our family’s donkeys.

I called this little donkey “Sweetheart”.  She was the oldest of our three
donkeys and the one I always used to fetch water.  She was so patient.  She
would stand motionless at the side of the high mountain spring while I
carefully filled the two containers hung over her back.  I never filled them
all the way – they were so heavy and she was so small.  Sweetheart would
then lead me back down the steep mountain trail to the house where I would
transfer the precious water to my storage containers.  She often followed me
around like a puppy.  I always gave her special treats – apples and an
occasional watermelon rind.

The family and villagers considered my gentle treatment of this animal very
odd.  Donkeys are beasts of burden here and are beaten more frequently than
any other animal.  I’ve seen donkeys loaded down with enormous burdens
beaten until their knees buckle for not walking fast enough.

At any rate, last week Sweetheart was taken with the other family donkeys to
fetch long grass from a distant field to feed the cows.  On the way back,
burdened with a load taller than she was, she fell off a ledge and either
broke or dislocated her leg.  The herd boys somehow got her home and placed
her lying on her side by my hut.  Matjeeka said they would probably have to
slaughter her.  I begged her to give me a day or two to see if there was
anything I could do.  I gave her some of the painkiller I had left over from
Lance’s accident, petted and brushed her, fed her apples and sweet grass and
hoped for the best.  By the next day, Friday, she could stand although the
leg was obviously badly damaged.  She could put no weight on it at all but
she could hobble around a bit on three legs before falling over.
By Saturday she could hobble around for a few hours then would get as close
to my hut as possible and collapse.

During all this time we were visited by many of the men of the village.
They all gave their opinion that this was now a useless animal and should be
slaughtered.  I knew they were right about the useless part.  By Sunday, her
fate was sealed.  Five very somber men came with the tools of slaughter.  My
brother Tjeeka came to me and said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry.”  I went into
my hut, closed the door, curtained the windows and cried.  I cursed these
people for their “cruelty”.

By Monday morning I’d gained enough composure to once again join in the
family activities.  My first sight upon coming outside my hut was several of
our dogs gnawing on Sweethearts sawed off legs.  One of the puppies was
swinging her tail around like a toy.  Sweetheart’s hide was stretched and
drying in the sun.  Her severed head lay beside the largest cooking cauldron
ready to be boiled and her flayed body lay covered with flies by the cooking
hut.  I rushed back to the seclusion of my hut but threw up before I could
get inside.

Later that day my friend and village elder, Setsomi, came to visit.  He is a
very wise man.  The news that I was upset and perhaps ill had spread.  In
our now quite effective part English, part Sesotho conversational style we
discussed our different cultures. While we were having this conversation
Matjeeka brought him, as is the custom here, a large plate of food.  It was
papa (maize meal) and donkey.  She asked if I wanted to eat.  I said, “No
thank you.”  Setsomi said, “But this is meat – a great gift from your friend
(meaning Sweetheart)”.

Although there is no way in this lifetime that I could eat this meat, I knew
he was right.  Sweetheart was providing her final gift – much needed protein
to many villagers.  The men who slaughtered her had the privilege of eating
the brain.  When they came to do this later that evening they made a little
ceremony of it.  They said, ”This donkey was old like M’e Ntabby (that’s
me), and M’e Ntabby loved her.  We thank her for her kindness to this
animal.”

Although this was in no way any apology for slaughtering the animal I know
this was their way of acknowledging my relationship with her and trying, in
the way of their culture, to help me feel better about it.  These are very
good and kind people.  They are trying as hard to understand me as I am them
and they are giving me the benefit of the doubt.

Not one morsel of this fine animal was wasted.  For two days we had a
continual stream of visitors – many orphans and the poorest of the village
came to dine on this precious meat.  Sharing with the underprivileged is
such an engrained part of this culture that it is never questioned.

The clearest message I’ve gotten from this cross-cultural experience is that
there can really be only one life.  The key for each of us is to live the
sliver we’ve been given to the very best of our ability.  I know Sweetheart
did.

With love from the strange but beautiful heart of Africa,
Peggi

By April Welch, CPO, Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

Have you put Get Organized on your list of things to accomplish this year?

You are not alone … getting organized is among the top 5 things listed on 90% of New Year’s Resolution Lists!

So, as the SWC Contributing Expert on Organizing I wanted to make sure you had the right tools for your New Beginning on getting organized in 2008.

When working with clients I always begin our project with a tour of the ‘space’. I use the word ‘space’ because for some of you it may be your closet, others may want to focus on their home office & some may need a little clutter reduction made in their minds. No matter where your ‘space’ resides you can apply some of the following tips to help you create a road map for your goals this year.

