Senor Pablo buying notebooks

Today I met my dear Senor Pablo in Panajachel to buy 262 notebooks for the students of San Pablo, a poor village on Lake Atitlan. I phoned last night and made arrangements to meet him this morning in the closest and largest town on the lake. He sounded pretty bad with a headache, cough and sore throat. However, he flat turned down my idea that he might not want to do this big trip today.

Although he was late because the boat was later than he expected, he arrived with a delightful smile on his face. I met him at one end of town and the place he wanted to buy the notebooks was at the other end of the town. I would have walked it easily but he was obviously sick. However, again he never suggested that it would be difficult for him. I quickly hailed a tuk-tuk and for about $1.20 for the 2 of us we got to the other end of the town. A small price to buy but half of a day´s wage for Senor Pablo.

I stayed out of the way in this small and very busy store. I just took some pictures and paid the bill. I expected it to be over 1300 Quetzals but the bill came in at just over 300. We even asked them twice if they had charged us the right amount but they insisted that it was right.

We walked out with 2 boxes of notebooks for a great price! Senor Pablo then asked if I would be willing to pay for two of his youngest children to complete their education. He has a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter who can´t go to school this year because the bill for the registration and supplies is $50 each. I decided that we had got such an amazing deal on the notebooks that I would give him the $100 for the two teens to go to school this year. When you are supporting a family on $2.50 per day and have a very ill wife, $50 is a huge amount of money.

I also gave him 50 Quetzales ($6) for his boat trips to Panajachel and back, the tuk-tuk back to the dock with the 2 heavy boxes and his day´s lost wage of 20 Quetzales. He was incredibly grateful.

I found it fascinating that since Sunday when we arranged to get together to make this purchase, he never once talked about losing a day´s wage or the cost of traveling to Panajachel. Amazingly, he has only ever asked for money for others and never once asked for himself.

I know that if I was about to lose 1/6 of my wage for the week and I had no savings, nothing to fall back on, had a sick wife at home and kids still in school with expenses looming, I would have a worry or two. I might have even whined a bit or at least brought up the loss of my wages and expenses involved in doing this charitable act. But not him. Not a peep. I was pretty impressed because I don´t know that I would have been so obliging or gracious.

This little man has certainly been a gift in my life. My dear friend Brenda arrives on Monday and so on Wednesday we are scheduled to go to San Pablo to help hand out the school supplies.

What an amazing week it has been. I am having a potluck here at the place tomorrow night for the folks staying in the building. There should be 8 or 9 of us. It will be fun to get to know these adventurous foreigners.

Have a fabulous weekend and I´ll be back next week with some other things I am anxious to share with you about the lake and life here in Guatemala.

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