I have never liked the Exchange mail server. I learned email servers from one of the originators of Sendmail. Sendmail has it's problems. I enjoyed Qmail. I even enjoyed Postfix, I have generally enjoyed most unix based mail servers because although confusing to some, the puzzle pieces make sense in my mind.
But Exchange is a different beast.
I've been doing this job for nearly 5 years now and in that time I have upgraded Exchange 3 times.
EACH time I have become convinced that the newer version is WORSE than the previous.
Exchange 2010 is losing it's GUI-ness and going more command line. So, it was with the experience of knowing that moving to Exchange 2007 with 2003 was wrought with bugs and problems, that we very carefully went to 2010.
While the gui on 2010 looks very similiar, the under workings are very different and so when someone from the helpdesk came to me and said,
"our imap clients can't send email" I thought 'it's probably some super secret hidden command line somewhere that says 'make sending mail work for Imap clients'.
After hours of experimentation and searching, I found it. YUP... there's a super secret command line for imap clients only, to be able to send mail.
THANKS Microsoft. I really needed to waste 5 hours of my life. Why wasn't that in the training I took? Why wasn't it in the documentation? Why wasn't it in the gui? What were you thinking?
I know what they were thinking. See this super secret command line isn't needed if you're running microsoft products only. But we support Mac's and Linux boxes which run non-microsoft email clients. And so they use imap, and so, it didn't work. Outlook in imap mode works great.
Our department may quickly be switching away from microsoft products simply because of the cost involved. I'm looking forward to that day. If you want, you can pray that God sends us the right staff who understand unix enough to be able to maintain unix servers.
12/18/2011
12/15/2011
Christmas 2011
The Christmas Party
In our department we have several ex-pat (whiteskin) workers and more PNG workers than that. Each year we have budgetted to have a little get together for
christmas. The aim of that budget is to have enough money to have some cake, sit together and grow together as a team and celebrate Christ's birth. But
the proper way to celebrate has been elusive to us over the past 5 years or so. Previous management has tried various things. Some years we have had a
small party over banana bread (sweet kai), some years we have purchased rice and sugar and gifted the PNG employees (as a Christmas bonus instead of a
party), but neither of these things really help the team to come together. It is important in PNG culture to share celebrations. Working side by side
isn't enough to form lasting relationships. Last year our well meaning department manager thought he'd surprise everyone with a nice breakfast at his
house. It was a great idea, but the PNG employees disliked it greatly. We're not 100% why.
This year we have an acting department manager. He decided to give the employees the options before them.
It's important to know that between last year and this year, there was a 1 week training for all PNG staff on centre to learn a little more about ex-pat
culture. Many of us coming here have received cultural training and have tried to adapt and not make huge mistakes, but still, we do things that seem odd
to Papua New Guineans. Odd in such a way that we may have caused insult which harmed relationship building without even knowing it. So keep in mind, that
they have had their eyes open to how we operate and live.
The idea of financial support has eluded some. The idea that we volunteer to uproot our lives to come here because we want to help is not entirely grasped.
A lot of ex-pats come to this country to harvest it's resources, we come to provide a resource that will last.
So given that this year has been a remarkable shift towards really developing relationships.... we should not have been as surprised as we were to have our
PNG employees come to us and say
"we want to throw you a mumu."
A mumu is celebratory feast. It is a lot of work to prepare, as a cooking pit must be dug, food donated and gathered from gardens, a pig killed. In PNG
culture, when a pig is killed, it is a significant event. It shows that the occasion has a special meaning.
But, we didn't have enough money in the budget for anything more than buying a pig.
This is where THIS Christmas story begins.
The employees said 'the pig is important, we will donate food from our gardens, we will also donate 20 kina each, and we want everyone to bring their
families'
?!?!?!
