My Story

Zacualpa is a small but busy village in a mountain valley. Both Quiche Mayans and Ladinos (those with mixed European ancestry) inhabit the village. The prevalent language is Spanish. Families in this village live in one or two room homes usually constructed of either wood or adobe. Although many of the people are farmers, the village contains several small and specialized stores, a body repair shop for buses, mechanics, plumbers, and many other small-town tradesmen. It also has a large open-air market which serves much of the area. Even with all of this, the poverty level is extremely high, and the children are very needy.

May the grace of the Lord be with you! This is Emerso Kelvin Macario Chingo, and I will tell you a little about myself in this opportunity. I was born on January 24, 2019, so I am 5 years old. Because of my age, I still do not attend school. I stay home playing with my toy cars. What I enjoy the most is playing soccer with my siblings. I have one brother and two sisters. My favorite color is black and I love eating fried beans. My favorite domestic animals are hens. I am glad because my family and I have a few at home. Now, let me tell you about my family. Thankfully, we are all in good health. My mother is Juan Chingo Jimon. She is a housewife and works as a day laborer or washes clothes for other people to help my father with the household expenses. She also sells the hens to get an extra income. My father is Augusto Macario Saquic. He dedicates his full time to working as a farmer and day laborer. He also fixes shoes to earn extra money for our family. 

My parents do their best to support our family economically, but most of the time their income is varely enough to cover all our needs. Our frequent needs are clothes and food. So please, pray for us. We live in our own house which is made of adobe with a tin sheet roof and dirt floor. It has one room, a separate kitchen, and electricity. My parents pay for that service monthly. We do not have running water at home. Luckily, we can get the vital liquid from a well in one of the nearby ravines. So, we have to carry the water in gallons to our house. Let me tell you the feeding program is a one-hour walk from where we live. We sometimes get there on foot, but if my parents have enough resources, we pay for a taxi and get to the project within 15 minutes. I say goodbye to you now, but I want you to know that my mom helped me to give all this information to a teacher of the LW evangelism team. See you later!

Huge hugs,

Emerso Kelvin Macario Chingo

Translated by: Hillary Popol, AAC Secretary