1.  Give yourself the guided tour:

a.  Without beating yourself up over the mounds of unfinished “things” you see, simply say out loud what you see. When you begin to hear a pattern emerge take action. (ex: A client had called me to help her with her closets, however once she had given me the tour of her space I noticed that she was explaining in great detail the piles of paper that lead to the closet. We redirected the session to paperwork)

2.  Once you know where you’re going to start & what your focus will be in that area you can begin the traditional sorting & purging.

a.  Sorting – for some clients this is a time just to decide what stays & what goes. Others decide what general category things will go in & start tossing accordingly. The key to this exercise is to handle the item with as little emotion as possible (try not to notice how cute Johnny was in the picture)

b.  Purging – decide how items will be distributed prior to a project. If you know that all your nice work clothes that have been too small for over 5 years will be going to the YWCA program for women entering the work force (as opposed to just a “get rid of” pile) you are much more likely to begin letting go of more.

3.  Avoid Burn Out

a.  Once you’ve reached your energy peak & you begin the downward descent - walk away from the project. No matter how much of a mess you’ve created. If you push yourself past your patience level you will surely get burned out & your New Year’s Resolution will have to wait another year to be accomplished. Take a break (30-60 minutes) do something rewarding like taking a walk or cuddling up with your favorite magazine & return refreshed. Stay disciplined though! Continue returning until you’ve seen the type of progress that meets your goals.

By Sherry G. Day, MS Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

Assess your personal traits and skills to see if you have what it takes to be successful as a business owner. Entrepreneurs need great “people skills” as well as industry knowledge and a willingness to take risks. Using the list below, consider your level of competence in 20 areas and rate them 1 – 5, with 5 being the highest. Then add the numbers to get your total. Compare your total to the key below.

Traits / Skills
1. Accepts responsibility
2. Adaptability
3. Coach / mentor others
4. Comfortable with risk-taking
5. Communicate clearly & concisely
6. Create motivating environment
7. Enthusiasm for challenge
8. Exhibit drive & energy
9. Flexibility
10. Good people skills / human relations
11. Initiative /self-starter
12. Make thoughtful & timely decisions
13. Maintain good health & life balance
14. Networking skills
15. Organizational skills
16. Open-mindedness
17. Persistence
18. Resourcefulness
19. Self-Confidence
20. Willingness to listen

TOTAL SCORE:

Key for Rating Points
Well below average 1
Below average 2
Average 3
Above average 4
Well above average 5

What does Your Score mean?

40 or less: Better stick to your day job! You are probably better off working for someone else.
41 – 65: This is “iffy”. You may be able to make it on your own.
66 – 85: You have entrepreneurial qualities. Do you have the willingness to tough it out?
86 –100: Follow your dream and become your own boss. You have what it takes – if you have answered honestly and have a good business plan!

By Marilyn Schwader, Smart Women’s Café Contributing Expert

A few years ago, I suggested to my sister, who is a very good artist, that if she raised her prices on her pieces that she would sell more, and with the higher price, make much more for the same amount of effort. Her first reaction was that she didn’t want to price herself “out of her market.”

A year went by, and every time I saw her, I’d suggest she raise her prices. Finally, after encouragement from many others, she relented and doubled her price. Almost immediately, she began to sell more.

Two years later, she now sells her work for triple what she once charged and has a list of commissions waiting for her to get to. She has not changed her marketing or increased her exposure. She simply made her artwork “reassuredly” expensive so that her market feels they are getting value for their money.

Pricing is an important component of the success phenomenon, although many business people have no idea how to approach this piece of the puzzle. It’s taking three things into account:

* your perception of your product’s value
* how much effort you want to expend
* the buyer’s perceived value

Let’s look at your perception first. On occasion, a business will price their goods too high, often because they have fallen in love with what they’re selling and believe everyone in the world will feel the same way. However, more often, the product or service is priced too low. One reason for this is due to a perception of scarcity: the person setting the price feels that they would not spend that much on the product and wonders if others would feel the same way. Whether the price is set too high or too low, both are matters of personal perception.

Now let’s look at effort. If you are putting the same amount of effort and money into the marketing and selling of your product, having a price that reflects its true value to the buyer will bring back a higher return on investment. This is a simple concept, but one that’s difficult to implement if your own perception of the product’s value is not in alignment with a higher price.

So how do you set your price? Here are five things to factor into your pricing:

1. Examine your beliefs about the value of your product; if you question how much you would spend, is this a product you want to spend your money and energy promoting?

