My Story

Hello!

It is a pleasure for me to greet you. I hope you are enjoying our God’s richest blessings along with your loved ones. My name is Griselda Marina Grave Chivalan and I am 12 years old. This year, I am a fifth-grade student so, I receive face-to-face classes and hand in homework every day. My school schedules are from 8:30 - 9:30. Let me tell you that last year, I also received live classes for only two hours per week and that affected my learning a little bit. However, I am doing my best to go ahead. I want to tell you that I live with my parents and siblings. My father struggles a lot working as a day laborer. Moreover, he travels to the coast for cutting sugar cane from March to May; in fact, my whole family and I go there for harvesting coffee beans from November to February, in order to make extra money. My mom works hard doing the chores and taking care of my youngest siblings and me. In addition, she looks after our cow. All of us live in our own house, which is made of adobe, tin sheet roof, and concrete floor. Our home has three rooms and a separated kitchen. This has electricity, but no running water. Fortunately, our grandparents provide us with water for drinking and cooking; they live near our home. When we need to wash our clothes or dishes, we go to the nearest river. I love spending time with my family; we usually do it on Saturdays, when we enjoy our lunch. As I told you before, we usually go to the coast for working. So, last Christmas we celebrated it there; the employer presented us with delicious “tamales” (a typical dish), and for celebrating the new year, we enjoyed tasty grilled meat.

I want to tell you that my family and I are members of Life Christian Church, which is a ten-minute walk from my home. When the virus spread everywhere, our church closed for some months and that was pretty sad. Thankfully, this is opened again and works as normal. Unfortunately, the current disease has affected so much our economy since the prices of basic food necessities have gone in price. Besides, my father’s salary is low and this has not changed. At the moment, our needs are corn and other types of food. Despite all, God has always taken care of us and we have been in good health. Moreover, we could see his mercy through Living Water because the staff provided us with food parcels which were a great blessing for our family. So, my whole family and I are so grateful to you for sending us your love by means of Adopt a Child/Living Water. Because of Covid-19, the feeding program was closed for a long time. What I missed the most was the exquisite fried chicken that the staff prepared for me. Thankfully, the feeding program is opening again. This is a thirty-minute walk from my home. Finally, I want to let you know that my mother provided my information to a member of the Living Water staff to share with you. This is all for now, but before leaving you, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter. See you soon!

Sending huge kisses and hugs,

Griselda Marina Grave Chivalan

Translated by: Hillary Popol, AAC Secretary/Antigua