Getting Help... Easy or Hard?

Every day is different.

I walked into our department's hardware repair section looking for someone. This area handles not only repairs for computers, but also radio equipment, battery backup systems, printers and monitors. Wayne, the radio technician, was on the radio talking with Carl, a translator out in his village. Wayne asked me to help because Carl's relatively new laptop had an unusual error message stopping him from logging in and using his computer for translation work or email.

Picture the translator sitting in his basic village home running his HF (high frequency) radio, his computer and other gear off batteries that were charged with solar panels. His whole purpose for being there is translation which requires the use of the computer and that tool, which worked fine in the morning, is now useless. Translators usually have a very basic understanding of operating computers, much like most people, and rarely able to cope with computers glitches, especially like this one. They usually also have no internet access. Their only source of help is via the radio to the computer guys here at Ukarumpa. Add to this that other translators may have signed up for upcoming 15 minute slots on the radio "calendar" so he may have to hang up.

Fortunately the reception was clear so we got the exact wording of the displayed error message. The radio was next to a computer so I was able to quickly do some Internet research and give Carl directions on how to start the computer in "safe mode" and then try to replace corrupted data.

I'd hoped to help Carl to a successful conclusion but we waited about 25 minutes for a call-back from him. Finally we tried to raise him on the radio again but he didn't answer. Wayne thinks that Carl's power ran out. What a life translators face!

God's always available to talk to. He knows the perfect solution for our problems... all of them but especially the Sin problem. His power is limitless. He is able to save to the uttermost.

Hallelujah!

Comments

bel said…
i spent 2 hours this morning dealing with computer problems at work... wish you'd been here :)