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Throughout my 25 years in the electronics industry I have had some weird and wonderful jobs installing equipment all over the world. This has taken me to some amazing places and I have had the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people. But my most memorable jobs to date were my foreign excursions … an African expedition to install PA and CCTV systems at a food cannery in Ghana and another at a tuna factory in the Seychelles.

Having never been to either of these locations before made the jobs particularly enticing but any thoughts of relaxing on a sun kissed beach in the Seychelles faded away as I realised exactly what this task entailed.

It was not possible for me and my team to do a recce at the locations before the installation, so all of the planning had to be done by us in the UK, liaising with the site managers and other staff.

We had hoped that the plans of the facilities would allow us to visualise what the plants looked like in some detail. But "sketchy" did not quite cover the the detail we had in these plans and it took all the imagination that we could muster for us to picture how our systems would work in place. Fortunately, what details we did have was accurate and from this we were able to put together systems that would meet the needs of the these two very different facilities.

I'm not great at packing under normal circumstances, but taking everything that we would need to install PA and CCTV systems in a foreign country would be another matter entirely. The difficulty we faced was not knowing what would be available to hire when we arrived, so we laid out detailed plans and tried to account for the unexpected and basically carry as much as we could. However we soon learned that the best laid plans …

When we first arrived in Ghana we were struck by the oppressive heat. I felt that this would be the first obstacle to overcome. Getting used to working in these conditions would not be easy, particularly having just left the cold, biting winds of north east England. The locals coped so we resolved that we would too, but we knew this trip was to be a steep learning curve.

We quickly found that ways of working differed greatly between our countries and that we would have to adapt to their customs and practices. (Compared to the UK where gross national income is US $33940, Ghana's GNI is $380 and the Seychelles $8090.)

One of the problems was knowing how much equipment to pack, said Pete Galloway.

However, "different" does not mean better or worse. The standards of health and safety at both locations were as high as anywhere I had been and I feel that we have a lot to learn by looking at how business works in other countries.

Foe example, lunchtime is always a welcome part of any day, but just imagine having your lunch every day on a beautiful, sun kissed beach in the Seychelles … I could have gotten used to that! Sadly that beach was washed up when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit the area … another jolt to the system.

Our first days on both sites were enlightening experiences and it was quite a buzz to be back learning on the job. Our initial assessment that the heat was a problem that we had to overcome was soon confirmed by another factor … the smell. Being located in Hull, a city that still has a thriving fish processing industry, this is something that we should have been familiar with, but nothing could have prepared us for the overwhelming aroma that greeted us on our first day, probably not helped by the heat. This was something that we would have to get used to.

The people at both the HJ Heinz Pioneer Food Cannery in Ghana and the Indian Ocean Tuna factory in the Seychelles were incredibly accommodating, especially when we struggled with the language. It was great to pick up some basics whilst we were there, but for the more complex pieces of equipment, pointing and hand gestures was all we could manage. Somehow we made ourselves understood and got along fine.

Even our careful planning beforehand did not cover every eventuality and unexpected situations meant we had to improvise with what we found around us. In the end both jobs were finished on time and to budget and I was happy to see they made a real difference to the sites. The PA systems have really helped with on-site communication, making things swifter and safer. As for the CCTV system in Ghana, this has been deemed a huge success as, no sooner had it been installed, it was put to good use, so to speak!

My time in Ghana and the Seychelles has given me valuable lessons on how to adapt and think on your feet. I would recommend that everyone takes some time out of their own environment to experience life and work in another culture in order to enrich our own.