Just a
few days before Corey and I leave Guinea-Bissau. I had some major
items to accomplish at the Bissau center, each with the potential of
major consequences, supposedly good, hopefully not negative. Though
I had thought through and made a list of what needed to be done, I
was a bit nervous on how the day would end.
I ordered a hamburger, appropriate
spelled a different way in Portuguese, but also because it was different. The bun had a layer of
french fries on the bottom, a thin, thin meat patty that tasted close
to American beef, topped with a fried egg. Add ketchup and it was
actually pretty good.
We
drove to Bissau, arriving just after 9 am. The bottom line is that I
blinked and it was 11 am. I blinked again and it was 3:30 pm. A
final blink revealed it was 6:30 pm, time to pack our gear, grab
dinner and head home. What a short long day.
A
technician from the local Internet provider was supposed to come to
the center and log into their equipment so that we could disable some
of their features and change settings so that the team at JAARS could
remotely support our equipment, troubleshooting and making changes to
meet their needs. When no one showed by 10 am, we called their
office, only to learn that the technician hadn't come to work that
day. Our administrator applied pressure and a guy showed up about
noon.
I
suspect this technician was a newbie... at least I hope so cause I
was not impressed. Once logged in, he started hunting and pecking
all round the menus as if it was his first time doing so. When asked
to make several changes, he spent 10 minutes before coming back and
saying that he couldn't. I switched to plan B and got some of our
needs met but was not able to create an environment that would let us
remotely manage the Bissau network.
At one
point, he made a change and then wasn't able to get back into the
system to keep looking around. I was concerned that the system was
either broken or he was locked out for good. For a moment I thought
they would have to replace their hardware because of a mistake he
made. Then, like a good IT guy, I suggested he cycle the power on
and off for his gear. Don't know why he didn't think of this but it
worked. Whew!
While
this was a disappointment, I can't say I was surprised after several
meetings with the Internet provider the past two weeks. I'm praising
God and very thankful that this was the only disappointment of the
day.
By the
end of the day I was able to move everyone from a network that had no
security onto the system we had designed last year, complete with a
network firewall (block bad stuff coming in), content filtering
(block deliberate or accidental access of inappropriate content) and
a highly secure wireless network.
(In
Bissau, if a relative or a friend asks a worker at the center for the
password, the worker feels obligated to give the password. That
means many people are jumping on our network from nearby without our
knowing, slowing it down. Our new system is using a list of known
and approved computers. If the computer is not on the list, it isn't
connected.)
The
literacy, translation and OneStory teams all shared one HP laser
printer. If someone wanted to print, they left their desk, walked to
and plugged into the printer, printed, and then returned to work.
Then I was told that any computer with Windows 7 wouldn't work with
this older printer. That meant half the people couldn't print
anything.
I
attached the laser printer to the network to eliminate them having to
go to the printer to print. I also downloaded software and created
documentation to let all computers, including Windows 7, use the
printer.
So,
three blinks and the day is done. I hardly saw Corey all day. Most of his day was spent running the new power line along a building and into our guest apartment. Since Derek was going to be spending the night there, Corey made sure that Derek had power.
 |
| Not a quarter pounder of beef. Not even an eigth pounder. |
It's
normal that I rest and even half-doze on the way back to Lendem. As
mentioned in earlier blogs, we're traveling down dark and narrow
roads, often with people walking, standing, bike riding along the
sites. The driver has to be alert and beep the horn often to give a
heads up to anyone ahead of us.
Gloria
was driving and I was almost in la-la land. A truck was coming
toward us with its high beams on, making it hard to see ahead of us
with the glare. I had closed my eyes. Almost immediately our car
swerved and I learned that a cow had been standing directly ahead
of our car. God was with Gloria because, at 50 mph, she was able to jerk the car
left and then right (narrowly missing the truck as it passed) to dodge the
cow.
So our
prayers before each trip to/from Bissau and your prayers for our
safety have been heard by God and he has been so gracious to us in
many ways.
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