Be a Village Hero

I was dreading the trip. I hadn’t felt well. I holed myself in the hotel yesterday after arriving at my destination. I struggled to maintain my energy as I gave a speech today. I ate an almost normal meal for the first time since Sunday after my program and the queasy stomach returned. Yuck! At least I was able to get the earlier flight home. I even was upgraded to first class. Things were looking up. Then after everyone boarded and we started our taxi, the captain gave us the news, the instrument panel needed repair. Back to the gate. Unboarding. Passengers signed as if a loud sigh would let everyone know that they disapproved. As I was walking to the new gate, I heard a voice in a heavy accent call out my name. It was fellow motivational speaker and friend Rene Godefroy. He had just returned from a trip to his native Haiti. In our time together he told me about what he experienced in Petite Riviere, the small village where he grew up: doctors who were paid less than $100 US per month. Dentists who had to boil water on an open fire to treat patients. A little boy with Downs Syndrome, who he stumbled upon, had been left by his parents alone to care for himself. Kids who had nothing who looked to him for the assistance he traveled there to give. Rene taught them English. He paid for prescriptions. He helped his village get clean water. He fixed bike tires for kids. He hugged children. He gave them hope.

They told him, “It was a dream come true for you to come here. We have been following you. We read your website and your blog. We have seen you on TV. You are the hope for us here”. Indeed he was and is and will be. He’s going back in December. This time he’ll meet with the Prime Minister there. He knows where he came from and knows he wants to help others escape the lifestyle he had there. Rene was born in a tiny, isolated village and was an impoverished child perpetually tormented by cholera, rickets and malnutrition. Abandoned by his father and left behind while his mother sought work in the city, Rene subsisted on meager charity and the rare fish he caught with a string and hook. Some people of his village called him “Souyan”, the name of a sick and disabled old man. Few expected he would survive to adulthood.Rene surprised them. In 1983, he came to Montreal with a Haitian theater company and escaped into the United States wedged between the rear tires of a tractor-trailer. He arrived in New York with five dollars in his pocket, and two shirts and a pair of pants in his battered suitcase. In the years that followed, Rene supported himself doing hard labor for low pay. Sure in his heart that he was capable of much more, Rene taught himself English, read voraciously and dedicated himself to his grandest ambitions. Today, he is a proud American citizen, and a successful businessman, speaker and author. When the man they once called “Souyan” returned to visit Haiti, a man told him, “You are our Village Hero”.  

Today he was my hero and he made every inconvenience of my trip worthwhile.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com