In 1993,  Douglas Rhodenbaugh, a Middle School teacher from Austin, Texas, was vacationing in the Guatemalan Highlands where he traveled regularly.

Douglas chatted at length with them and, as Douglas is a photographer as well as a teacher, he took their pictures.
When Douglas asked where they were from, the children answered, “Here.” 

He took that to mean Chichicastenango.
 
Because the children were so friendly and endearing Douglas asked if he could bring them something the next time he returned and, much to his surprise, the children asked for pencils.

Puzzled by this request, Douglas questioned them further and found that in the Guatemalan Highlands the school year started in January and that each child had to provide their own pencil and other school supplies to attend school.
Without at least a pencil, the children could not go to school and, as he found out later, would instead be sent to pick coffee beans on the surrounding coffee plantations.  

Later Douglas also was told that the “here” the children had mentioned was the cemetery. The children were orphans, most from the country's decades long civil war, who lived in the cemetery crypts.

Struck by that realization, when Douglas returned to Austin, he placed a donation box along with pictures of the orphans in his 6th grade classroom. The children in the class responded generously, filling the box with supplies for the children. From this simple beginning, The Pencil Project has had great success. In the United States, more than 50 schools in 3 states and a Girl Scout troop now donate supplies to the project. These supplies now encompass children in more than 50 Guatemalan villages. 

All of the original cemetery orphans have now been placed in foster homes and all were able to attend school. Simple projects, such as small loans to help two of the now grown “cemetery orphans” set up a sewing business continue.

Dear Friends and Donors:

The news from Guatemala this month has been awful. First, the volcanic eruption that dropped 6 inches of black sand on the newly planted crops, followed that same week by 30 inches of rain in two nights. The damage to the nation's infrastructure was catastrophic....roads and bridges washed away, waste water, and water treatment systems overwhelmed, and deadly landslides that carried not only highways, homes, and electric lines down, but left the survivors in remote villages with no clean drinking water. Now, with what little they have left, these villagers are battling the cholera and other water borne illnesses that come with contaminated water supplies. And today brings yet another tropical storm system over the mountains.

As you know, our Executive Director, Douglas Rhodenbaugh, has been in Guatemala for several weeks helping with the relief effort.  His focus has been on getting schools up and running as fast as possible.

Here are his postings from the field.

 July 22 at 7:13pm

Chichicastenango, El Quiche. Lots of work to do to get some of these schools back up and running. Some cannot even be seen above the mudslides.

July 26 at 7:04pm

Got the sweet deal at Piedra Santa bookstore again....20% below cost, and no tax! The entire bodega is full of tiny, yellow 8-packs of crayons, and pencils. The money you sent last week will buy sheet metal and window glass. Thanks everyone!

 July 29 at 7:02pm

Update...100 page notebooks now 24 cents apiece...my discount has been pushed from 20% to 30%. Thank you, Libreria Piedra Santa . School is in session. In the damaged schools, there are classes outside when it is not raining. In the ruined schools, I am delivering boxes of supplies...crayons, pencils, map colors, notebooks, and pens to each site...enough for 600 kids,... and they share. I have brokered a few marvelous partnerships with neighboring churches, some literally across the highway. And classes will start when I can get the boxes off the top of the chicken bus. Each basic supply crate is about US$400, and it literally opens the school. I have met in Guatemala City with the owner of an independent bookstore, so I am getting supplies tax free (30%), plus an additional 30% markdown. 100 page notebooks for less than 25 cents apiece.....cheaper than shipping, that´s for sure! I am focusing on the most need first, and the easiest to reach...it is dangerous...but I want to try to get to most of the 83 schools at least once this time.

August 4 at 6:21pm

Still in Huehuetenango...outside of Todos Santos. A world of mud, dogs, more rain, and pencils in a world above the cloudline.
 
August 6 Friday at 6:31pm

They say that when you are the first to arrive at an accident, you are supposed to tell the victim, ¨The worst part is over¨. I am saying that now...wow what a freezing mudpit, but I am back in Chichicastenango, and the awful situation in Todos Santos Huehuetenango was definitely where the supplies were needed. One last week and only 22 schools left....all around Tecpan and Sn. Juan Comalapa.