By the time freshman Samuel Pablo, left his Guatemalan elementary school, he was fluent in three languages. Now, he attends North Platte High School, but he can’t completely understand what his teachers and classmates say.

The 15-year-old is a refugee from Guatemala and a recent immigrant to the United States. He was able to cross as a refugee, this is someone who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster, because the conditions of the country are so poor.

Pablo is already fluent in three languages, none of which are English. He knows Kiche, Kakchikel, which are ancient Mayan languages from Guatemala, as well as Spanish. “When [I] was very young, [my] father spoke Kakchikel, and [my] mother spoke Kiche. It was necessary to learn both in order to speak to them,” he said. Then he had to learn Spanish when he started school. “They’re not difficult, to learn or speak,” Pablo said.

Since he’s been here, there isn’t anything that’s been easy. “One challenging thing is to communicate with other people because [I] don’t speak any English,” he said. Pablo says everyone has been really helpful though, especially ELL (English Language Learning) educator Mrs. Abby Martinez and Ms. Lori Larson. “They both helped [me] do [my] work and homework and tried to make things easier for [us] to understand,” said Pablo.

It took him about four to five months to prepare for his big move. The day he was ready to start his journey, he was sad and worried, and he would come to miss his family a lot. “[My] guide, through Mexico, came and got [me], [I] didn’t know who he was or anyone in the group,” Pablo said. His group consisted of 12 people, including himself.

He spent five days traveling from Guatemala to the United States. When he was crossing the border between Guatemala and Mexico, the Mexican border patrol had asked his group for their ID’s and money. “We arrived to a grey house and there was around 300 people,” he said. The house was only two levels; “[I] only stayed there for about four hours, there wasn’t enough room for everybody,” Pablo said.

There is a program for Guatemalan children to cross as refugees, for which Pablo was accepted. “[My] process took like two days,” Pablo said. “They had to have fingerprints and [an] identification photo.” From Texas, they sent him to New York. He remembers clearly, the tall buildings and cars speeding by. “[I] liked it the minute [I] saw everything, [it’s] better than Guatemala,” he said.

He had to stay in New York for around a month and a half to prepare himself and to learn enough English to get by. He was with one other person, although he didn’t know who he was. “When the month and a half was up, [I] got a plane ticket to Nebraska,” he said. He came to North Platte because he had a cousin who offered to take him in. “The way [I] recognized [my] cousin was because he was very short,” he said. “He was the same height as the last time [I] saw him.”

At first, he didn’t like Nebraska. “There was more to do in Guatemala,” he said. But he was also happy because he found his cousin. “I hope to learn to speak English,” he said. “[I] hope to be a great student during [my] time in this school.”