WOW. Such hospitality is not unusual here. They even got together and wrote a letter from which I'll quote:
"We feel that this time together will signify Christ's birth and strengthen relationships within the departmen. As you will learn over time, Papua New
Guineans are relationship orientated people and this will definitely mean a lot to us. We extend our invitation to our Expat Brothers who are working in
CTS to attend this mumu to show as a team we have stood together this year 2011"
What started out as a "how are we going to accomplish the department party and grow relationships without angering the staff" turned into the staff honoring
our desires, and not only GIVING to the cause, but doing so with hospitality and cheer. How does this type of thing turn around like that?
Very simply put, God is at work in our lives.
Our department manager put it out there, was willing to take their guidance, and they responded.
I am excited as we will partake of this mumu today. My son and I went to help kill the pig, and learned that in the highlands they kill the pig differently
than in the coastal area. They take a blunt axe to the crown of it's skull. Then they bath it in boiling water to shave the hair off, because they don't
skin the pig, they leave the skin on when it cooks.
I asked a friend what the best part was, he said 'the spine'. In PNG, the best piece of the pig, often has no meat. Often it's a piece of skin covered,
hairy fat. And often as an ex-pat they will offer this 'best piece' to you to eat.
So what do you do in that situation? I personally have given it to my son, who seems to enjoy that part of their culture.
The other day the high school vice-principal said "I was in my office and I heard a young voice speaking perfect tok pisin and I thought, 'who is that
student'. And he stepped out of his office and my daughter was talking to the office staff. He was impressed with her Tok Pisin.
Two days ago I heard my son teaching a line of PNG boys and girls how to play a ball game in tok pisin. For him it's important to do proper training and
rules before the game begins, so he was explaining the rules to them. They all looked on at him and listened, and fully understood him as he fluently spoke
to them about boundaries and outs, and fouls, etc.
This Christmas I'm thankful for the changes God makes in our lives and in the lives of people around us. I see a significant difference this Christmas in
the way we interact with our PNG friends and the relationships seem deeper.
I learned a lot today. It wasn't my first mumu, but it was perhaps the one I was closest to. Apparently, the thrower of the mumu mounts the pig head in front of their house as a way to declare 'I have killed this many pigs'. Also traditionally whoever keeps the head, throws the next mumu.
This mumu we sang praise songs, read Luke 2 in Tok Pisin and honored each other by giving certificates for time with CTS as well as doling out portions of the pig. This is a sign of honor and respejavascript:void(0)ct and appreciation. Even I was given a section of the cooked pig, having been here nearly 5 years.
It was a good day.
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12/14/2011
12/13/2011
7.3 in PNG
I was in the middle of troubleshooting my email servers when a long violent quake hit. Don't know the stats yet, but guessing it was in the 6's.
Possibly the most violent quake we've had here, and I recalled from years ago that a big quake made the server room racks jostle... so instinctively I dashed to the server room, and pressed my feet against the door jamb and my arms against the server racks.
My co-worker caught a clip of it, but by then it was rather calm, those racks were all over the place, until I stopped them.
At one point there was a big 'boom', and I ducked, but it turned out to be a loose floorboard that went.
Someone asked me "at what point do you say 'leave the servers and protect yourself?' and I replied "I suppose when something hits me in the head." Nothing did.
I can survive a scrape or two, but damaged servers will mean days of work for me....
Of course at home all was well, some paper spilled on the floor.
The biggest damage risk is a fallen power line, or a burst water tank uphill from you. Thus far, no reports of bad damage have come in.
I'm from California. I've been near the Loma Prieta 6.9 in October of 1991, the Eastridge 7.0, and now the PNG 7.3 in the Eastern Highlands, and let me tell you, I prefer the PNG 7.3 to the California 6.9 WOW what a huge difference. The land didn't split here, buildings didn't topple. My servers started rocking, some paper fell on the floor, and that was it.
I went outside to hear two men, their hair now white, who have been here well over 2 decades and said 'that was the strongest one I've ever felt here.'.