2. If you feel good about the product, decide how much you want to make.

3. Decide how many hours you want to work.

4. Raise your fees to match what you want to make in the time you want to work.

5. Look at others in your market who are having success selling and marketing a similar product or service to determine if you are in alignment with your market.

Finally, there is the perceived value of the consumer. If the price is too low, the buyer might feel the product or service has limited value and will be hesitant to buy. On the other hand, when you have built trust with the buyer, when they feel they will be getting their money’s worth, price becomes less of a factor in their decision, and they will be willing to pay more because they know they will get value for their investment.

The bottom line is that you can increase YOUR bottom line significantly by pricing correctly, and you will move ever closer to the Success Phenomenon.

Dear Family and Friends,

I really think the drought is over. It’s been raining pretty steadily since November; the crops look great, the rivers are full and the cows look fat and healthy. I read somewhere that the drought cycles in this part of Africa often last around seven years and are followed by a like number of years of average to above-average rainfall. Hopefully we are now in the later cycle.

A lot has been happening around here. I’m feeling a huge sense of urgency to get all our village projects up, running and self-sustaining. We’re starting over again with the Cultural Village project. Just now the workers are leveling out the area, removing ash and saving as many stones as possible. In addition, we’ve started one last and large community agriculture project. It’s a five-year program beginning with a big (three hectares) community vegetable garden. We’re combining everything we know about nutrition for children and AIDS patients, permaculture and water harvesting into a project to grow food for our village orphans and housebound sick people while at the same time employing the maximum number of volunteers in a UN food for work program. The UN has already approved phase one of this four-phased project.

We’ve been able to add 20 more families to the monthly food distribution. These families will be
responsible for maintaining the garden. In phase two we can add 30 more families who will contribute workers to build a water retention dam in the village. Phase three of the program will involve cultivating another six hectares with all the grains we need to feed the chickens in our community chicken farm. This eliminates the cost of feed for the chickens and keeps all our volunteer workers on the UNWFP program. The final phase of the project is to build a community greenhouse. Each phase of this new project requires lots of training and coordination not to mention writing the grants to get the financial aid necessary to fund the project. The UN provides
food only – all funds for seeds, building materials etc. have to come from elsewhere – I’m flooding NGO’s with grant proposals.

I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the Menkhoaneng Community Development Association (MCDA). Our newly elected executive committee is taking real responsibility in following through on everything that needs to be done on our various projects. I find my job is to act as an advocate for these people with the various NGO’s and government ministries, create written
proposals and grants and act as an advisor at all the meetings. I leave for Maseru tomorrow to try to drum up some support for the dam project. We need an unbelievable amount of cement.

Also, I just returned from another very fun trip around South Africa with two good friends from the US, Karen Fitt and Joyce Virnich. We visited one of the finest game reserves in SA called Shamwari. We hadn’t pulled fifty yards into the reserve when a very large Cape cobra slithered across the road directly in front of our car. When the screaming subsided (just kidding) we forged onward. I’ll only speak of one of the many wonderful animal encounters we enjoyed at Shamwari. It involved elephants – lots of them. We toured the reserve in a completely open Land Rover with our handsome, knowledgeable guide. We were on a narrow dirt road driving through a big grove of prickly pear cactus when we spotted some elephants headed directly towards us. We stopped the car and just sat there as a whole herd of the huge pachyderms, all females and their many baby, toddler and adolescent offspring surrounded our car. They had come to picnic on prickly pear. The toddlers played “I can push you off the road” with their age mates butting heads and entwining trunks. One little fellow practiced his charging technique on our car flaring out his ears, raising his trunk and charging us while his mother looked benignly on. It felt like a real family picnic. Our guide said it was the finest elephant encounter he’d had in years. We stayed a long time taking photos and just enjoying being so up close and personal with these beautiful animals.

My friends flew home from Cape Town and I took a train back. The train, which ran on electric wires, broke down nine times. I had a sleeper compartment that I shared with an Indian woman and her beautiful three-year-old daughter so I was perfectly comfortable during the two full days it took to get back to this area. I got off the train in Bethlehem, a small town about three hours from Lesotho. There I rented a truck to get myself and a lot of stuff up to Menkhoaneng. I had a long list of supplies needed for our projects not to mention 50 kg bags food for Lance and the dogs. Although it had rained a few days previously, I was able to get the truck to the village. My plan was to return the truck to Bethlehem the next day and return to the village by public transport and on foot. The downpour began just an hour after I got to the village. It rained all night. I’d also made arrangements to take a bunch of our AIDS patients who are now on ARV’s to the hospital for their monthly supply of drugs on my way to Bethlehem. We all stood around the truck in the morning wondering what to do. Finally with a whole team of volunteers armed with shovels and a
serious “can do” attitude we headed down the mountain. It’s nine kilometers to the road and although we’ve been working on this access “road” for the whole two years I’ve been here it is a long way from being complete. Add to this the erosion and damage done by the recent storms and anyone in their right mind would say it was impassable. None of us was in our right minds.

