A DAY AT SITE
Civil Engineering Department The Project for Improvement of Water Supply System of Juba in South Sudan, the Republic of South Sudan
What I Do
I work as an engineer in a construction site to accomplish the project with the safety and high- quality structures. Specifically speaking, what I generally do is checking the safety procedures of the work, safety management such as planning of the temporary materials (scaffolding support, etc.), quality controls of the materials, and schedule management of the work. All these tasks are necessary and it is needed to have well communication with local staffs and third-country staffs. There are many kinds of people who have different nationalities and cultures as the member of the project. We all work together and share one achievement which is to accomplish the project with the best we can.
Worthwhile Tasks of the Job
We DNC is one of the company who supports the improvement of the infrastructures which directly connect with life of people such as waterway and sewage systems, bridges, roads, and air ports through Japan’s ODA projects .Local residents often show their gratefulness for the project and that is my motivation working in a different environment from where I used to work in Japan. Sometimes it is challenging to find someone or some company who has liable knowledge and experiences. However these challenging situation must be overcome through re-considering the method of the work, materials again and again until we find the way to fix those issues. What I like about working abroad is that I always have to put myself into a challenging situation without the fear of failures.
Future goals
Experiences at construction sites are very important for engineers of civil work. I have been working as an engineer for 5 years so far, but I feel there is no ends of learning . I need to keep getting more experiences and knowledge about various kind projects from other crews of DNC who have been through so many tough situations. I believe that better relationship with other staffs who have different backgrounds can leads us to the success of the project. So, I will try my best for learning other languages such as English and local ones.
How I spend my day off
I often go out for sightseeing, shopping, and having meals at restaurants at my day off. I think these are the best points of working abroad. We can feel the magnificent nature and traditional cultures of the country directly through our body which we don’t have in our homeland. Also, I say I am a foodie, so it is my pleasure to enjoy local meals and beverages especially alcohols. The most surprising and mind-blowing dish was Emma Datshi. It is one of the Bhutanese dish with well stewed hot chili and cheese.
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01
6:00 am
Morning preparation at the dormitory
Every meal is served by cooks. -
02
7:00 am
Morning assembly
Everyone join radio gymnastic exercise before the work. Some of them are not used to it, but trying their best as they can. -
03
7:30 am
Site patrol
Check the work progress to make sure everything goes as scheduled. -
04
10:00 am
Checking drawings, document preparations
Making drawings which are necessary for the projects and documents for inspection. -
05
12:00 pm
Lunch break
We usually have cook's homemade bento-box at the cafeteria of the dormitory. -
06
1:00 pm
Meeting, confirmation of tomorrow's work
Meeting has to be done in English due to each of the members have their own mother tongue so English is the only common language. -
07
1:30 pm
Quality confirmation tests with consultant
Quality of the materials which is used at the site such as structural reinforcement, and concrete quality are tested by the consultant. -
08
3:00 pm
Document preparation
Preparation of the documents which is necessary for various inspections performed at each stage of construction. -
09
6:00 pm
Dinner time
Having life abroad is challenging and totally different from the life back in Japan, but the moment having Japanese meals keeps me up.
