A realization

the wise do not keep anything
giving to others is joy
doing for others is happiness
-Taoist verse

Dear friends,

In the last week I have been honored with the offer of two employment opportunities: as manager of the Bhubezi Community Healthcare Center and as manager of Pride ‘n Purpose.

I sit here in my kaya, listening to Dizzy Gillespie, the wind breezing through the open door & windows and bringing the wind chimes to life, I am very contemplative of what direction my life will take in the next few weeks. I have been at ease since my arrival, not inclined to pursue a certain direction; but allowing life (the Universe) to guide me in due time (for those of you already enlightened by reading The Alchemist, you will understand. Those of you who don’t, I urge you to wait no longer—the next time you are on the net or driving by a bookseller—pick up a copy.)

Well, I had a sign a couple of days ago on an excursion to Nelspruit, the closest urban center to where I am. In the span of a few short hours I met two very dynamic individuals with whom the world should come to know.

Gregg and I caught up with David Pool for a light breakfast in a café within a busy shopping center. David is an herbalist who operates a medicinal plant farm. As we sat chatting for an hour, David pointed out no less than fifteen “patients” that passed by us who have come to him for natural treatments for ailments that western medicine failed to allieve. He’d say: “See that man there? He was a pharmacist for over 30 years. Could barely walk when he came to me. Look at him now.”—as he rushed up a flight of stairs. Many people came by and shook his hand as he shared his story over a cappuccino (purchased on credit through the café as money is scarce. He is a healer and feels that he shouldn’t charge too much money for his medicines.)

It is through David that Gregg secures the “muti” that he offers to people battling AIDS. One such person, an employee at Ulusaba, came to Gregg after weeks of insomnia, loss of appetite, grossly swollen glands and boils on his arms. After a week of David’s muti (made with African potato), this man slept through the night, was beginning to eat full meals, the gland was back to its normal size and the boils were healing.

David has captured what westerners and our methods of treatment have long forgotten: nature (encompassing humans, too, don’t forget) provides us with all we need—a complete cycle of life.

The day carried on and we caught up with Sue Whyte, a graceful, beautiful, vibrant woman who has lived many lifetimes in the span of just half of one. Sue has traveled the world, with each location introducing her to people and philosophies that has shaped who she is. She, too, has discovered how radically plants can heal—primarily with African ginger and African aloe—and has formed a company (Let Nature Live) to promote her ideologies.

She can best tell her story (excerpts from a proposal that she has written):

· The idea of Let Nature Live came after I had suffered two serious accidents within 3 months of each other both near fatal. The second accident was the most serious. Through a horse riding accident I suffered a ruptured duodenum and a 5-day peritonitis, which was undetected by the doctor concerned in Phalaborwa. I was flown on the 5^th day, when it was apparent I was dying, to Morningside Clinic in Johannesburg. I remained there on a life support system, intravenous antibiotics and intravenous feeding, with two blood transfusions, 8 drains in the stomach, one down the nose and throat and ten into the arteries, unable to move, eat or drink-for four and a half months. My chances of survival, due to my size and weight, were 8%. Due to the fact I had grown up without ever taking antibiotics and had been trained by a herbal healer in Switzerland for many years, using these herbs and homeopathic remedies for 15 years, plus the fact I was a healthy, active squash player, swimmer and horse rider, I survived. My liver, heart and kidneys did not fail as expected, as they had never been subjected to medication. I also had a very positive mindset where my 3-month old son and two daughters were concerned, and was determined that I would not leave them. One by-pass and 4 operations later, I returned home, barely able to walk, very much an invalid and still with a drain from the stomach for one year. I was told, due to the damage done to my spine and neck in both accidents and the extent of the adhesions in my stomach, that I would never ride, play squash again or be pain free. I was also very vulnerable to obstructing, through the massive adhesions I had so I immediately went onto my healing products and Aloe Vera, changed my diet and though I will never be pain free, I am horse riding and playing squash again albeit 14 years later.

