Romeo Shilunga

At Work

As a third-year mechanical engineering student, I got an opportunity to do my internship at Ferrum AG in Switzerland, this was all made possible by B360. Ferrum AG is an industrial company that builds can seamer machines. The company has other branches in the USA and China. Here I worked with mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and technicians. It was my first time working in an industrial company and it was a lot easier than I thought. It was a completely different culture from mine, but it only took me about a week to fully blend in. Ferrum gave me a bicycle on my first day at work and I used it most of the times when it was not raining. The people at Ferrum are so loving and kind, and that motivated me to work hard as I was happy with no worries at all.

During my first month most things were new to me and the best part was that they (employees) were all willing to help me. I worked in the assembly hall and what I did was build different machine components as they were presented in the drawing. Some of the parts had rough surfaces, so I had to polish them off. Reading the drawing plan was not so difficult for me because I like to draw. I got to know that it is best to take your time and make few quality products than more poor-quality products. I believe that working at Ferrum was the best opportunity to practically apply theoretical knowledge.

My Swiss host family

During my time in Switzerland, I lived with the Abdulkadir family. Madeline Abdulkadir was my host mother, we lived together with her son Mohamed Abdulkadir and her friend Annemarie. Annemarie has a grandson Khalifa, she brings him at least 3 times a week to play. We did a lot of activities together with them like going to the lake, musical concerts and many different sorts of games. The family was very loving, and we build a very good relationship. Surprisingly I became closer to them more than my own parents. We meditated every morning with Mohamed before going to work, and this made me to be very calm in every situation. I am so grateful to have got a family like the Abdulkadir, they gave me time to do my school work whenever I needed to. I wish them all the best in future, good health and motivation to continue being a host family.

Highlights and challenges in Switzerland

Switzerland is a very beautiful place with a lot of green, water, beautiful cars and people. I finally got to touch snow at Matterhorn and being in such a cold weather was just amazing. I never felt that cold before. Whenever I visit some of the big cities like Zurich I sometimes just sit along the lake and listen to the sound of supercars passing by it was such a blissful thing for me. The transport system in Switzerland is just the best, there is always a train headed to your destination and you don’t have to wait for a very long time.

The challenges I experienced was not planning very well and missing trains. During my first month in Switzerland I did not plan my trips so well, I went to cities, having only one place in mind and then I didn’t know what to do afterwards. Missing trains I did throughout my stay in Switzerland, but it wasn’t a problem for me because I only took trains during weekends as I used to go to work with a bicycle. All in all, everything was great and I enjoyed every bit of it.

My Future Plans

With all the knowledge and skills that I have acquired from Ferrum and Swiss people, my limiting believes have faded and more opportunities have opened up to me. Apart from boxing, reading and others, one of my hobbies is making money. I love making money a lot and with the money I earned it will be an opportune time for me to open more businesses and investments so that I can have more multiple sources of income. I will build a company and schools for children that will not use the normal school system because I believe that children should be doing much of practical work than more theory. I will make more money that means more people to help.

Personal message

It was a great pleasure coming to Switzerland away from my friends and family for the first time. During my stay I got to discover a lot about myself and all the things I am capable of doing. Every day that went by I became more comfortable in my own skin and that boosted my confidence and I got to do everything in a more natural way. Self-discovery made me the happiest person I know on earth. I would like to thank the B360 team for making all this possible, it was really worth it coming here.