After the lunch break, someone says “Mahlzeit” as I pass by.
I turn around but only see black. Emanuel comes up to me and introduces himself. I’m already happy that I can talk to people here in English, but I didn’t expect to speak German (on a mother tongue level).
He told me that he was born and raised in Hanover, but his parents are from Ghana. Now he commutes between Germany and Ghana.
A really nice guy, he offered me to let him know if I miss or need anything here in Ghana; he will get it for me.
And he would also like to show me the carpentry workshop (of Samartex). Cool, I accept right away.
So 2 days later I visited him.
It’s really amazing what beautiful tabletops they make.
More for conference rooms than for the living room at home. The tables are easily 1-1.2 m wide and up to 5 m long and usually cut from a tree. A glass element is then embedded in the middle, with LED lighting.
There are also smaller tables for the flat, but they are also very massive.
https://www.samartex.com/en/image-gallery/18.html?path[0]=7&path[1]=18
If I ever have a big house with a huge dining room, I want a table like that.
Besides tables, they also make mirrors and build kitchens.
He showed me Emmanuel’s highlight in a picture. Last year he built a bowling alley with 2 lanes. Everything was done by hand and everything was mechanical without the expensive mechanism for raising the pins. He then calibrated everything with laser equipment so that the ball really runs out straight and doesn’t get stuck somewhere. He worked on that for 3 months.
I think they have a good mixture of German thoroughness and technical understanding with craftsmanship and attention to detail.
The machines are getting on in years, but they still work. On the wish list, however, are a large planer and a CNC milling machine.
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