#精品长文创作季##萨摩亚##非洲打工##海外生活##乌干达#
This is the 3,614th real story we have told
I am a duckling, a native of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, and grew up in the countryside.
In 2018, I was admitted to Wuhan to study at university. While working at a barbecue restaurant near the school, I met Koyu, who also works part-time at the shop. We were classmates and rode back to school together every night after work, and we fell in love half a year later.
After graduating, Xiaoyu was sent to Uganda to work for one year, and after graduating from university, I worked at Foxconn for 8 months. For the sake of the dream, the two of us were sent to Samoa in March last year, and it has been almost a year now......
(Me and Xiaoyu on the Samoan beach)
I was born in 1999 on the Leizhou Peninsula. We have four children in our family, my brother, my sister, me and my younger brother. We have four brothers and sisters, the elder brother has been studying very well since he was a child, he was admitted to Zhanjiang Middle School in high school, and later admitted to South China Normal University, and after graduating from university, he was admitted to Wuhan University for graduate school.
My brother set an example to our sisters and brothers. Before I went to primary school, my father had been working in big cities such as Shanghai, and it was only when I went to primary school that my father came back from outside and worked on the construction site with my mother.
My parents got up at four or five o'clock in the morning, my mother cooked for us, they went out to work at six o'clock, and we got up in the morning to eat and go to school.
My brother is more than four years older than me, and when I was in primary school, my brother had gone out to study in middle school, and he would often tell us a lot about outside things.
(My brother and I)
We were a bit patriarchal, the housework was all done by women, and my mother didn't read much and came out to work after elementary school. Some of our old people will think that it is useless for girls to study and that they will marry in the future, and some families will let girls go out to work after graduating from junior high school to earn money to support their families.
However, our parents attached great importance to our education and always encouraged us to say: "Only by reading can we change our fate, and only by reading can we get rid of their work and life in the wind and sun every day." ”
Our sisters study very hard, and the township also gives our family a tuition subsidy of several hundred yuan a year, and a tuition subsidy of more than 1,000 yuan a year to junior and senior high schools. Although our family is not very wealthy, all four of us siblings have been admitted to university.
My brother worked very hard in college, and he was able to get a scholarship every year, and he also went to work as a tutor and worked part-time outside the school. He used his scholarship to buy health massage equipment for his parents, a mobile phone for me, and a computer for his sister. My brother often taught us that in fact, there are not many ways out for us ordinary people, and the most important way is the college entrance examination.
(I'm at school)
Although I was admitted to the county middle school with the top ten in my grade in junior high school, I still felt that the disadvantages of rural children were different from those of urban children.
Compared with the children who grew up in the city, I grew up in the countryside and had a low self-esteem, but fortunately, I lived outside the school with my sister, and my mother came to accompany my sister when she was in her third year of high school, and my mother also came to accompany me when I was in my third year of high school.
In the 2018 college entrance examination, I was admitted to a university in Wuhan, and my brother just graduated from college that year and went to Wuhan University for graduate school. My brother and I came to the same city to study, and we often went out to eat together on weekends.
I entered university in September 2018, and I found a part-time job as a waiter at a barbecue restaurant near the school on National Day.
That's where I met Xiaoyu, who happened to be working as a waiter at that shop, and he was a junior college at the secondary college under our school. We often ride together at 10 o'clock in the evening to go back to school, the school is more than 20 minutes away from the barbecue restaurant to ride, there part-time for more than half a year, and then we became boyfriend and girlfriend.
(Me and Xiaoyu)
During college, in addition to working part-time as a barbecue restaurant waiter, I also delivered couriers and takeaways on campus, and some students didn't want to eat, so I helped them pack and deliver meals in the canteen, and I could earn 5 to 10 yuan per trip. In addition, I work as a substitute teacher and as an accountant.
In addition to working part-time throughout my college years, I also went to the company for internships during the winter and summer vacations. My original major was engineering cost assessment, but in my sophomore year, I switched to financial management.
Since then, I have a clear goal for my future, that is, my future job is English + accounting, and the job I am looking for in the future is to go to a multinational company or a foreign company, the working language needs English, and I also need to obtain some qualifications.