So, for those wishing to come here, not from quake country. Yes we have quakes. We don't have big animals of prey. (nothing larger than a small dog) We don't have tornadoes. We have rain, quakes. If you're from California, come on over, the quakes are docile here!
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc00076e5.php
12/12/2011
Two Funny Stories
Yesterday I was at the aviation department saying goodbye to a friend. While there I saw a Papua New Guinean friend and I said hello to her.
In tok pisin the conversation proceeded:
me: Hi, are you leaving?
her: yes to port moresby
me: ah, why are you going?
her: to get Kero
now I think to myself "kero is short for kerosene here, but if she's buying kerosene she must be buying it in bulk because air fare is costly... so I figure she has to be buying a lot, or I misunderstood, so I cleverly figured out how to verify"
me: Kero?
her: yes.
me: How much?
her: this much (she shows me with her hands about the height of a 55 gallon drum)
now I think (1 drum? that's it?)
me: That's not much.
her: huh?
me: That's a long way to go to buy kerosene
her: not kerosene, CAROL! my daughter, her name is carol, you don't know my daughter's name?
me: I guess I don't.
her: Carol, my daughter has been in the U.S. for 5 months going to school.
I laughed out of embarassment but she wasn't laughing. Around here, everyone knows everyone and their entire family. It is the PNG way. But I am horrible with names and faces and so I had no idea she had a daughter nor what her name was. I didn't want to tell her that 5 months wasn't a very long time to be in school in the U.S. But I've also found that those who do come back from the U.S. often have learned a LOT in a short time, enough such that they can become quite successful at interacting with ex-pats. Which goes to show, the people of this country are intelligent. They seem to grasp things very quickly that we often overlook.
Second story:
I was driving around in our department vehicle when a man came up to me and said,
(again in tok pisin)
him: I see you are driving this vehicle, so I waited for you.
me: okay, how can I help you? (knowing this might be an interesting conversation)
him: I have a camera that won't flash. CTS will charge me 90 kina to fix it.
me: Yes they will.
him: all I need is someone to fix it, and I don't have 90 kina.
(at this point I know this is one of those broken devices that will not go away. Often times people throw away items that will no longer work nor are repairable, and CTS can end up wasting all kinds of time on these things. Which is why when we get one, we don't throw it away, we dissect it into parts we can use to repair other things. There's nothing worse than working to fix something that you think is important to someone else, that they picked out of the trash, and then keep bringing it back. It really wastes a lot of time, especially since the item was already deemed 'unfixable'. You'd be surprised how much electronics these days cost more to fix than to replace. At this point, I recognize that the 90kina number was a 'this is unfixable' rate, intended to deter people from trying.)
me: I can't fix it, I am not an electrical engineer, I fix computers
him: but you drive this car.
me: yes I work for CTS
him: oh... will you fix my camera?
me: I can't fix your camera
him: do you know anyone who can?
me: I know 1 guy who might be able to.
him: who?
me: He works at CTS.
him: but they will charge me 90 kina to fix this.
me: no, they will charge you 90 kina to TRY to fix this, they may not fix it.
him: can you fix it for me? I don't have 90 kina.
me: I can't fix it. I don't know how.
him: oh... okay.
Now, to you, it may seem like he wasn't getting the point. But he was. There were two cultural aspects at play here. First, was the tendency in this culture to repeat oneself. In fact to get the idea across and be sure that someone fully understands, you should repeat yourself several times. Second, the 'no harm in trying' concept we call 'traim tasol'. If you find a camera in the trash, and can also find someone to fix it for free, why not try? No harm done.
Next time I'll not drive the dept. vehicle. (-;
Back on the repeating something. This is something it takes a bit of getting used to here. But it is important, because if something is important, it bears repeating. This culture does not tire of repetition. They can hear the same story over and over and over.
Whereas in the U.S. you rarely enjoy watching a re-run. You have more important things to do with your time. Which is why if I said,
"Be sure to check that the oven is off before you leave. Before you leave, be sure that the oven is not on. If you leave, and the oven is on, that is bad, so check that the oven is off."
