Every day in Africa has to be interesting, especially when you’re a “white man” who’s never traveled much.
Yesterday was interesting because of losing power. The center has lost power other times since I’ve been here and I understand that it’s not too unusual for this to happen even in the capital of this country. The center’s generator normally kicks in within seconds while the battery backup system in the computer server room keeps all the critical equipment running in the interim.
What was different yesterday is that the generator didn’t kick in at all. After a minute, the IT team realized that the situation wasn’t normal but then just keep on doing what they could without power. Apparently, the generator has always come on. The workers in the building who were using desktop computers were out of luck anyways. Those using laptop computers, which have their own batteries, kept working on anything that didn’t require internet access (browsing and email).
Battery backup power is only designed to keep equipment running for 15 minutes, sometimes longer. And that’s when the batteries are in peak condition. These batteries weren’t. After about 10 minutes, all the servers died and I pointed this out to the IT guys.
Power came back on in about 15 minutes. I restarted the servers, making sure that the battery backup system was recharging as well. Then the power went out again. The batteries lasted even less time and the servers died again. Interestingly the IT guys didn’t seem concerned.
As an IT professional from the US and from New England where power losses are nothing new and working where there wasn’t a power generator ready to save the day, I reacted differently. I wandered across the center to where several men were troubleshooting the generator. It apparently was overheating and the plan was to temporarily keep it running until lunch (another 35 minutes), shut it down, fix the problem, and get it up for the afternoon.
I notified the IT guys and started the servers again. What then surprised me was that they didn’t plan on shutting down the servers the normal way just before lunch. That would mean the batteries would run down again and the servers would die a cruel and unusual death. (Of course, I jumped in and shut them down just as the generator was turned off.) I’m left to wonder if this lack of interest/concern is the norm for Kenya/Africa. Hmmm…
Spiritually, do I notice when God's power seems to be missing? Do I go searching for the reason why? Do I prepare in advance to deal with the situation in a Godly way? What does that look like? Prayer, time the Word of God?
Francois Sebagabo, a Congolese man who is serving in Burundi (a small country between Kenya and DR Congo, and just south of Rwanda), took a two day bus trip to come visit me. Julie and I met him in Portland, ME when he was spending a year getting more Bible training. He’d left his wife and seven (!!) daughters at home. He travels between 10 churches in Burundi and DR Congo, building up the pastors and ministering to orphans and widows living in extreme poverty. He has a strong desire to have us visit his home and travel around to see his work. Of course, that isn’t possible this trip. He, like my friend Bob in the US, had been praying for me to come to Africa.
Today was another good work day. We were able to set up a system on the network to automatically and efficiently control all the Windows servers and client computers to make sure that approved security patches and other important software are installed daily. We need to do some final testing but it looks like I'm onto the next item on the list.
Tomorrow will include a trip to an Kenyan animal park (to pet a cheetah?), an orphan elephant place, and a visit with former Wheaton College-mates/pastor who is currently at NEGST (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology). This means I’ll finally get out of Nairobi and experience a bit more open area of Kenya. Can anybody say “pictures”?
That’ll be fun!
As usual, stay tuned…
Yesterday was interesting because of losing power. The center has lost power other times since I’ve been here and I understand that it’s not too unusual for this to happen even in the capital of this country. The center’s generator normally kicks in within seconds while the battery backup system in the computer server room keeps all the critical equipment running in the interim.
What was different yesterday is that the generator didn’t kick in at all. After a minute, the IT team realized that the situation wasn’t normal but then just keep on doing what they could without power. Apparently, the generator has always come on. The workers in the building who were using desktop computers were out of luck anyways. Those using laptop computers, which have their own batteries, kept working on anything that didn’t require internet access (browsing and email).
Battery backup power is only designed to keep equipment running for 15 minutes, sometimes longer. And that’s when the batteries are in peak condition. These batteries weren’t. After about 10 minutes, all the servers died and I pointed this out to the IT guys.
Power came back on in about 15 minutes. I restarted the servers, making sure that the battery backup system was recharging as well. Then the power went out again. The batteries lasted even less time and the servers died again. Interestingly the IT guys didn’t seem concerned.
As an IT professional from the US and from New England where power losses are nothing new and working where there wasn’t a power generator ready to save the day, I reacted differently. I wandered across the center to where several men were troubleshooting the generator. It apparently was overheating and the plan was to temporarily keep it running until lunch (another 35 minutes), shut it down, fix the problem, and get it up for the afternoon.
I notified the IT guys and started the servers again. What then surprised me was that they didn’t plan on shutting down the servers the normal way just before lunch. That would mean the batteries would run down again and the servers would die a cruel and unusual death. (Of course, I jumped in and shut them down just as the generator was turned off.) I’m left to wonder if this lack of interest/concern is the norm for Kenya/Africa. Hmmm…
Spiritually, do I notice when God's power seems to be missing? Do I go searching for the reason why? Do I prepare in advance to deal with the situation in a Godly way? What does that look like? Prayer, time the Word of God?
Francois Sebagabo, a Congolese man who is serving in Burundi (a small country between Kenya and DR Congo, and just south of Rwanda), took a two day bus trip to come visit me. Julie and I met him in Portland, ME when he was spending a year getting more Bible training. He’d left his wife and seven (!!) daughters at home. He travels between 10 churches in Burundi and DR Congo, building up the pastors and ministering to orphans and widows living in extreme poverty. He has a strong desire to have us visit his home and travel around to see his work. Of course, that isn’t possible this trip. He, like my friend Bob in the US, had been praying for me to come to Africa.
Today was another good work day. We were able to set up a system on the network to automatically and efficiently control all the Windows servers and client computers to make sure that approved security patches and other important software are installed daily. We need to do some final testing but it looks like I'm onto the next item on the list.
Tomorrow will include a trip to an Kenyan animal park (to pet a cheetah?), an orphan elephant place, and a visit with former Wheaton College-mates/pastor who is currently at NEGST (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology). This means I’ll finally get out of Nairobi and experience a bit more open area of Kenya. Can anybody say “pictures”?
That’ll be fun!
As usual, stay tuned…
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