PABLO...A COMMON NAME...A NOT-SO-COMMON BOY

Pablo lives in the village of San Pablo La Laguna, a small village that is 3 miles from San Juan La Laguna.  He started going to the New Dawning school in first grade, one of the first children enrolled in the school from that village.  He was quiet, polite, and consistent in attendance, even though he had to travel at least 30 minutes each way to get to school.

When Pablo finished second grade, his mom told him that he would need to go the public school in San Pablo for third grade, because transportation to get him to school was more than a dollar each day.  When the next school year began the following January, his mom got him dressed and off to his new school.  But he never arrived. 

His family went looking for him in the village, and then started to search the roads in and out of San Pablo.  It was there that they found him.  He had almost arrived in San Juan!  They asked him why he didn’t go to school, and he said “My school is the New Dawning school in San Juan.  I’m on my way to school, and I’m going to study.”  The next morning, Pablo was enrolled in third grade in the New Dawning school. 

Tuc tucs wait to take people from home-to-store, or even from village-to-village.

Pablo will again change schools next year.  Why?  Because he is in 9th grade, and will graduate from the Basico level of studies in October!  The New Dawning Christian School continues to be his school.  Each day he walks from his house to the entrance to his village, then takes a tuc tuc to the entrance of San Juan, before walking the final ten minutes to school. At the end of each day, he does the same.  The school has found a sponsor who pays for Pablo to take the tuc tuc each day, but he still has to walk 15 minutes or more each way to get to school. 

Pablo will enter high school in 2026.  But the New Dawning school will always be his home.  He was one of the first students from San Pablo at the school.  Now, however, over 30 students take that same trek each day of the school year.  Because of him, the school is stronger, with a larger footprint in our area.  Because of dedicated teachers, good parents, and students who want to study, and because of you, Pablo is able to pursue his dreams.   

A new year...and we are prepared!

For children in Guatemala, the beginning of the new year is different that it is for children in the United States. In Guatemala, the children are anxious and counting the days until the beginning of a new school year. In Guatemala, the school year begins in January and continues into October.

Teachers are also excited. For some, they will only now learn what grade they will be teaching. They will have a couple of weeks before the children come to class, and will spend that time preparing lesson plans, organizing their classroom, and developing as a team.

For parents, they see the school as a door to a better future for their children. Many of them have never had the opportunity to study for more time than was needed to learn to read and write, add and subtract. Some parents were never able to study. So they send their children to a place about which they understand little. But they have been told that it is a place of opportunity.

For the Children of Lake Atitlan, it is another year of commitment to education. While teachers and students rested, the board of the nonprofit was busy with a fundraiser. Thanks to their efforts and the response of many people, they will begin the new year with enough in the bank to pay the salaries of the teachers at the New Dawning Christian School for four months.

During the year, we will try to paint a picture of the life of the school, the lives of the students and teachers, and the efforts of the Children to support the school. We hope that you will regulary visit our blog, and that you will share it with others. Welcome to our first blog ever.

GET ON YOUR MARKS...GET SET...GO! LET THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR BEGIN!! ARE WE READY? YOU BET WE ARE!