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Week-long visit, lifelong impression

Tiffany Tuell

(Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 12:00 AM)

All it took was a few short days for the people of Haiti to make a lifelong impression on the hearts of Tim and Susan Madden.

After Susan's chance encounter in Florida with taxi driver Carsel St. Fleur who also is a Haitian minister with a small school, the Maddens were led to volunteer their time and money to teach a special summer program to young Haitian children in Pignon, about 90 miles from Port Au Prince.

Upon arriving in Haiti, Susan said she wanted to turn around and go home.

"By the time I left, I felt a pull to return," she said. "It was life-changing, and it was different than I expected."

When the Maddens landed in Port Au Prince, they were surprised to see a bustling city, not the devastation they imagined. The devastation was still apparent, they said, but cleanup is slow with no large machinery to help and only the occasional citizen shoveling debris into piles that are not removed.

"There are thousands upon thousands of tents with people trying to carry on their lives as best as possible," Susan said. "The way they live is what they know. They don't have food to eat for every meal or running water or electricity. They don't know any different, and yet they carry on with their lives every day."

Tim said he was moved by the contrast between his world and the Haitians'.

"Their life is 'what are we going to eat today?' and 'how are we going keep the kids healthy?' " he said. "They're not worried about unlimited texting and the latest shoes."

After a short stay in Port Au Prince, the Maddens traveled to Pignon by car. It took 41/2 hours to travel about 90 miles, with 10 people crammed in the car.

They stayed with the minister's uncle in what they described as one of the nicest homes in town, which still lacked what most Americans are used to having. It had no running water, and electricity was limited to three hours a day.

The town runs off two generators, the Maddens said. There is no air conditioning and no refrigeration. Water must be carried from the river or from one of two community wells. Coal provides heat for cooking and ironing. Even the day's protein, primarily chicken, is killed each morning and prepared and eaten throughout the day.

"The women stay very, very busy all day hauling water, cooking, washing dishes, laundry, doing everything around the house," Susan said.

The Maddens thought they would assist with the weeklong special summer program, but when they arrived in Pignon, they found out they were the teachers.

They taught the children English and supervised art projects. Through Feed Our Starving Children, they were able to obtain two weeks' worth of food for the children for $150.

"School started Tuesday with 50 children," Susan said. "By Thursday, there were probably 125 kids because they heard of the food, and on Friday there were 200 kids."

The Maddens wanted to improve the poor water situation by setting up a well on the church property.

"We spoke to Haiti Outreach and were able to meet with them, and they're more than happy to build the well," Susan said. "We also met with the local Rotary Club in Pignon about joint efforts between their club and ours to put the well in as part of the matching-grant program, and they said they'd be willing to work with us."

Susan said she wants the well to bring more than just water. She hopes it also will bring sustainable income for the Christian school.

"There are so many needs over there, not just water," she said. "But my feeling is that it's such a basic need, and you can't live without water."

The Maddens plan to raise money through Oakhurst Noon Rotary Club and hope to collaborate with other clubs to apply for a matching grant through the Rotary District and Rotary International.

"It doesn't take huge amounts of money from an individual -- just a little bit of money from a lot of people," Tim said. "When you donate, you also get something back and are making a positive difference in the world. When you come back from a situation like this, you realize the abundance we have in our life and (that) giving a little back to anyone in need helps."

The Maddens hope to return to Haiti someday, possibly when the well has been completed at the school.

"We learned so much more than we taught them," Susan said. "They taught us so much about everything from family to perseverance."