My Story

...I was born in Cuenca, Ecuador in 1978, the second son of Manuel Cajilima and Ligia Chiriboga. When I was a small child, I didn’t have toys to play. I used to borrow toys from my friend. When I had six years, I went to parochial school. After finishing school, I went to high school in a near city. By the time I finished high school, I was 18 years old. My dream was to get into college, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have all the papers in order. Another reason was the money. My parents didn’t have enough money to pay me the college, but I thank them because I know they did the best to help me get an education.
...Two years after I finished high school, I decided to come here. My parents didn’t like the idea, but finally they understood and decided to help me. It took me two weeks to get here. I flew from Ecuador to Mexico because I couldn’t get a visa to fly here.
...I arrived in New York in 1998. After one week in New York, I started working. I used to make $250.00 in my first job, but I only worked in this company 6 months. I went to work in a demolition company in New Jersey. In this company I was making $1200.00 a week, but two years later they fired me. I don’t know why they did it. It was hard for me to find another job, but I did. In this company I am making less money, but it’s okay. I’m working and coming to school every night.

My Work

...I live in Elmhurst, Queens. I’m a truck driver. The truck that I drive is a 2004 Hino F.B. and the dimensions are 26 feet long and 11 feet high. Every day I get up at 7:00. After I eat my breakfast, I go to pick up my truck which is parked in the warehouse at Nurge Avenue. The company’s name is Sil Dry Cleaners Supply Inc. My job in this company is delivering all the products that the dry cleaners need such as plastic hangers, shirt tags, etc.
...I arrive to the warehouse at 8:00. We are seven drivers, but there are more people working inside. For example, there are two girls who work on the computers taking orders from the customers. After that, these two girls give the orders to another guy to make it for us. That way when I get back to the warehouse everything is ready to put in the truck for delivery. But before I leave it is my obligation to check if all the orders are correct because if I return in the afternoon and tell my boss I didn’t have something in the truck, he will say “I’m sorry, but you have to pay for it.”
I like my job because I have a chance to know different cities and counties such as Westchester, New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut. Like in all companies, in my job I have good days and I have bad days. A good day in my job is when I don’t have any problems with the customers, no accidents and nice weather to drive. But a bad day is when I go to a new city and I do not know how to get there, and I spend time asking somebody or looking for any store to buy a map. Another reason is when it is raining or snowing the traffic moves very slow and I cannot finish my deliveries.
...Every day I drive about two hundred miles. On a normal day, the truck uses about 10 gallons of gas. That changes in the summer. In the summer the engine is on all day because of the air conditioner. One day I learned something that I didn’t know until a cop told me. The last summer I was doing a delivery in Staten Island and I left the engine on because it was very hot that day. The temperature was about 95 degrees. A cop came and asked for my driver’s license and registration. When I asked him what happened, he told me the engine was on for more than 5 minutes and that is against the New York law, especially when the temperature is high and because it was a diesel truck. I told him I didn’t know that, but it was too late because he gave me a ticket, and I paid $100.00 fine. Since that day I always turn off my truck when it is parked.
Every day I work until 5:00. Then I return to the warehouse. After parking my truck, I go inside and I give him money I collected or I tell him that everything was perfect on the day. Around 5:40 I leave the warehouse to come to school.