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More Pictures from the Field

Saturday, 14 August 2010 04:32

July 2010

Updates from Douglas in the Field

Saturday, 14 August 2010 03:24

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.

July 2010

Photos from the Field - Disaster in Guatemala

Saturday, 14 August 2010 03:07

The struggle to clear the roads after the landslides

Guatemala July2010

Guatemala Needs Your Help!

Saturday, 14 August 2010 03:01

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.

Letter from the Executive Director 2010

Thursday, 04 March 2010 01:02

Dear Friend of The Pencil Project:

Thank you for your interest in what we are doing to change the lives of children in both Guatemala and the United States! I am Douglas Rhodenbaugh, a public school teacher in Austin, Texas. In the last 17 years, my students and I have provided new and used school supplies to literally hundreds of thousands of poor Guatemalan children. The Pencils for Guatemala drive is an effort that my students look forward to every year, and many return year after year to participate. The Pencil Project now has Member Chapters in public, charter, and religious schools in several states, and now has an official Chapter at Brown University. For many of my students here in the United States, it is their first important experience to reach out and give, and feel the pride of opening their hearts to less fortunate others.

The Pencil Project