(Me and Xiaoyu)
In my sophomore year, I took the junior accountant certificate, and after getting the certificate, I went to a financial company for an internship and did bookkeeping. In order to improve my speaking English, I also went online to chat with foreigners to practice speaking English.
I thought about it in college, if I want to find a good job after graduation, what should I do during college?
The first is to have good grades and get a scholarship, and the second is to go to some relatively large companies for internships. You have to plan to accomplish these goals, and you will naturally graduate and you will be able to find a good company.
We are ordinary people from poor families, your goal is a famous factory, and if you want to enter a large company to make money after graduation, you must make a good plan for yourself, so as to ensure that you can go to a large company for an internship, and then the job search will be smoother.
Every winter and summer vacation, other students go home, I stay in Wuhan for internship, my second internship is in one of the eight major accounting firms, Dahua accounting firm, the internship is calculated by the day, 180 yuan a day including food and accommodation.
(During the internship, I accompanied the audit company to the bank to print the statement)
In my junior year, I went to a state-owned enterprise for an internship, and I participated in a total of four internships throughout the university. Through these internships, I have honed my abilities and accumulated practical experience in finance.
In my junior year, I also worked as an assistant to the teacher, with a fixed income of several hundred yuan every month, and I also went to work part-time on weekends, and the tuition fee was a student loan.
After all, the family conditions are not very good, most of the living expenses rely on the money I earn from my own part-time work, and the school also has a poverty grant, which is enough for my living expenses of more than 1,000 yuan a month.
My university is not particularly good, except for the graduate school entrance examination, other students have to look for jobs, many of my classmates because the university has no plan, and they encounter a lot of difficulties in finding a job, and they will hit a wall.
(University Internship)
At that time, I was looking for a job in overseas companies and foreign companies, because I had planned early and had internship experience in large factories, so it was easy to find my favorite job after graduation.
After graduating from university in 2022, I got a management job at Foxconn and joined Foxconn in Shenzhen.
My boyfriend Xiaoyu graduated a year before me, and after graduation, he found a sales job in China, with a very low salary, only two or three thousand yuan. A few months later, he was assigned to Uganda, Africa, as a project assistant at the factory.
As soon as they went out to Uganda, they walked into a shop that sold motorcycles, and they were threatened by the store's security guards, Qiang, they went to the mall to buy things, and they were robbed of money in broad daylight, these experiences were quite terrifying. There is also malaria in Africa, and the people who went there got malaria and became very sick.
He worked there for a year, and when I graduated and worked, he returned to China.
(Xiao Yu works as an assistant in Uganda, Africa)
I work at Foxconn, with a basic salary of 6,000, overtime pay, year-end performance, and benefits during the New Year's holidays, 9 to 5 every day, basically no overtime. At that time, I had relatively few work tasks and had a lot of time at work.
At Foxconn, I have seen many seniors who have worked there for more than ten years or even decades, and their salaries have not changed much, their salaries are not very high, and it is difficult to afford a house in Shenzhen.
It's a terrifying feeling that you can see what the future will look like and what will happen to you. If I continue to stay, get married, have children, buy a house, I feel trapped and afraid to do what I want to do.
When he was in his twenties, he worked in a company, with a salary of several thousand yuan, and he could not have a few thousand left in a month, and he could not reach the original capital accumulation. Wages are not high, consumption is very high, and it is basically in a state of breaking even. When I have a family with children, I am trapped and can't run out, and I feel that this kind of life and life is very suffocating.
(My first full-fledged job at Foxconn)
At that time, I felt that I could see the future when I thought about it, and I couldn't stand it when I thought about it, I felt hopeless and suffocated, and I felt that it would be difficult for a miracle to happen in my life.
After I graduated and worked, Xiaoyu also returned to China to look for a job, and found an expatriate job in Samoa on the recruitment website. The two of us went to apply for a job, and after the interview, we got the opportunity and went to Samoa.
I also signed up for an African company just after graduating, but my parents didn't let me go because they didn't agree and they thought Africa was too dangerous. This time I was coming to Samoa, and my mother didn't agree with it at first, and my parents also called relatives to come and persuade me, and my brother and sister also came to persuade me.
