African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 711 Returning to China

 City of Dar es Salaam.

Wells finally chose to work in Bulawayo. After all, Bulawayo, which is between Nairobi and Kisan City, can be said to have the advantages of both, making it easier for people to accept. Of course, this also has its advantages. With the persuasion of his family, they prefer Wells to improve a bit, but Nairobi is obviously saturated and does not have much room for improvement.

Wells did not return from Europe alone, he also had his German wife and son. After all, he had lived in Germany for many years, and high-quality marriage partners like Wells were more popular in themselves.

  In fact, it is easy for East African migrant workers to solve marriage problems in Germany because these people are in good economic situations and are mostly engaged in “high-end” industries, with more prospects than ordinary workers.

 In Dar es Salaam, the person responsible for receiving Wells and others was Adlis, a staff member of the Immigration Department.

The government has a special reception place for returning talents like Wells, which is the Talent Apartment in Dar es Salaam.

After Edlis took the key and opened the door of a room, he introduced: "There are three floors here in total. Your apartment is on the second floor. Each family of three has a room, one kitchen, two bathrooms and one bathroom. Of course, the demand is higher There are also family apartments, and the one you are temporarily living in is a family apartment. Five people can live in this space without being too crowded. This is also the largest apartment."

Wells’s wife Mary was very satisfied. After she arrived in East Africa with her husband, she completely changed her impression of East Africa, which her husband described as “poor and backward”.

“Wells, didn’t you say that East Africa is very backward? The city of Dar es Salaam alone is probably not much worse than Berlin. We also passed through the city of Mombasa in the middle, which looks pretty good too.”

"Mary, this is different. Just like Berlin is the capital of Germany, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam are also the most economically developed areas in East Africa. However, the land area of ​​East Africa is more than ten times that of Germany, and the situation in the interior is much worse. , especially the city of Iringa where I grew up. In fact, there is no difference between the urban area and the towns in Europe. What’s more, I grew up in the countryside of Iringa, and the city of Dar es Salaam is far inferior to Berlin. , Berlin has a population of more than one million, and the two urban areas of Dar es Salaam combined may not have more than half the population of Berlin."

"That's because Dar es Salaam was built late, so the planning and design are more scientific. This advantage becomes more obvious in newer cities. For example, the economic data of Bulawayo you are going to this time may not be as good as that of Dar es Salaam. Es Salaam city, but I think the environment is not much different,” Edlis said.

Adlis said: "Mr. Wells is right, Berlin's population should be around 1.5 million, our city of Dar es Salaam has a population of less than 500,000, and this is already the largest city in East Africa. .”

Mary: "I feel that Dar es Salaam is no worse than Germany in terms of urban construction and living facilities. Moreover, you also have novelty things like trams. I'm afraid they are not common in Europe and are only found in a few big cities."

“Not only the talent apartments, but also the current temporary residences for immigrants have been greatly improved. Seven years ago, all resettlement sites in East Africa were renovated and rebuilt, including the resettlement site in Dar es Salaam.”

“Of course, this kind of talent apartment is standard in various industrial cities in East Africa. Bulawayo may just have a different design, but the basic facilities should be the same.”

"Bulawayo is an important node on the Central Railway. We can see it on the route map of Dar es Salaam Central Railway Station, and the cities that can be marked are generally relatively large. City, and the country has been vigorously developing Matabele Province in recent years, Bulawayo, as the second largest city in Matabele Province, will definitely not be bad in development."

“All in all, the living environment in this apartment is much better than the house we rented in Berlin. I want to know if this will be the same when we go to Bulawayo?”

"Mr. Adlis, can I go to the resettlement site and have a look?" Adlis' words aroused Wells's interest. The temporary resettlement sites in East Africa are the collective memories of the older generation in East Africa. His parents He had lived there before, so he wanted to see it.

"Of course, but you have to hurry up. You will be leaving next Saturday. You will not be able to live here permanently. It will be very difficult to visit Dar es Salaam in the future. After all, Bulawayo is far away from Dar es Salaam. The city of Salam is very far away.”

The distance between Bulawayo and Dar es Salaam is enough to travel abroad in Europe, so Adlis said.   …

 Subsequently, after taking care of the luggage, Edlis took Wells to "reminisce about the bitterness and sweetness".

 East African resettlement sites still use collective dormitories, but they have been replaced with four-person rooms, and the space has been greatly improved.

A water tower was built on the roof of the dormitory and connected to running water. This also allowed each dormitory to have its own bathroom. The cafeteria was still public, but it occupied an exclusive building and was divided into two floors.

“You don’t need too many clothes and bedding in East Africa. The old-fashioned military uniforms that were previously issued have been replaced by common workwear styles in the world. If you don’t add labels, you can basically not tell the difference from East Africans.”

“At the same time, we have also established language schools specifically for immigrants, which did not exist in East Africa before. The development of education allows us to provide more teacher resources, and immigrants no longer need to adapt.”

"This is a super-large community, also called a 'super-large school' by the citizens of Dar es Salaam. It can house 10,000 people every year. However, the number of immigrants in Dar es Salaam is not as high as before. , maybe only three to four thousand people every year.”

“Has East Africa’s immigration policy changed now?”

“There is this reason, but there are also other reasons for the diversion of new port cities. East Africa currently has 18 port cities, instead of only Dar es Salaam and Mombasa having the capacity to undertake it before.”

In Wells' view, the living standards in East Africa have indeed been greatly improved. Even this kind of temporary resettlement site is well constructed, so Bulawayo is definitely a place worth looking forward to.

“The previous standards for accepting people in East Africa have been reshaped. Now those who can settle down in East Africa are talented people with knowledge or skills. This is also a big change in East Africa.” Edlis introduced at the side.

“Of course, the development of East Africa can be most intuitively observed along the railway line. You happen to be going to Bulawayo via the Central Railway. Along the way, you can see the construction situation in East Africa over the years.”

As the head of the Immigration Agency for the Far East, Edliss has been to many places in the country, so he is most impressed by the development of East Africa in the past decade or so.

The 1970s to the 1980s was a period of great development in East Africa. During this period, East Africa completed the reshaping of the country. Industry and agriculture were vigorously developed. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, road transportation, water conservancy projects, cities and towns can all directly reflect the development of East Africa. The change.

These construction achievements were displayed to East African citizens through newspapers, shaping the collective sense of honor of the new and older generations of citizens, and the entire East Africa was a prosperous scene.

Of course, over this prosperous scene, the clouds of war have gathered, which may set the entire African continent on fire at any time. At the same time, it is also a big test for East Africa after a long period of peace, to test whether East Africa can keep its own harvest fruits in addition to being good at construction. .

 (End of this chapter)