In 2014, after 8 years of retiring from the Navy, I entered a state-owned enterprise, and although the interpersonal relationship was a bit complicated, my life was also ordinary.
In the process of work, I was often sent to countries for short-term business trips, and by chance, I paid attention to the platform of the foreign home, and looked for my own shadow in the stories of others stationed abroad every day, when the public account would create a flash chat group for these stories, in those groups I knew a lot of people, and have been in contact with them, and also learned a lot about the foreign station.
In 2018, I felt that I was still not suitable for this company, and I went to Algeria in Africa after being introduced by one of my friends.
I work as a manager in the installation department of an electrical company. Although it is a manager, in fact, the annual salary and I in the country is not much different, but everything there is very simple, the work only needs to do their part, after work is also "go back to their own home", do not need to bother to do a good job of interpersonal relations to have a meal or something.
After 1 year in Algeria, a friend from Nigeria told me that there was a job that suited me very well and that it paid 45w+ a year. Compatriots who have crossed the ocean to station abroad are basically aimed at making money, and I am certainly no exception, in order to make more money, in 2019, I went to Nigeria again.
At that time, I would never have imagined that one day I would give up such a high salary and resolutely leave that place.
We have a company in Port Harcourt in southeastern Nigeria, and I am the head of electromechanical equipment, and I often have to follow the boss to various places, and in the process I have experienced a lot of thrills.
One day I took a car with a few bosses to Lagos, the original arrangement was to go back on the same day, but the boss temporarily could not go back, had to arrange for the driver to rush back with two soldiers, the result was attacked on the way back to the car, the whole car was beaten into a sieve, and all the people were killed.
Later, the investigation revealed that the attack was deliberately directed against us. Because of the dispute over the land, the other side hired some rioters to attack us in the middle of the road, but I did not expect that I and a few bosses were not in the car, and we just escaped a disaster.
Another time we went to Kano on a business trip, on the way back to the traffic jam, just want to come down to breathe and smoke a cigarette, a few people will go to the river under the roadbed to smoke, did not expect a group of black people to hula, involuntarily smashed the car, and then swept away the contents of the car, and they all carried machetes and assault rifles, fortunately we were far away, otherwise it would be tragic.
One night, a long time later, I drove out on my own to deal with things, and when I was waiting for the traffic light on the way back, I suddenly rushed over and surrounded my car, some with guns and some with knives, threatening: "Give us all your things!" "I knew the situation was not good, but I didn't drive the window, and as a result, they saw that I didn't move, and directly smashed the window of my car with a wheel fist, but it didn't hurt me, and the computer, cash, and even some documents on my car were all looted and ran away, and I was calmly watching the whole time, because I knew that in that situation it was important to save my life, and it was not advisable to resist."
After these things, in order to ensure the safety of everyone, the company strengthened security measures, and also asked us to take as little land transportation as possible on long-distance business trips, and since then, long-distance errands have all been flown.
During the 2020 pandemic, work and production stopped around the world. A few of our Chinese colleagues on our side discussed the cultivation of vegetables. This is the nature of Chinese, wherever you go, vegetables are planted, especially in Africa, which lacks vegetables. (I believe many compatriots stationed abroad have done this.)
We began to use hoes to plan the soil around the company, and as a result, we dug and dug and suddenly had a feeling of hitting the metal, at first I thought it was stone, iron or something, but I opened it to see that it was a mine, and I was scared into a cold sweat at the moment, and the experience of being a soldier told me that this was not a joke, I quickly reacted to evacuate everyone, slowly pulled out the mine, and then riveted into the river.
Looking back now, I was a little afraid, if it had detonated at that time, there would have been nothing for me in this world, fortunately, the mine was older, it was the kind of old mine that had only been seen on TV, and it had rusted. Everything has accidents, and we can only say that we are lucky enough.
After nearly 3 years in Nigeria, the internal relationship of the company slowly became complicated, needing to take sides, needing to show allegiance to a certain leader, and I was still the same person I was, and I was still not used to this kind of thing. Coupled with the frequent security problems, I felt that life safety was more important than making money, so I set out to arrange job hopping, and at the end of 2021 I came to this company in Ghana.
Although the current annual salary is only about 300,000, but the safety is guaranteed, the working atmosphere is also very good, the previous work is basically all year round, and the current work not only has a fixed rest day but also follows the local holidays together with the holiday, the time to contact the family has become more, and it is more and more homesick, and it also tacitly acknowledges the fact that the child and himself are not very close.
From the time he was born to now be 10 years old, I have rarely seen him grow along the way. Although he will video call his wife every day in foreign countries, the time is basically in the middle of the night in China, and children rarely have the opportunity to participate. Otherwise, how did the ancients say that the world is a dilemma, although the thrills of the past few years have indeed made a lot of money, but they have also missed the growth of their children.
I think that maybe in the past two years, I will slowly start to return to China to develop, find opportunities to return to China to start my own business, mainly to be able to spend more time with my family.