A DAY IN THE LIFE of a MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Drawing plans to make a difference

The kind of work I do requires me to wake up at 6am. I normally start my day with a prayer. It is after the prayer that I prepare breakfast for the family and later get ready for work. I leave home at 7am. It takes me 30 to 45 minutes to reach parliament from my home in Konge depending on the traffic flow.

I usually pray again and read a bible verse, the moment I get into office. My work is to review and enter the findings from the field into the computer. I also visit different sites that are under construction. I normally aim at finding out what the workers need for the on-going work, the mistakes done, the project’s progress among other things.

My field movements and the time I return to office are determined by the number of sites I visit in a day. It is on return that I review the field findings before they are compiled to deliver a progress report to the bosses. As a clerk, I am obligated to draw architectural plans for the slated projects.

I am out of office by 5pm to either go for meetings, parties or choir practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But if there is none, I head straight home to take care of my little son. My office also deals in firefighting, extraction, water harvesting and electrical works. We are currently working on an underground project that is to cater for the basement parliament parking lot.

Although I have gotten experience, interacted with different people and gotten money that has contributed to my developments, I find it challenging when I redo the already finished work yet it is usually discussed by different people. It is stressing re-sketching a new architectural plan when new ideas come up later.

This takes a lot of time that would have been used to do other things. My future plan is to start up my own construction company where I will be able to provide more job opportunities to the citizens.

Francisca Alinitwe Kataruzire is a mechanical engineer and a site clerk at Parliament under the engineering department

As told to Christine Katende