Chapter 431 Residence
Kurand and his party first had to report to the city hall. After registering at the city hall, Kurland and several agricultural experts each obtained a property in Soga City.
Although he got a real estate for free, Kurland asked with some worry: "This house really doesn't cost money? What is its quality like?"
"This Don’t worry, housing allocation is a very routine operation in East Africa. As high-quality talents introduced by the East African government, you will also enjoy better treatment than ordinary immigrants and even officials.”
Hearing is false, seeing is false. In fact, Blanco took a few people to visit their new home later.
"Each house has an area of 140 square meters, with three bedrooms, one living room, two bathrooms, one kitchen, and a small garden. Suojia City is also a garden city. You see, in addition to the gardens of every household, there are also these named The green belt thing is a unique product of our East African cities."
However, Kurand's focus was obviously not here. He asked Blanco: "I always feel that you are not interested in the land. The application is a bit too bold. The walking path in front of the house is okay. Is the road we took just now too wasteful? I used to live in Landshut and have also been to Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and other cities. To be honest, the roads in Soga are a bit ridiculously wide. It’s easy to understand that there are so many people in Dar es Salaam, but there are not many people in Soga, and the utilization rate is too low.”
Blanco doesn’t care. Said: "Wide roads are not a big problem. As for the low utilization rate, more and more people will come to Soga in the future. There is no need to worry about this. After all, cities are developing, and the roads in European countries are now better than It was a lot wider before, although the improvement is not big."
Having said that, Professor Kurland still said: "You are a bit too urban."
Kurland said. He also noticed that the street lights in Suojia seemed to be equipped with electric lights, which also surprised Kurland.
"Now I am increasingly doubting that the Kingdom of East Africa is not an African country. You have also popularized electric lights in the cities. I am afraid that only the capitals of various countries can do this kind of thing."
"Electric lights are also a rarity in East Africa. Only two cities in the capital and Soga have achieved popularization, and cities such as Mombasa and Dar es Salaam have only used a small part. As for other cities, only Nairobi and Mbeya, two industrial cities in the interior, have used it. Without electric lights, only a few government agencies in other areas may use them."
Blanco opened the door and sent Brand's luggage to the house.
You can see that the quality of these houses is very good, and there is no cutting corners. I just looked at the outside, and everything on the inside is good.
“Completely solid wood furniture, but considering your preferences, we have only prepared a few basic pieces of furniture, a desk, two chairs, and a bed. Everyone can come if they need it. The furniture store matches what you like.”
"Each room has an electric light, which is a wire switch. However, I want to remind you that using electricity is very dangerous. Do not modify the circuit at will, or touch the wires and circuits with wet objects, including metal, and your hands. If there is a problem, Just go to the Electric Power Bureau to find professionals to repair or modify it.”
This kind of popularization of science is very necessary. The second industrial revolution has just begun. As a new thing in the second industrial revolution, electricity is important to many people in this era. It’s still relatively unfamiliar to people.
“The living room actually has a compartment, which can be used to place desks and bookshelves. It faces the balcony, so the lighting is very good.”
“This is the bathroom, equipped with There are faucets, sinks, flush toilets and bathtubs, and water supply is available 24 hours a day.”
“We haven’t decorated the kitchen too much. Just like the furniture, you can decorate it according to your own ideas, but Suojia City also has public facilities. The canteen can solve the problem of eating. The bad news is that you need to pay. The good news is that the price is very cheap and the cooks are very good. Currently, the public canteen is configured according to the scale of 700 people. Because Suojia does not have many people, it is only activated. One, just in the northwest corner of this block.”
"There are three bedrooms in total. You can bring your family members from Europe to live here. Otherwise, living alone in such a big house would feel a bit empty." Brand was quite satisfied with the living environment here, but he quickly thought of a question. , that is the issue of exchanges with Europe.
"Is there a telegraph office in Soga City?"
Blanco: "Of course, Professor Brand, the telegraph office, shops, canteens, etc. are all there. In the northwest of the community, the telegraph here can directly communicate with Europe."
"That's great. I think I can call all my family and friends over after a while." Bran. De said.
It is also great for East Africa. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and Brand, as a biologist, is destined not to be unknown in his circle.
However, Brand also said that it will take a while, because he is still in the inspection stage of East Africa, and the most important thing is that the working environment has not been carefully inspected.
Soon Blanco broke his doubts.
“This is the East African Rice Research Institute. The location is a bit off. This is because after all, the experimental site is different from general scientific research, so we chose to be on the outskirts of the city. However, it is not far from your residence. It’s only less than two kilometers away. The government will issue East African traffic rules notices and transportation to relevant personnel.”
What kind of transportation? The answer is bicycles. Bicycles are not a rare thing. However, Hechingen Daily Necessities Company does not mass-produce them, but takes the luxury route. The main reason is that East African rubber has not yet been mass-produced on a large scale. The rubber used in European bicycles comes from Brazil imports rubber, but Brazilian rubber production is actually not high. As for Southeast Asia, there is no trace of rubber now. Historically, it was not until 1876 that the United Kingdom began to introduce rubber to Southeast Asia. At present, the only country in the world where rubber is grown on a large scale and prepared for commercial rubber production is East Africa.
Moreover, the bicycles produced by the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company are rather strange. Its tires are solid and are only used for shock absorption. In this way, the bicycle is relatively easy to use on flat ground, but much worse off-road. This makes the bicycle a kind of A novelty only enjoyed by the rich and aristocrats because of its poor practicality.
Of course there are hollow pneumatic rubber tires. The Hechingen Consortium has applied for a technology patent. However, Ernst does not want to promote it on a large scale now, mainly because he does not want the money to be made by Brazil. Brazilian Rubber It is now a monopoly market, and the pricing power of raw materials is not in the hands of the Hechingen consortium.
However, this situation will change this year, because the rubber in the Great Lakes region is ready to be put into production. In addition to the Great Lakes region, there are actually several small rubber planting areas in East Africa at the same time, mainly distributed in Turka Rainy areas in Nasdaq and the intersection of coastal plains and plateau areas.
As for the larger tropical rainforest producing area, that is, the west side of the Mitumba Mountains, because the planting time is relatively late, it will take a few years. However, the output of the Great Lakes Region and several small production areas is enough to meet the needs of the world's natural rubber market.
Hechingen did not liberalize the production of bicycle technology in Europe. Instead, it adopted the form of squeezing toothpaste and continued to be innovative in appearance and decoration. After all, bicycles are now the playthings of aristocrats, so they look luxurious.
When East African rubber matures, the company plans to invest in and build a number of factories centered on the rubber industry in East Africa, and bicycle tires are one of them.
Blanco continued: "Of course, this distance is actually not that far. It doesn't take long to walk, and there are public carriages available."
"Except In addition to these, there is a library in the center of the city, where some non-special information can be consulted. Because the construction has just been completed, the collection of books is not very rich, but it is being replenished all the time.”
(End of this chapter)