They said that I was a bit selfish, abandoning my family, going abroad alone, and worrying about my family, which was very selfish. I told them, in fact, you are also selfish, because you are afraid and worried about me, so you don't let me see the bigger world and experience different things, which is also a kind of selfishness.
(Me and Xiaoyu)
I can understand what they think, but I don't want to lose another opportunity. If you don't seize the opportunity, it may pass, if you don't go out when you're young, it's even more difficult to go out when you're older, and there will be a lot of family trivialities that will trap you.
I told my parents directly that if you don't go out when you're young, you won't be able to go out even more when you're older, especially ordinary people. Rich people can still spend money to go out when they are old. Ordinary people spend all their energy for their usual food, clothing, housing and transportation life, how can they have the time and ideas to go abroad. The older I get, the more I think about it, the more I can't get out, so this may be my last chance.
Parents seek stability and feel that there will be greater uncertainty in the future after going abroad, so they oppose it. You can see what kind of life you live in China and what kind of development you will have in the future. Invisible abroad, there is a lot of uncertainty, and they are worried and opposed.
In addition, they have never been abroad, and they feel that the country is good, the country is safe and stable, and there will still be gains from working hard at home. They feel that the family has to stay together, and the brothers and sisters are in Shenzhen, and it will not be as chaotic as Africa or Uganda.
My parents were not very reassured at first, because I kept insisting, and they finally agreed, this is my second chance, and I don't want to give up.
(I'm in Samoa)
The owner of the expatriate Samoa company is Chinese, a company registered abroad, recruiting people in China, and the boss likes to go with husband and wife.
The boss has two companies, an aluminum alloy factory does doors, windows and cabinets, I do finance and sales, Xiaoyu works in a food wholesale company, and the products purchased by the boss abroad are wholesaled to local supermarkets.
I do sales in an aluminum alloy factory, and my customers are mainly locals, and Xiaoyu does customs clearance and finance in a food wholesale company, mainly with the government and companies. The company includes food and accommodation, we are employees hired from China, the salary has tripled, and the income of 200,000 yuan a year has been worked.
Samoa is located in the South Pacific Ocean, close to Fiji, a few hours by plane from New Zealand, and visa-free for travel.
Samoa is a small country, with such a large market and so many customers served. There are two main ways to sell, online and offline.
(My local colleague and I in Samoa)
The company has been in the past four or five years, there are a number of fixed old customers, sales are relatively easy, usually only need to maintain customer relations, discover some new customers, the salary is fixed.
Samoa's consumption is very high, and the men here also wear skirts, and their bodies are relatively fat, so there is no pressure to live here, and there will be no anxiety about body and appearance, unlike in China, where they still have to think about losing weight.
When I first came, I also wore sunscreen, and after staying here for a long time, I also integrated into the local area, I felt unnecessary, everyone was enjoying the sun, enjoying life, and they didn't seem to care much about their appearance and figure.
There are dozens of people in the company, and the boss used to work in Tonga, so he slowly started his business and started it slowly.
We go to work at 8 a.m. and leave work at 5 a.m. every day, so we can go around after work. There is no insecurity in the country, and there are no shops open at night except for McDonald's. On weekends we drive out to see the scenery, at night we look at our phones and then go to bed.
(Me and Little Fish in Samoa)
There's no entertainment here, it's boring, and the food is very simple in all aspects, unlike the domestic material abundance. Sometimes we make our own food, but the taste is different from the outside, and we miss the food in the country.
Ingredients here are relatively scarce, there are no mushrooms, except for a few tropical fruits, there are no other fruits, there are few things, and there are only a few vegetables. Now there are also Chinese who are growing vegetables, and they all pick good seeds and sell them to make money.
A few days ago, my junior high school classmates sent me blessings, we talked about her work, she works in Foshan pharmacy, she works at 8 o'clock in the morning, and gets off work at 10 o'clock in the evening at 11 o'clock, there are no holidays, no rest days, and her salary is 3500, which makes me feel very uncomfortable when I think about it.
