Chapter 715 Brief Reunion
After chatting with the old man, Wells learned that this man was a veteran who had retired from the army. This is very common in East Africa, especially the placement of soldiers, which can be regarded as an East African characteristic.
Just as the two were still chatting, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice came from behind Wells.
"Brother!"
Wells turned around and saw a young man over 1.7 meters tall standing behind him.
"Are you Mel?" Wells was a little confused about the changes in his family after being away from his hometown for so long.
"Brother, it's me. I haven't seen you for so many years. You haven't changed much, but if you look closely, you can see that you are different in temperament. Are you living a good life in Germany?"
It was his second brother Mel who came to greet Wells.
"Your voice is a little different from before. I didn't even dare to think it was you. If there were no other people around, I definitely wouldn't think it was you calling me," Wells said.
After so many years of not seeing each other, Mel's appearance and voice have changed to a certain extent.
Mel smiled naively and said, "Have I grown up? When you left home, eldest brother, I was only in elementary school. Now I'm about to graduate from middle school."
"Really? How about your academic performance?" Wells came up with a sure shot.
Mel's smile froze and he said, "That's definitely not as good as you, eldest brother. You are the only college student in our village."
"Because of this, I also hope that you can make progress in your studies. I didn't give you less tutoring back then."
"Oh, of course I know that, but thinking about it, studying abroad like you is probably very difficult. There is a high probability that you will go to a technical school or university in East Africa. Originally, I wanted to work directly, but our mother values education so much, so I can only study hard. "
"Mom is right. The benefits of going to school cannot be described in one or two sentences. If you are in Europe, you will know it. In East Africa, knowledge is also respected. The country needs more highly educated talents in the future."
Because of the direct popularization of secondary education in East Africa, Wells can only talk about highly educated talents. Currently, there are three types of high-level talents in East Africa. One is famous scholars and technicians in Europe, the other is people who have studied abroad, and the last is Judging from the current situation, the talents cultivated by local higher education in East Africa are definitely like this, and may be improved in the future.
When Wells was chatting with his brother about home affairs, Mary also noticed it, so she took her son Wiggins out to inquire about the situation.
"This is your sister-in-law, Mary, and this is your nephew Wiggins." Wells introduced his brother.
"Hello sister-in-law! And we have a cute little nephew." Mel picked up Wiggins. Little Wiggins is only three years old this year and is not heavy at all. When he is at home, Mel often hugs his little brother. younger sister.
"Hello, Mel." Mary also greeted Wells' brother.
"By the way, where are mom and dad?" Wells asked.
"They were outside the station, and I came to the platform specifically to pick them up," Mel said.
Adlis also came back and said from the side: "Mr. Wells, this train leaves at eight o'clock tomorrow, so you can reunite with your family first! Your luggage can be stored temporarily, and I will lock the door of the box. "
After the arrangements were made, Adlis slipped away and stopped disturbing them.
…
Outside the station, Wells met his parents and two other younger siblings. The youngest sister was not as old as his son Wiggins.
"Wiggins will have to take care of his little aunt in the future!" Wells' parents joked.
Wells' mother is from the Far East, so she enthusiastically took Mary aside to chat. On the contrary, Wells' father was relatively taciturn and not like a traditional German.
"Let's go, we are temporarily staying in the hotel, which is arranged by the government. Brother, I will help you carry your luggage." Mel said.
So the family got on the carriage and headed towards the hotel next to the Iringa City Hall. This was also one of Wells's benefits. Generally, hotels in inland areas were provided to public servants.
Along the way, Mel, a middle school student, introduced to his elder brother the development of his hometown over the years.
"Currently, Iringa City has a population of just over 4,000 in the urban area. Together with the surrounding areas, it has become a distribution center for tobacco, cereals and livestock. Tobacco is a special crop grown locally and is also our most important production area. Other industries and the entire Plateau Province have no What a stark difference.”
"When I left Iringa City, there were only more than 2,000 people in the entire urban area. Now the population of Iringa City has tripled, and it seems more prosperous than before." Wells said.
"After more than ten years of development, all cities will develop. For example, all kinds of buildings and facilities are gradually accumulated, so this kind of development is very common in small and medium-sized cities in East Africa, unless there is war. Destroy these, but this will obviously not happen. As long as there is peace, the development of a region will always accumulate slowly."
"In the past, many old houses were demolished and rebuilt. Now the city government and other government agencies have been converted into masonry structures. The public facilities in the city are much better than those in the countryside, but the changes in the village have also been quite big."
"Now the main crops grown at home are wheat and tobacco. However, compared with wheat, tobacco cultivation is more complicated, especially during the harvest season. It is easy to get greasy all over the body. However, the salary is higher than that of wheat, and you can get more bonuses. Some daily necessities.”
"The roads in the village have been widened and restructured, and a reservoir has been built at the west end of the village. The water problem has been greatly solved."
Wells listened to the changes at home with great interest. Generally speaking, it was stable and improving. The living standards of the East African people have been further improved. This is a common phenomenon. Of course, the most important thing is the industrial development of East Africa, which has brought great benefits to the people. Provides more consumption channels.
This can be seen from the clothes and mental outlook of the family. It may be because when they came to the city, even the father and mother put on new clothes. Both father and mother were very frugal.
Of course, Iringa City is not a place that hates the poor and prefers the rich. Compared with the rural areas, the facilities in the urban area are better. In fact, the income gap between rural and urban areas is not large.
Of course, the development of rural areas in East Africa is definitely not taken into account at present, because the urbanization rate in East Africa is too low, and scattered construction will easily lead to a waste of resources.
When the level of mechanization improves in the future and villages and towns can be merged, East Africa will basically be able to carry out major transformation of the infrastructure in rural areas. This is something that current East African society cannot imagine.
The family arrived at the temporary residence happily. Wells specially brought back some specialties from Germany, especially food and industrial products from his father's hometown of Bavaria, which are difficult to buy in East Africa.
However, international cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa should also have sales. After all, the German region is one of the main trading objects in East Africa, and East Africa is also culturally inclined to the German region. Many things are in There is a market in Germany, and the same is true in East Africa, and it is more convenient to just write letters or send telegrams in the country.
This reunion is rare for Wells, but the only pity is that he can only stay here for half a day and one night, so the family did not sleep, but chatted all night. Wills and his wife will meet him early tomorrow morning , my son will go to the station and head to Bulawayo. Of course, he can take the railway during the holidays and reunite again, which is something that cannot be achieved by studying or working in Europe.