But here, that is perfectly appropriate and if you were to only mention the oven offing once folks might think 'well it can't be that important'.
Which is why, when discussing things of import, like Christ's redemptive blood, you repeat it. So you can imagine... given that it takes twice as long to say most things in tok pisin as it does in English, that a quick sentiment like 'check the oven' could turn into a ten minute conversation.
This is partially why a lot of the South Pacific areas feel like a slower pace than the rest of the world. You take time to stop, talk to people, repeat yourself, tell them the same story you've told them a million times, they'll laugh as if they've only just now heard it, and eventually you get around to business.
And while it is one of the HARDEST parts of adapting to the culture here, the slower pace... makes you feel as if you're wasting time... it is also why we love this place so much during Christmas.
In tok pisin the conversation proceeded:
me: Hi, are you leaving?
her: yes to port moresby
me: ah, why are you going?
her: to get Kero
now I think to myself "kero is short for kerosene here, but if she's buying kerosene she must be buying it in bulk because air fare is costly... so I figure she has to be buying a lot, or I misunderstood, so I cleverly figured out how to verify"
me: Kero?
her: yes.
me: How much?
her: this much (she shows me with her hands about the height of a 55 gallon drum)
now I think (1 drum? that's it?)
me: That's not much.
her: huh?
me: That's a long way to go to buy kerosene
her: not kerosene, CAROL! my daughter, her name is carol, you don't know my daughter's name?
me: I guess I don't.
her: Carol, my daughter has been in the U.S. for 5 months going to school.
I laughed out of embarassment but she wasn't laughing. Around here, everyone knows everyone and their entire family. It is the PNG way. But I am horrible with names and faces and so I had no idea she had a daughter nor what her name was. I didn't want to tell her that 5 months wasn't a very long time to be in school in the U.S. But I've also found that those who do come back from the U.S. often have learned a LOT in a short time, enough such that they can become quite successful at interacting with ex-pats. Which goes to show, the people of this country are intelligent. They seem to grasp things very quickly that we often overlook.
Second story:
I was driving around in our department vehicle when a man came up to me and said,
(again in tok pisin)
him: I see you are driving this vehicle, so I waited for you.
me: okay, how can I help you? (knowing this might be an interesting conversation)
him: I have a camera that won't flash. CTS will charge me 90 kina to fix it.
me: Yes they will.
him: all I need is someone to fix it, and I don't have 90 kina.
(at this point I know this is one of those broken devices that will not go away. Often times people throw away items that will no longer work nor are repairable, and CTS can end up wasting all kinds of time on these things. Which is why when we get one, we don't throw it away, we dissect it into parts we can use to repair other things. There's nothing worse than working to fix something that you think is important to someone else, that they picked out of the trash, and then keep bringing it back. It really wastes a lot of time, especially since the item was already deemed 'unfixable'. You'd be surprised how much electronics these days cost more to fix than to replace. At this point, I recognize that the 90kina number was a 'this is unfixable' rate, intended to deter people from trying.)
me: I can't fix it, I am not an electrical engineer, I fix computers
him: but you drive this car.
me: yes I work for CTS
him: oh... will you fix my camera?
me: I can't fix your camera
him: do you know anyone who can?
me: I know 1 guy who might be able to.
him: who?
me: He works at CTS.
him: but they will charge me 90 kina to fix this.
me: no, they will charge you 90 kina to TRY to fix this, they may not fix it.
him: can you fix it for me? I don't have 90 kina.
me: I can't fix it. I don't know how.
him: oh... okay.
Now, to you, it may seem like he wasn't getting the point. But he was. There were two cultural aspects at play here. First, was the tendency in this culture to repeat oneself. In fact to get the idea across and be sure that someone fully understands, you should repeat yourself several times. Second, the 'no harm in trying' concept we call 'traim tasol'. If you find a camera in the trash, and can also find someone to fix it for free, why not try? No harm done.