She works very hard, working so many hours a day, getting more than 3,000 yuan, and has no social life at all. Basically, I go to work and go home every day, and I feel that life is wasteful, boring, and boring. I was tempted to persuade her to come out and have a look, she said she didn't speak English well.
(I'm by the sea in Samoa)
In fact, it is particularly difficult for ordinary people to cross the class, the class has been solidified, and it is difficult to change anything. Ordinary children's children can only work part-time, because their vision, knowledge, and learning are different. Those who have money in the family will let their children learn different things and see the wider world, which ordinary people can't do.
If you are in business at home, your parents have already paved a way for them, but ordinary people can only rely on themselves, and if you don't plan and prepare for yourself early, you will be very passive.
Vision is very important, it is difficult for us to have these, you are in an established circle, the way of thinking is similar to the people around you in all aspects, it is difficult to change and break through thinking, because you can't think of it, you can only be driven by the people around you to do something, very passive.
Forever living a life of breaking even, working hard all the time to maintain consumption, and not making much money. If you don't have money, you lack the opportunity to start a business and develop your career, and if you work all the time, you feel that life feels like this, and you feel very boring.
(My children in Samoa and there)
Therefore, ordinary people usually have to prepare in advance, and they have nothing to rely on at home, so they have to rely on themselves to plan early.
We're going to stay here for two or three years, and last year we had already played all over the country, and the neighboring countries haven't had a chance to go out, so we can't do anything for a day or two, unlike foreign companies that spend a week. The locals have annual leave, 10 days of annual leave for Christmas, we don't, and there is no holiday for Chinese New Year.
When we go out to the supermarket, we will meet Chinese, the supermarkets here are basically opened by Chinese, the local cashiers are hired, and the supermarket owners are all Chinese.
The money here is 1:2.5, and we are quite satisfied with this job, except for food and interpersonal relationships.
The most impressive thing here is that there are many churches, and the people here basically believe in Christianity. The wages of people here are relatively low, the cost of living is high, and life is not very easy.
(I'm outside the supermarket in Samoa)
The locals go to church every Sunday, each village has its own church, they have a very difficult life, and they have to donate money to the church every week, many of my colleagues are local, and their wages are quite low, according to the local salary of four or five or three or four yuan an hour.
It's a bit like an expatriate hometown, where most of the people are brown and white. Locals go to New Zealand and Australia to work, which is why local prices are so high, and they have raised local prices relatively high.
The only problem is that we don't know how to get along with the Chinese colleagues here, they came a month or two before us, they are older, in their 40s and almost 50s, their living habits and personalities are different in all aspects, and it is difficult for us to integrate into them.
Maybe everyone thinks differently, their ideas are inconsistent, and it is difficult to communicate. Our meals are available in the cafeteria, porridge for breakfast, noodles for lunch, and rice and vegetables in the evening. We also go out to eat sometimes, but there is a shortage of food.
Both of us were born in 1999, and we are the only two young people in the company who are the same age, so it is often the two of us who hang out by ourselves.
(Me and Little Fish in the church in Samoa)
In the future, I am more interested in entrepreneurship. If you don't go to another country, you may return to your home country to do something you are familiar with. Because Xiaoyu's parents are engaged in waste recycling, I think it is easier to start with the recycling of waste products, with connections and resources.
He can go to his parents to take over the industry, and go to this business first, he already has stable customers, and he will not lose money or make money in this industry. And then to expand their own customers, expand their own market.
Starting a business will have uncertainties, and it is the same as taking risks, and it is also the same as playing, which I think is more interesting. So the future of the two of us is to stay here for three years, and then we will see whether to start a business or go to another country.
I believe that as long as we dare to think and take risks, coupled with our own expertise and ability, we will be able to achieve our dreams in the future.
(Welcome to "Little Fish and Ducklings in Samoa")
[Dictator: Duckling]
[Editor: Red Sleeves Flying]
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(*This article is based on the oral statements of the parties, and the authenticity is the responsibility of the oral narrator.) Friendly reminder from this account: Please identify the relevant risks by yourself, and do not blindly follow the trend to make impulsive decisions. ）