My Story

Chuchuca, where your child lives, is an area located high on the side of a mountain in the state of Quiché, Guatemala. Life in this area is very difficult and very isolated from the outside world. It is more than a two-hour walk to the nearest market town of Zacualpa. Chuchuca is a farming area where corn and black beans, the staple elements in their diet, are the major crops. The Quiché Indians who inhabit this area trace their ancestral roots to the ancient Mayan civilization. They normally speak an Indian dialect called Quiché - however, Spanish is becoming more common. Very little money ever changes hands in this area as they live on a barter system.

Hello, it is a pleasure to introduce my family and me. My name is Marcelino Cesar Elias Mendez Garcia. My birthdate is October 24, 2019. I am 5 years old. I am not attending school yet because I am a little boy. In my free time, I like to play toy cars. My favorite color is green and my favorite animal is a cat. I love to eat fried chicken. I have the great blessing to live with my parents and my siblings. I have four brothers and two sisters and three of them are part of the Living Water Program too. My father´s name is Juan Mendez Luis and he works as a farmer and a day laborer. My mother´s name is Aquilina Garcia Gomez and she is a housewife and takes care of us. My brother Lorenzo works doing different types of jobs to help with the expenses in the family.

We are a healthy family and we are members from the Prince of Peach church. We go there on Wednesday.  We live in our own house. It has two rooms and a kitchen. It is made of adobe and wooden board walls, tin sheet roof and dirt floor. We have running water and electricity. My father pays the running water each year and the electricity each month. We raise some animals such as hens and pigs. We have some needs such as groceries. We walk 4 minutes to get to the feeding program. I enjoy the time that I spend there.

In Jesus name,

Marcelino Cesar Elias Mendez Garcia

Translated by: Magnolia De Torres / A-A-C Secretary-Antigua Guatemala