Friday, March 25, 2011

THE FIRST WEEK

Arising...
The following morning I am up at 6 a.m., take a bath and dress up ready for the day. The day starts at 8 a.m here. I am ready by 7 a.m., and I decide to read a book as I wait for breakfast to be ready. At about 7:15, breakfast is ready, I have my share, and by 7:30, am off to my workstation, the sustainability office (this was my first location as we had stricken a rapport with the head of sustainability, and he allowed me to share his office as I wait to get a permanent station with sufficient power for my computer.)

My workstation...
I arrive to find the office closed, and suddenly remember business starts at 8. I have to wait, let alone adapt to the living here. Finally its 8 and the Sustainability secretary arrives, greats me warmly, asks for my name, I ask for hers, and soon we become friends. She asks whether I am the computer guy from Safaricom, and my answer, you guessed right! She then goes on to line up the problems she has been experiencing with her computer, and I realize, its gonna be a hell of troubleshooting here. But first things first, I ask her to allow me settle down, and I will look into her problems, to which she readily agrees.

She shows me to a table in the sustainability manager’s office, where I have a socket to plug my computer. I try switching it on but, no power. I ask the secretary, and she tells me we have to wait for the generator which comes on after 9 am. This is the generator that serves the polytechnic workshops and the Administration office block, with solar as the primary source of power for these offices. The rest of the village is served by solar power. Luckily enough, my laptop had some reserve power to take me for some minutes as I wait.

First things first...
I login and check for any updates from the office, then start on drafting my workplan. Am through with the workplan, send it over to the Foundation, and soon it’s time to hit the road! I have to establish which computer is working, which requires checking, what needs to be replaced, who doesn’t know how to use theirs…e.t.c. I first meet the sustainability manager, who hands me about 4 laptops which have issues and need to be sorted. This will be my routine the whole of the week as I go from office to office. I embark on working on them as I wait for the Programme manager to come anytime within the week for a briefing of my stay in the village.

The rest of activities...

The week generally drags along with me visiting every office and receiving the same greeting…are you the computer guy from safaricom, Yes I am, and the problems flow on, I come up with a schedule of auctioning each, and embark on resolving them. Some are solved; some require hardware replacements, which proves to be a process to procure them.

End of day...


The day ends at 5 pm as usual, with no extending as all the offices are closed. I sit at a shade in the guest house, with my laptop, which has some reserved power to catchup with my friends, do some updates on social media, and prepare for the next day, which again is the same routine till week end…

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