Kyle Hepp

January 7, 2010

I get emails every now and again from people wanting to know how Marcelo is doing, so I’ve written a few individual updates, but I realized that it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about his story here on the blog.

He’s doing excellent! He made it through his first year. This summer, he’s taking one class that he failed during the year (geometry). Now, I know a lot of people from the U.S. are like, “WTF, he FAILED a class?!? That must mean he’s not trying.” Not true. Failing classes in Chile is not only normal, it’s actually pretty standard. I don’t know a single Chilean who has never failed a university class. I guess it’s part of the experience. I personally bombed linguistics while I was here.

Anyway, so he started his summer class of Geometry and we decided that he’s paying himself. He was the one who brought it up — he wants to pay for anything extra, any classes that he has to re-take. And we think that’s a good thing — people hold themselves very responsible when it’s their own money they’re dealing with.

When Seba went to sign him for classes yesterday (whether Marcelo wants to pay or not, for some reason he can’t. The person signed up to be in charge of the finances is the only one who can do it) they had a good talk.

Marcelo is considering continuing on in his studies after he gets this degree.

What he’s studying right now is a 2.5 year degree called a “Tecnico en Construcion.” When he’s done, he’ll be qualified to move up the ladder from his current position as trasador to a position as supervisor of the trasadors, which I believe Isabel once said means surveyor. He would start making more than double his salary right away and would eventually (10 years+ down the road is the typically path for this career to reach it’s max earning power) quadruple it. However, in that position, he would have no time to keep studying since supervisors work insane hours.

So he was thinking of taking a job as an assistant in the office part for the construction company where he works, which is according to Seba, boring as hell, and Marcelo isn’t really that interested in the actual work. But, people who work in the office get out early so he’d have time to keep studying. He would make about the same that he’s working now. If he was able to do that and keep studying for two more years though, he’d get a degree in Construction Engineering where he’d finish it and have even more work possibilities.

I’m really proud of him for even considering it. He is working so hard, and I know that it must be tempting to say, ok, after 2.5 years of this crap, I’m done. Marcelo has to leave his house every day at 7am for work. Then he’s there until 6pm when he goes straight to class. He has classes until 11pm. He’s home by midnight. Wash, rinse and repeat. Every day. For someone like me, who needs a solid ten hours of sleep a night, this schedule is incomprehensible! I mean seriously, when does he have time to even poop, let alone study?!?

The other update on his life is that he was applying for a government subsidy to be able to buy an apartment or a house or something, and then was applying for financing from the bank to be able to get a loan for the rest of it. Because he had a month where he was without work, he got rejected for the loan. In construction, people in his position go from one construction site to the other, and so at one point he just had a month in between sites, but that’s unpaid. So he has to hope that this year he doesn’t have another month like that and then apply again.

We’re about the same age, Marcelo and I. When I think of both of us when we were 18 deciding what to do with our lives — me going to college because that’s what you do, and I couldn’t fathom doing anything else, and him working because what else would he be able to do, and if he slaved labored for one hundred years maybe, just maybe, one day he too would have enough to go to college — that makes me sad. And now that he’s able to even consider the realistic possibility of going on to get an even higher degree after what he’s doing now — well, that makes me really, really happy.