I can still remember my first day of internship at the
Volkswagen Service centre. I was so excited that I hadly slept the night
before; immediately it was 5:00am, I went to have my bath and get dressed.
Truthfully, I had no idea how the day was going to be but the feeling of being
at a new company, earning my own salary and all the beautiful cars I would be
working on was a natural aphrodisiac to me. I had actually been to the
Volkswagen Centre before and I remember seeing a lot of Porsche Cayenne’s and
Boxsters, a twin turbo Audi and a W12 engined VOlkswagen, so I was of the
impression that I’d be working with some really cool rides. I had already
worked at a local service centre before, but that place was no match for this
one; plus I had only spent two weeks there and to be sincere, it really wasn’t
a lot of fun and I didn’t get to do much..
Anyway, by 6:30am, I had had breakfast; a concoction of
rice and tomato sauce or “economy jollof” as we called it and was ready to go
to work. At the dot of 6:45, I packed up my tools, my laptop and a couple of
documents I needed my boss to sign and I was off to work. The VW centre was
still at Gbagada then, so it was just a 25mins journey from Gran’s place “where
I was staying” to work. By 7:15, I was already at work, so I had roughly 45mins
to spare before work began. I slowly unpacked my things and took a mini tour
round the outskirts of the workshop. The VW Service Centre in Lagos is run by
the Stallion Group in Nigeria and services all types of Volkswagen’s, Audi’s,
Skoda’s and Porsche’s. In the same complex, there was also the Hyundai service
centre and a cloth making factory that I never quite identified with.
By 8:00am on the dot, the workshop opened and all the
workers started moving in, I met my supervisor Mr Akanji who then directed me
to the GM’s office. The GM Mr Munich welcomed me to the service centre, told me
I was free to work with any of the technicians around and then handed me to Mr
Taofik one of the technicians I began work with.
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I was shown where the Special Tools Room and Engine Room
was located before being diverted to work. As it was my first day, I didn’t
really say much “I was a bit shy”, even Mr Taofik didn’t quite relate with me
and so after a while I got bored and started roaming round the workshop. I
decided to go check out those really cool rides again. I was in aww looking at
the Volkswagen Phaeton W12. I had only heard about this car on one episode in
Top Gear, I never quite thought I’d see it in real life and yet there it was.
Unbelievable!. Then there was this Audi S6 with a bi-turbo badge pasted on it’s
left quarters. That car also left me awestruck. There were a lot of Audi’s and
Porsche’s at the service centre’s parking lot and to be sincere I hadn’t ever
seen this many luxury cars being in one place. It kinda made me feel timid.
Then I noticed a
car being worked on, a car that made my day as increased my enthusiasm to
really wanna work in Volkswagen. It was a Porsche 911 Turbo with its flat six
engine being removed. “Screams frantically” Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! I couldn’t wait for
the next day.
If i die roday on the highway to heaven, can I drop
the top down in my 911 – Rick Ross.
Sincere Apologies for some of the photo's. Taking pictures at the workshop was frowned upon.
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