Next time I'll not drive the dept. vehicle. (-;
Back on the repeating something. This is something it takes a bit of getting used to here. But it is important, because if something is important, it bears repeating. This culture does not tire of repetition. They can hear the same story over and over and over.
Whereas in the U.S. you rarely enjoy watching a re-run. You have more important things to do with your time. Which is why if I said,
"Be sure to check that the oven is off before you leave. Before you leave, be sure that the oven is not on. If you leave, and the oven is on, that is bad, so check that the oven is off."
But here, that is perfectly appropriate and if you were to only mention the oven offing once folks might think 'well it can't be that important'.
Which is why, when discussing things of import, like Christ's redemptive blood, you repeat it. So you can imagine... given that it takes twice as long to say most things in tok pisin as it does in English, that a quick sentiment like 'check the oven' could turn into a ten minute conversation.
This is partially why a lot of the South Pacific areas feel like a slower pace than the rest of the world. You take time to stop, talk to people, repeat yourself, tell them the same story you've told them a million times, they'll laugh as if they've only just now heard it, and eventually you get around to business.
And while it is one of the HARDEST parts of adapting to the culture here, the slower pace... makes you feel as if you're wasting time... it is also why we love this place so much during Christmas.
12/08/2011
Mind Upload
So it's such a busy time for everyone, I figure no one is reading blogs now anyway until maybe that Friday before Christmas vacation and you're killing time ??
Well I didn't have time to throw up any photos and such... but here's the download.
Weds - co-workers got back from Wewak.. YAY wewak internet is online now!
Buka internet still needs prayer, not coming up, but on the morning we prayed as a centre for it, it got an actual TX lock which was very encouraging. Still not enough though.
Thursday - threw a 'goodbye' bbq for a friend and co-worker leaving for Canada, not planning to return.
Thursday evening - hosted bible study
Friday evening - having the single ladies over for our annual Christmas Classic movie showing double feature of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street". We find that around this time of year, many single people miss family more than at other times, so we try to offer a nice evening of placebo family. We serve up soup and I start a fire, and the kids get to spend time with some of their 'aunties'.
You wouldn't believe how many people have never seen It's A Wonderful Life.
I typically bore them with movie trivia about the film, and how it was produced. Soup, popcorn, cookies.
Saturday - youth group event, doing 'minute to win-it' Christmas Style for the kids. They should enjoy it.
Saturday - there is a big christmas hoo hah going on here, that we may attend if we haven't collapsed from an already busy pre-weekend.
Kids had a musical concert last week, this week it's final exams.
What else.... Oh Sydney won a contest at school for more 'festive' dress.
She wore a hat I fashioned with a close hanger to point straight up I also rigged it up to a thread so you could make it 'dance'.
and finally we did our annual "tree hunt" in which we hide our fake christmas tree and then go hunting for it. The kids enjoy that tradition.
WE find we have to create new traditions, but being creative is definitely something our family doesn't lack.
This year we have a real-tree we got from planting a christmas tree 3 years ago, it was finally tall enough to harvest (fake tree is in the pic).
And what else... oh yes... Merry Christmas!
see if I can list our family traditions:
-tree hunting w/cocoa and christmas mp3's
-hide pickles (hide a pickle or an ornament and whoever finds it before Christmas gets to open the first gift).
-Christmas decoration and music
-caroling - often carolers visit us (the high school choir) this year they brought cookies
-daily craft - there is a christmas calendar and for 25 days we all do something together, last night it was 'dance to christmas music'
-advent story - each day we read part of the advent story... and each Sunday we light candles
-reading of the christmas story
oh this year I will be performing with 2 friends at a little christmas gathering... I chose "this is our God" as a Christmas song, and while it's not really a Christmas song, it says "this is the one we've been waiting for" which is really the message of Christmas.