I decided the only way to deal with my life changing experience and the trauma I had suffered, was to work with people in similar situations, either accident victims or those inflicted with illness. This was the beginning of my research on different kinds of herbal, plant and alternative methods of healing I had learned in Switzerland, which took me from Europe, to the Himalayas in India to study and undergo Ayruvedic healing under Dr. Gupta, and then to the Native American and Chiropractic healers of Montana and Wyoming in the USA. A Cherokee Indian told me: “There is no plant in any land that does not contain a healing property for a particular illness in that particular place”.

· The main product I work with consists of a complete nutritional balance in various tablet, food and juice form. It is unique in that it contains natural sugar from a plant sourced from Canada and is very high in its alkaline content. This is vital because a cancer cell placed in an acidic solution mutates at a very fast rate, but when placed in an alkaline solution, it disintegrates. It is also high in blood warming properties, essential for the HIV/AIDS virus. The virus struggles to survive in a person who has high alkalinity, low acidity, low or no sugar intake and normal blood temperature—the four most important factors of “balancing the body through nature.” The other products consist of our well known Aloe Vera, Sutherlandia, African potato, African ginger and shitake mushrooms, to mention a few.

· The Ernest Oppenheimer Group have been on one of our products for the last two years, from the CEO to the blue-collared workers. They have had no absenteeism in this time and are prepared to write a statement to this effect. I, in my personal capacity, have worked with the following cases with various products I have sourced, primarily Aloe Barbedensis Miller, with excellent results:

o One female patient came to me during my 14 years living on a wildlife breeding station in Hoedspruit. I had treated our 24 staff members for various ailments, which included burns, HIV, and full blown AIDS, venereal diseases, diabetes, chronic headaches, arthritis, etc, and had also given health seminars to our rural folk at our local church providing them with my products for free and giving them education on basic health care. One of our temporary staff members caught the calf muscle of her leg between a tractor and trailer. The local doctor had cleaned and stitched the wound, which had subsequently become gangrenous and she was told the leg would have to be amputated. She walked 15km to me and asked me to help her. When I removed the bandage, the smell of the gangrene was shocking and her leg was completely infected with it. I began treatment by asking her to ingest Aloe Vera juice and then flushing out the wound with peroxide, followed by Aloe juice, then packing it with Aloe gel and an herbal mix. I continued this treatment 3 times per day for 6 weeks. After the second week, the healthy red flesh began to show through the necrotic tissue, which had formed in the centre of the wound, and I called in a paramedic to cut the necrotic tissue away. Within 6 weeks the wound had completely healed, albeit leaving a large indentation in her leg. She was again able to walk normally and continue working.

o A white male patient from Bethlehem, who had heard of the work I was doing through his brother who is my plant pathologist, suffered from very bad diabetes and was on daily insulin injections. Both his legs and feet were badly infected by gangrene and three of his toes had been removed. The surgeon in Bethlehem eventually insisted that both legs should be amputated at the knee. While this patient was being prepped for surgery, he decided he wanted to try alternative healing first and drove up to see me in White River where I began similar treatment with him as I had with my previous patient. His legs were very hot and red with infection, the calves mostly black and the feet almost totally black with a large hole in the left sole of his foot. His brother monitored the temperature of his legs while again I gave him Aloe Vera and this time Sutherlandia to ingest and began flushing out the gangrene by putting peroxide into the wound first and then flushing it out by using a syringe, without a needle, filled with aloe. The gel and herbal mix followed this. I also worked with him psychologically as he was going through a traumatic divorce at the time. Over a period of two weeks, visiting him twice daily, the hole began to close, the infection receded from the legs and the healthy pink flesh began to appear in place of the black tissue.

On that day, I came to the realization that by accepting the position with Pride ‘n Purpose (or perhaps Virgin Unite) I would have many more encounters, such as these, with brilliant & dynamic people.

It’s the journey on these twists & turns and the people along the way that is called life.