“I have learnt to take people as my brothers, sisters and mothers”

Highlights

• He is a jack of all trades
• Starts work at 4 a.m. - 7/7
• ‘Participants are my brothers, sisters’
• Hopes to return to Ghana one day

When a course is running at the NSJ Training Centre in Johannesburg, Dickson, the caretaker, wakes up as early as 4 am cleaning the rooms, the compound and doing just about every piece of work there is to do.  When there is no course he stays alone at the centre. Obviously, he prefers it when there is a course running because he has more company.

Approaches the day’s work as a boxer would an opponent; knocking it out

With patience, different nationalities blend

Dealing with the many people of different nationalities requires patience and Dickson seems to have plenty of it.  He never quarrels with the participants.  “I have learnt to take people as  my brothers, sisters and mothers,” says the stocky Dickson whose physique belies his gentle and affable character.

Once a boxer, always vigilant

Dickson used to be a boxer in his native Ghana but he quit because, his father told him it was a dangerous sport.

From his boxing and knock out days in Ghana, Dickson has found peace in Johannesburg but hopes to one day return home and set up a business.