WORK WORK WORK
Yes, its true! I finally started “working”. But first of all: HERE are some pictures from my trip through Ghana! Of course I have many many more, you can imagine it was very hard for me to DECIDE which pictures I will upload :-)
My internship is in a road construction and maintenance company. Well, I am not totally happy with this work, as its not really related to my studies. Perhaps I should have started to search something on my own when I arrived here in Ghana and realized that there were some problems with the work (for example there is the GTZ here or a department called Environmental Protection Agency...). Well, then I just took the chance to travel around and I guess, now its just too late to organize something else. "Only" about 5 weeks are left! I guess I could really spent more time here, like half a year or so! But don't worry, I will come back end of September (one last exam and begin of my Diplomarbeit in Oktober). But who knows when I will come back to Afrika!!!
In the first sentence I wrote "working" as the work which I do here wouldn't be accepted as work in Germany :-) But I really do the same as my supervisor :-) His name is Nii, he studied Civil Engineering and is now a supervisor in the company. I will tell you about our daily work: Metting at 7.30am on the yard of the company, saying Good morning (in Twi written: M'aakye, spoken: Maatsche) to everyone. Singing and Praying at around 7.45 for about 10 minutes... Then slowly some workers are going to start loading their trucks. I'm sitting together with Nii in the office and we wait for the foreman (Vorarbeiter of every group) to give us the papers with the measurements. Every group has a truck and they go out (at around 10-11am I guess) to repair potholes in streets. The foreman are measuring each repaired pothole and these are the measurements. Nii and I take them and put them into a laptop in his office (no intranet, no internet, nothing)... In excel the squaremeters of repaired potholes are calculated. We print it out and once in a month there is a report with the measurements and pictures of the potholes before and after the work! We drive a lot throughout the day: We drive to the worksites and watch, if the workers are working... For me this feels not really comfortable, as Nii and I stand around watching while the others are working (everyone has to do one thing, one driver, one who carries the shavel, one for the wheelbarrow, one is the bitumen sprayer etc...). And once in a while we drive to the Department for urban roads where we bring the report. It is copied there and they (gouvernment) are checking again if the potholes are repaierd and then finally the company gets some money... Everything takes here really a long time... its incredible! I guess in Germany no one would be paid just for driving around the whole day... On Thurdsday for example we drove to the department. There we had to print out something, but we didn't have enough paper with the head of the company, so we had to drive all the way back, get some paper and drive there again... and you can't imagine how much TRAFFIC there is in Accra! AWFULL!!! On Friday I even had to sign a paper with measurements what we have taken (for a company who lays pipes for telecommunication next to roads and our company has to seal it afterwards)... Well, for me its really interesting to see, how work is done here and how a company is working... And at least I have some things to do, more than some other students who are sitting around the whole day...
Ok, thats it so far I guess. The last weekend I just enjoyed being "back home" in my house and room! I played UNO (heisst jetzt Solo) with the neighbour kids and I met Bridget, a Ghanian who is married to a kolleauge of Jesko. We met at Pia&Jeskos Wedding and it was really nice seeing her here!!!
Next weekend I will go to Tamale, to meet Mac-Patrick there. As I was ill the last time I was in Tamale, he will now show me this place :-)
Take care and enjoy the summer! I heard in Stuttgart its quite hot :-) I'm always happy when we have clouds here :-)
Liebe Gruesse!
Verena
My internship is in a road construction and maintenance company. Well, I am not totally happy with this work, as its not really related to my studies. Perhaps I should have started to search something on my own when I arrived here in Ghana and realized that there were some problems with the work (for example there is the GTZ here or a department called Environmental Protection Agency...). Well, then I just took the chance to travel around and I guess, now its just too late to organize something else. "Only" about 5 weeks are left! I guess I could really spent more time here, like half a year or so! But don't worry, I will come back end of September (one last exam and begin of my Diplomarbeit in Oktober). But who knows when I will come back to Afrika!!!
In the first sentence I wrote "working" as the work which I do here wouldn't be accepted as work in Germany :-) But I really do the same as my supervisor :-) His name is Nii, he studied Civil Engineering and is now a supervisor in the company. I will tell you about our daily work: Metting at 7.30am on the yard of the company, saying Good morning (in Twi written: M'aakye, spoken: Maatsche) to everyone. Singing and Praying at around 7.45 for about 10 minutes... Then slowly some workers are going to start loading their trucks. I'm sitting together with Nii in the office and we wait for the foreman (Vorarbeiter of every group) to give us the papers with the measurements. Every group has a truck and they go out (at around 10-11am I guess) to repair potholes in streets. The foreman are measuring each repaired pothole and these are the measurements. Nii and I take them and put them into a laptop in his office (no intranet, no internet, nothing)... In excel the squaremeters of repaired potholes are calculated. We print it out and once in a month there is a report with the measurements and pictures of the potholes before and after the work! We drive a lot throughout the day: We drive to the worksites and watch, if the workers are working... For me this feels not really comfortable, as Nii and I stand around watching while the others are working (everyone has to do one thing, one driver, one who carries the shavel, one for the wheelbarrow, one is the bitumen sprayer etc...). And once in a while we drive to the Department for urban roads where we bring the report. It is copied there and they (gouvernment) are checking again if the potholes are repaierd and then finally the company gets some money... Everything takes here really a long time... its incredible! I guess in Germany no one would be paid just for driving around the whole day... On Thurdsday for example we drove to the department. There we had to print out something, but we didn't have enough paper with the head of the company, so we had to drive all the way back, get some paper and drive there again... and you can't imagine how much TRAFFIC there is in Accra! AWFULL!!! On Friday I even had to sign a paper with measurements what we have taken (for a company who lays pipes for telecommunication next to roads and our company has to seal it afterwards)... Well, for me its really interesting to see, how work is done here and how a company is working... And at least I have some things to do, more than some other students who are sitting around the whole day...
Ok, thats it so far I guess. The last weekend I just enjoyed being "back home" in my house and room! I played UNO (heisst jetzt Solo) with the neighbour kids and I met Bridget, a Ghanian who is married to a kolleauge of Jesko. We met at Pia&Jeskos Wedding and it was really nice seeing her here!!!
Next weekend I will go to Tamale, to meet Mac-Patrick there. As I was ill the last time I was in Tamale, he will now show me this place :-)
Take care and enjoy the summer! I heard in Stuttgart its quite hot :-) I'm always happy when we have clouds here :-)
Liebe Gruesse!
Verena
Verena84 - 17. Aug, 21:35