..okay sorry for the speed blogging... had to get that out and now I have to run!
11/24/2011
Back
11/22/2011
Good laugh
11/17/2011
Vision
(found this at Honiara, Solomon Islands at Henderson Field....a key victory by the U.S. over the Japanese in the south pacific)
I am now a manager of a section in my department. We are in charge of repairing and maintaining all the laptops/desktops and servers, the telephones, and the software of in this country. Since I'm the manager, I thought that I finally should share my passion for this work. I thought I'd share it with you too.
When a Bible translator puts their laptop in your hands to repair, when they entrust their internet communication to you, when they trust their hard work in the form of data to your backup system.... they are putting in your hands their ministry tools.
We are responsible for many of the tools that people use to get the Word of God into the hearts and minds of people in this country.
Because of this we should give them the utmost professionalism. We need to deserve their trust. We need to have excellence in how we deal with these tools, so that we can glorify God with our skills.
And that's what we do.
When you come to our department, you are not getting third world technical support. You get first class, professional help. That is what our aim is, that is what we have achieved and endeavor to continue achieving.
Sometimes we get very fortunate and get to do something glamorous like flying to the Solomon Islands or to a regional centre like Buka (leaving for there in 1 hour) and get to do something that is good and hard work. We get to take awesome pictures that help our people back home realize we're not always at a desk.
We get to install satellite dishes, run cabling, climb ladders, dig trenches, run conduit, patch cables, crimp connectors, raise antennas, work with nationals, etc.
But that isn't every day. 9/10 days we'll be at our desks, accepting broken hardware, and repairing it.
We do this so that these tools can go on serving God's purpose. So that His Word can get into the language of the people in this country and their lives would be changed by it.
We work on tools. We do so to glorify God with the skills we were given.
But as we work on tools, we work WITH people.
We get to treat them with love, and care. Let them know they are valued help in this common goal of seeing lives changed by God's Word.
We work with the people who trust us with their tools.
We work with the people who enable us to be here.
We work with each other as we need help fixing these tools.
We work with people whom Christ loves, and whom we will treat with love.
And this is how we justify why we get to do this work.
It is exciting and fun and rewarding to be serving God.
Let us not get discouraged by losing sight of why we're here in this country.
We are here because we are fortunate enough to be sent here by all the people whom God has worked in to get us here.
EACH person who supports us to be here has a story of why they support us, how they met us, why they sacrifice to send us here.
We are indeed blessed to be doing this work. What better job to have with your skills, than to be serving in the King's court?
Some people want to do something more exciting. There are a lot of exciting jobs out there. Sitting at a tech bench and fixing computers may sound like the most boring job to some people.
But I get excited.
My life has been a non-stop series of surprises and excitement since signing my life over to Christ.
I look down at this modem I'm repairing, and I imagine it is making it's way into a village. And it's being connected to a solar panel/inverter system that a co-worker setup. And it's getting power, and turned on.
And then it starts sending and receiving data, and that data is the latest revision of Mark in the Kuman language. And it travels through the radio waves, across hf-radio, over an antenna that another team member installed, and into our servers here.
Onto our file server, and our tape backup, and it will never be lost. And then, eventually that data gets printed out and put into the hands of someone who previously thought God didn't speak in their language.
And they are changed.
And that excites me. The same way it should excite the guy who makes the bolts and screws to hold together the antenna tower. OR the electrician who powers the whole thing. Or the radio technician who makes sure we are experiencing low interference.
There are things we know, feats we are capable of, that we can employ to serve God and enable the feats that OTHERS are capable of to see fruition.
So this job excites me, and I'm honored to be doing it.
11/08/2011
Interview
Cross Cultural Interview
Today I gave my first job interview to a Papua New Guinean. I've done international job interviews before (where I am the interviewer). However I've never done them in this country. It was definitely a cultural experience.
