Good neighbor a world away

Young Chinese engineer makes sacrifices to build his family's future as he helps East African nations build theirs

Being posted to beautiful foreign locales is a dream for many around the world, and the nations of East Africa certainly fit the description.

But it's not so easy when you're there and your pregnant wife is about to give birth on the other side of the planet.

That's what happened last year to Shi Jianxiang, a young engineer working in Kenya. Shi, 27, boarded a plane in Nairobi and during his 20-hour journey home he experienced mixed feelings of both excitement and guilt.

He says that while the birth wasn't expected for another week, he couldn't wait any longer to see his wife, who had been longing for his return for almost six months.

He reached his home in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, on May 22. A day later, his daughter was born.

"She delivered a week before the due date. If I had returned only a day later, as originally planned, I could have missed it." Shi says. The couple named their daughter Qingyan, which means fondness and beauty.

Thirty days later, the new dad had to say goodbye to his wife and daughter. He boarded the plane again and flew back to Kenya for the fifth time. While the goodbyes are tough, he says his job in Africa provides him with better career prospects and higher income to provide for his family.

Twenty hours later, he landed in Nairobi, and then boarded another flight to Kisumu, a city in western Kenya. From there, he drove further northwest for two hours toward the Kenyan-Ugandan border until he finally reached Sigiri in Busia county. There, his colleagues from China were busy preparing for the Sigiri Bridge project.

Upon graduation from college with a degree in civil engineering in 2011, Shi was employed by China Overseas Engineering Group, a company that develops and manages large-scale construction and engineering projects overseas. He soon learned about his first placement in East Africa.

To him, Africa seemed very far from home. "But there's such a lot of world to see," he says. He accepted the four-year placement and left for Kenya in August 2011.

His first assignment was the Kisumu International Airport upgrade project, one of China Overseas Engineering Group's key projects in Kenya. The project has meant a new terminal and runway for this booming transportation hub in the country's third biggest city.

While in Kisumu, Shi spent most of his time either on the construction site or in the office due to a tight work schedule. Dorms in prefab houses were built right next to the office in the same compound, where he lived with 10 other colleagues from China.

Every Sunday at 3 pm was his regular time for a video phone call with family. Though most of the time the video would freeze as a result of a poor internet connection, he was thankful that the audio still worked.

Whenever he got a chance, he would take a walk by Lake Victoria, adjacent to the airport. The serenity of the lake often reminded him of his hometown of Ningbo, or "tranquil waves" in Chinese. Sunset over the peaceful lake was his favorite.

In about two years' time he would leave Kisumu for South Sudan, where he worked on construction of the Juba Training Center and Governor Office Block in the capital, Juba. He says he spent the hardest two years of his life in South Sudan, contributing to its initial growth as the young country got started.

He still remembers vividly the gunshots in the middle of the night on Dec 15, 2013, near the China Overseas Engineering Group compound, and how he and his colleagues waited to be evacuated. "It took me some time to make sense of the fact that war had broken out. ... Then all communications went down." He and his colleagues were evacuated to Kenya. He called his family, but spoke only about the usual things. "Why would I tell them (my family) about the war," he says. "It would only make them worry."

Luckily, Zhu He, his colleague and friend, was by his side. Zhu arrived in Kenya on the same day as Shi, and worked on the same projects in Kisumu and South Sudan. "I came to Africa with a simple idea," Zhu says. "I wanted to experience the world." He had expected to live in Africa for four years before returning home to start his own family. Just like Shi, his term was supposed to end in 2015, upon their final departure from South Sudan to Kenya.

But during their second year in South Sudan, an accident in western Kenya would keep both Shi and Zhu in Africa longer than they had planned.

In September 2014, a boat capsized in Sigiri, a village 105 km northwest of Kisumu International Airport, killing nine. The boat was traveling in the Nzoia River, which takes a sharp turn in Sigiri before flowing into Lake Victoria. For years, boat was the only means to transport goods and people across the river, but it was risky, especially when rivers swelled during rainy periods. The Kenyan government then called for construction of a bridge over Nzoia River to curb the loss of life.

When China Overseas Engineering Group won the bidding to build the Sigiri Bridge, Shi and Zhu decided to stay. Construction began in August last year, four years since their first arrival in Kenya.

Now, they work and live with three colleagues in a one-story rented house in Sigiri. The closest market is a 10-minute drive away, but since choices of goods are limited, every other week they drive two hours to Kisumu to purchase supplies.

Clean water and power also are issues. Shi's colleague, Wang Qingjiang, has put up a water pipe to collect rain from the roof for storage in the water tank. The power goes out from time to time and the internet is dependent on USB modems.

Shi says he enjoyed watching the UEFA European Championship on TV in the evening, which was better than waking up in the early morning like when he was in China.

While he was watching the France-Germany game with his colleagues, the power went out sporadically. In the darkness, chatting continued as Shi lit a candle with the help of a flashlight.

The red and golden spring couplets pasted on the wall reflected the candlelight. No one took them off even though Spring Festival was five months earlier.

Shi was able to spend Spring Festival at home for the first time in five years, except that he fell sick from malaria on Chinese New Year's Eve and was hospitalized for a week. When he fully recovered from malaria, it was time for him to leave for Sigiri again.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/12/2016 page20)