My Story

I am Manuel Elias Grave Coj, and it is a joy for me to greet you through this. I hope you are fine. Now I am nine years old. Not having taken face-to-face classes last year, affected me, so this year I am repeting second grade. Currently, I am receiving classes in person from Monday through Friday, so on these days I hand in my schoolwork to the teacher. Most of the time, I play games. The time the feeding program was closed due to the pandemic, I missed a lot the tasty lunch there. Thankfully, it is open again, so now I enjoy eating every delicious dish they prepare for us there. I get there in fifteen minutes by walking. My father still works in a dairy in the United States, and in this way, he supports our family financially.  He still stays in touch with us. My mother spends her time at home doing the chores and taking care of us. She earns a little money by raising and selling domestic animals and embroidering typical blouses. Occasionally, we enjoy eating homemade snacks. We also take advantage of the time and read the Bible. We do not usually celebrate Christmas. We are still members in Christian Church on Saturdays, located twenty minutes by walking. We do not have any privilege for now. During the pandemic we had services behind closed doors. Currently services are back to normal.

We own three-room house with separate kitchen. The house is made of mud-brick and plastered walls, concrete floor and tin sheet roof. It has electricity and we get water from a well for we do not have running water. The house is in good condition for now. During the pandemic, there was a lack of work and sustenance in my family, because my father got  the virus and was suspended for quarantine. Thank God it was not more serious. Food supplies and corn is a greatest need for us, so I thank to the feeding program for the grocery bags we received in that time. It was a great help. We are very grateful for all what we received. Thank God, we are all doing well, at the moment. To finish, I want you to know, my mom gave this information to an Evangelism team member to share with you my last news. I say good bye to you for now. Thank you for reading this. I pray God to watch over you always!

Lots of blessings,

Manuel Elias Grave Coj

Translated by: Febe Ruiz / AAC Secretary-Antigua