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My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (2)

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    June 03, 2023

    My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (2)

    When we arrived at enterprise, we immediately began to work according to principle of division of labor. At company, we basically spent two days reading materials, visiting each workshop, learning more about state of production and operation, checking work. equipment, and a visit to canteen at noon. Look, find out about food situation of local blacks at noon. I remember we were accompanied by company executives to eat in a small canteen, where Chinese chefs were in charge, and taste was not bad.

    When visiting workshop, these black employees were very welcoming to us, smiling and nodding, and some even came up to shake hands, to be honest, I'm not used to this. I remember that electrician on duty saw me enter, quickly greeted me and shook my hand warmly. From childhood to adulthood, shaking hands with a black man was a first-of-its-kind experience, an indescribable feeling.

    In evening we lived in expert building, which is called expert building, which is a series of two-story buildings for Chinese managers and technicians, one room for each person. Men are on first floor, women are on second. There are several free guest rooms that are prepared for people going to China. We live in guest rooms here. The guest room is actually very basic with a bed, a table and two chairs. It is very basic. There is a green yarn screen door outside to keep mosquitoes out. There is no separate toilet. There are public toilets and bathrooms at end of house. There is no hot water in bathrooms. There is only a bucket under tap. Bathing is cold water. Actually, this is just applying some water in a bucket to dry body. We are not used to such, of course, it is not a problem to cope in one night, if it takes so long, then we will not get used to it. Although it is very hot, swimming in cold water is not suitable for all of us. There is no hot water in room, fortunately we brought our own electric kettle and boiled it, finally we have hot water to drink. In foreign countries, whether it is Africa or Europe, there is no electric kettle to boil water in room, and only cold water is drunk.

    It was middle of December in Dar es Salaam at that time, and it was very hot in daytime, and sun was unbearable, more than 40 degrees, but while it was under a tree or in a place without direct sunlight, it was would be fine. It's cooler there. It's relatively dry there, a kind of dry heat that's different from damp heat here. It is still relatively cold at night and you need to cover yourself with a towel to sleep. Therefore, room we live in does not have air conditioning.

    Live at night, before dawn, a tweeter rang outside, it was a local Muslim prayer, sound was very piercing, making people feel that power of faith is invincible.

    All items in company, including equipment, stationery, daily necessities, etc., are shipped from China, and, of course, accessories are delivered. Therefore, everything is more expensive there, even if list of goods ist is received in China, it will take several months to arrange delivery and receive it at factory.

    Two days of intensive work, a comprehensive review of market, production and operation, personnel situations, equipment situations, especially logistics support situations are not very optimistic in general, although company's products sell well in local market. , but Africa The overall situation is relatively backward, life index is very low, selling price cannot be raised, and production cost is relatively high. There are very few local solutions, and most of them need to be imported from China. The cost of transportation and cost of time are very high. In addition, technological transformation must keep pace with reinvestment and renewal of equipment. Although there are policies such as feed-in tariffs, there are many uncertainties about whether real money investments will have an equivalent return. There are also many uncertainties in political motives of these countries. , therefore, after a thorough consideration, taking on investments is very risky and, in principle, will not be profitable. Actually chairman had a good idea even before he came, it was nothing more than a leader's speech, so he had to get on stage and present something practical before he could justify a veto in board of directors. , investment of manufacturing company is based on efficiency, and there is no profit Investments are doomed to failure.

    After two days, our investigation has come to an end, and our next task is to look at specific markets and appreciate beauty of Africa.

    My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (2)

    Corner of Dar es Salaam Beach

    My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (2)

    Street corner in Dar es Salaam