It was a wonderful, muddy, wet, tiring and totally heart-warming experience. We had sangomas, herd boys, women and children literally building a road under the wheels of the truck. I went down to the hubcaps in muck several times. The workers shoveled paths behind and in front of
the wheels, filled the paths with stones and all pushed. I drove that truck like a maniac. When we finally got to a point where I knew the truck could make it on it’s own we had an ad hoc celebration singing songs, dancing and having the sangomas say prayers of gratitude. It took almost all day but everybody who needed to got to the hospital and I got the truck returned to
Bethlehem. Matjeeka went with me all the way so I wouldn’t be walking back up the mountain alone in the dark. It was not an easy day but it was one during which I felt completely surrounded by love. It was a perfect Peace Corps day.

I’ll sign off now. It’s Friday and the brother of one of our most dedicated volunteers died this week. Tomorrow is his funeral, which I’ll miss because of the Maseru trip so I’m going over to her house tonight to help prepare food for the funeral and take some small gifts – candles, matches, peanut butter, bread and tea. I really love this woman; her English is a bad as my Sesotho and we always try to tell each other jokes. When I don’t get what she’s saying she just yells it out louder – so do I. It’s become a regular thing with us – it’s pretty funny. But I’m sure there will be only tears tonight. Her brother was just 32 years old and beloved by all – a fine man with five sisters, a wife, mother and two children left to grieve for him. We got him on ARV’s but too late.

Wishing you all a very happy Valentines Day from the warm, if saddened, heart of Africa,
Love,
Peggi

It is now 2008 - a New Year - a time for new beginnings. What are your plans? Have you written them down? Have you shared them with your loved ones, your business associates or your coach? By now, you may have watched the movie or read the book, “The Secret.” If so, you know that you attract what you focus on most into your life. But what kind of system or process have you put in place to create the life of your dreams? If you are not focused on living the life of your dreams, that’s exactly what you will get - what you don’t want - again.

So, what’s the secret?

It may sound cliché, but the secret is “making the time” to actually sit down and to envision your dreams for 2008, as well as three years and ten years from now.

Try this exercise now. Close your eyes and envision your Perfect Life three years from now. What would it look like? Imagine you are getting ready in front of the mirror and you have a huge smile on your face. You feel amazing. Life is good. For you to be feeling this way three years from now, what has to be happening in your life? What are you getting ready to do that day; where are you going; where are you living; who are you spending time with? (Remember - we become like the five people we spend the most time with!) How much do you earn; how do you look; what are you wearing and how do you feel in your body? Does this make sense? Please get out your journal and write it all down.

Now, figure out what has to happen between now and then for you to be in that position? Start out by writing goals. Print these out and put them where you can read them every day. (Remember, we get what we focus on.) Less that 3% of the population even writes their goals down, let alone “reads” them every day.

Did you put an income goal? If not, why? If you did, was it a stretch? Remember, there is no honor in your thinking small. As woman, if you want to do great things in the world, to make an impact on the lives of your loved ones, to leave a legacy or to make a difference, then you will need to think big and bold. You will also need to understand your relationship with money because whatever is happening with your money, is happening with your life - I promise.

There are five secrets to overcoming under-earning - to being paid what we are worth, to valuing money, to paying ourselves first and to having financial independence so we can live the life of our dreams. This year, I will be focusing on helping women become Midlife Millionaires™. I have done this myself. There is a strategy, a process and it works. I will be sharing this with you, so be sure to watch for my next article, be sure to do the exercise above and you too can become a Midlife Millionaire!

I and the other Contributing Experts are creating an entire series of programs designed to help you do this. There is no magic - just creating the plan and working with those who have done it before. Be sure to visit our Calendar of Events on our Home page so you can sign up for some of our flag ship events this month. These will be life changing. If you don’t live in Michigan and you want to join me for Secrets of Successful High Earners, don’t worry, I will be offering a similar program in a four-week teleclass in February! We have so many wonderful events scheduled for you this year. I hope you and your friends take advantage of them. Click here to share this newsletter with them now. Thank you!