When I came to Africa at the beginning of 2014, from ordinary grassroots staff, to project leadership, from Namibia to Iraq, I still struggled overseas.
They all said that where the roots of the Chinese are, where is the home, but after adapting to the work life abroad, I decided to live and settle outside for the rest of my life.
Before I went to Africa, I had been working in China for 7 or 8 years. At that time, the salary could only be regarded as an ordinary level in China, so when I was sent abroad, in order to make more money, I gladly accepted.
In 2014, I came to Namibia.
For Africa, I have no preconceived impressions, and when I arrived there, there was almost no gap, no worries, and I just thought that the scenery was beautiful, after all, Namibia is a tourist country.
Namibia is sparsely populated, there are not many Chinese working here, and at that time, the total number of Chinese in the whole country was only more than 1600, so when they met outside, although they were strangers, they would feel extremely kind.
I work in the desert, far from urban areas, and life is more difficult. Especially in the early days, life is not perfect, the water eaten is desalinated seawater, the nearest supermarket is about 78 kilometers away from us, and it has become a luxury to want to buy things anytime and anywhere, and three meals a day are solved in the canteen.
Logistics was entrusted to a South African company, and there were seven or eight people working in the kitchen. It is divided into 4 canteens, 2 workers, 1 Chinese food, and 1 Western food. The most common in the menu is cucumber tomato potatoes, although the Chinese food canteen is made of Chinese food, but not Chinese handled, the taste is always a little worse, not suitable for our appetite, after a period of time, many people have stomach diseases, some even can't stand to leave their jobs and return home.
After working here for 2 years, I was transferred to Zambia. Zambia is friendly to China and has many Chinese, with a total population of more than 13 million people, including 150,000 Chinese.
My place of work has also traveled from the Namibian desert to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, after all, it is the capital, and it is better and more secure in all aspects, and there are many leisure and entertainment facilities. In the past, I used to look at the desert when I took a break, but now I have more options to pass the boring time, and in the years I have worked in Zambia, life here is one of the best countries I have ever been to.
Entrance to Nairobi International Airport, Kenya
It was also here that I went from being an ordinary employee to project leadership, starting to meet different people and having more options.
After leaving Zambia, I worked in Kenya for a while, followed by the COVID-19 outbreak and the shrinking of the project, and after completing my last project, I returned home.
From the beginning of the epidemic, until now, the road back to China has been extremely difficult.
It is said that the flights will be loosened next month, and the quarantine policy will be relaxed, but there is no sign of loosening during the time I return to China, leaving us with only constantly fusing flights, and colleagues around me, who have not returned home for 3 or 4 years, are commonplace.
Direct flight from Kenya to Shenzhen, after entering the country I stayed in China for a period of time, perhaps to adapt to the work life abroad, I think working in the country is not interesting, the domestic construction industry is very inward-looking, endless overtime, overtime for overtime, twenty or thirty hours is not a rare thing.
So on the whole, I still chose to work abroad, 7 or 8 years ago, There was still room for development in Africa, but now the industry is basically rotten, so I did not go to Africa again, but came to Iraq.
Although 5 or 6 years have passed since the war, the wounds left are still deep.
New buildings are constantly being built, but the bombed buildings are still visible, the three-story houses are blown up into one and a half floors, and the poor without money cannot live in new places, but can only continue to live here, and there is no water, no electricity, nothing.
And one of the things that impressed me the most was a wall, the wall was full of bullet marks from the on-board machine gun bullets, scarred, I don't know how many living lives have ended here, and now, the back of the wall has long been opened to a new supermarket.
I had only seen war scenes on tv news before, and for the first time, such a real, close-up encounter had a very strong impact on me, and now there are still frequent clashes in some parts of Iraq, such as bus attacks and other incidents.
My working hours in Iraq are very relaxed, I go to work at 8:30 in the morning and leave at 5:30 in the afternoon, the local rest time is Friday and Saturday, the overtime culture in the country is not common here, there is no such thing as overtime, and the local civil servants have already left work at 2 pm.
In the past, in Africa, the countries I went to could communicate in English without obstacles, but after coming to Iraq, 99% of the people here spoke Arabic, they didn't speak English, and they didn't bother to say it, after all, they were once rich, with a sense of pride, I had no contact with it before, and I could only learn from scratch.
Working outside the home for so many years, although I am far away from my family, I also see more possibilities for my own life, whether it is work or life, not necessarily only the choice of staying at home.
Local specialty pilaf lamb rice
In the future plan, I should continue to stay abroad to work, wait until the children go to college, I will take my family to live, if I can, I will buy a house locally and not return to China.
In countries with good prospects for the development of the industry, I may choose Saudi Arabia, although it is still a long time before such a day, but I will always work hard.