Having conducted several job interviews in my career, I have found doing so cross-culturally is difficult. In an interview you want to gauge the applicant's personality fit, enthusiasm, and technical ability.
Personality fit you can do pretty quickly, cross-culturally.
Enthusiasm is hard, because different cultures have different ways of expressing this.
Technical ability is rather easy, so long as you're using the right terms. BUT to get to the point where you're 'getting down to business' you first have to lay the ground work relationally to get to where the applicant is comfortable enough to share with you and not feel bad when they don't know the answers.
That all is pretty much the same world-wide. What isn't the same is what responses comprise a successful interview.
The one phrase that came up repeatedly in this interview was 'I am a slow learner.'
What does that say to you? In our culture, it is a bad thing to be a slower learner. But it was said so many times, as if it was the winning characteristic of the applicant, I tried to figure out what was meant.
'slow learner'
If I put the emphasis on the 'learner' then this comment suddenly means that the applicant is trying to tell me that they have the ability to learn. That they are diligent in learning, and they take their time to learn it well. THAT is what I think was meant by 'slow learner'.
Anyway, the point is, as part of my new job I have to figure out how to wisely navigate the already tricky waters of hiring skilled personnel for a job. Hiring the wrong person could mean a ton of headaches that would distract me from doing other parts of the job.
You can pray for a skilled heldpdesk technician, who will fit in well, require minimal training, and be a good performer for a long time. This would drastically lighten the load on a some already overworked people.
Today I gave my first job interview to a Papua New Guinean. I've done international job interviews before (where I am the interviewer). However I've never done them in this country. It was definitely a cultural experience.
Having conducted several job interviews in my career, I have found doing so cross-culturally is difficult. In an interview you want to gauge the applicant's personality fit, enthusiasm, and technical ability.
Personality fit you can do pretty quickly, cross-culturally.
Enthusiasm is hard, because different cultures have different ways of expressing this.
Technical ability is rather easy, so long as you're using the right terms. BUT to get to the point where you're 'getting down to business' you first have to lay the ground work relationally to get to where the applicant is comfortable enough to share with you and not feel bad when they don't know the answers.
That all is pretty much the same world-wide. What isn't the same is what responses comprise a successful interview.
The one phrase that came up repeatedly in this interview was 'I am a slow learner.'
What does that say to you? In our culture, it is a bad thing to be a slower learner. But it was said so many times, as if it was the winning characteristic of the applicant, I tried to figure out what was meant.
'slow learner'
If I put the emphasis on the 'learner' then this comment suddenly means that the applicant is trying to tell me that they have the ability to learn. That they are diligent in learning, and they take their time to learn it well. THAT is what I think was meant by 'slow learner'.
Anyway, the point is, as part of my new job I have to figure out how to wisely navigate the already tricky waters of hiring skilled personnel for a job. Hiring the wrong person could mean a ton of headaches that would distract me from doing other parts of the job.
You can pray for a skilled heldpdesk technician, who will fit in well, require minimal training, and be a good performer for a long time. This would drastically lighten the load on a some already overworked people.
11/07/2011
Flurry
Exciting!
11/02/2011
Vsat saves lives
from a friend's blog, regarding the VSAT internet our team put in last month:
The VSAT has already helped save the lives of a mother and her twin babies! After coming back from the village, we learned from Emil via SKYPE that an Arop woman couldn’t deliver her second baby. Ben called the hospital in Aitape, a 2.5 hour drive away from the village and connected Emil to them using Skype so that they could talk to each other. The hospital personnel sent a car out to get her right away. A week later, I was able to reach the hospital by phone and found out that although the mother and babies survived, the mother needed blood. Once again, we got on SKYPE and asked Emil to send a family member to the hospital to donate blood for her. We praise God for the life of this mother and her babies. We are grateful for the VSAT which allowed us to help them get to the hospital!
11/01/2011
Honored
My time has come to a close. Not only did God smooth the way for us to complete everything we HAD to do, we got to finish a lot of the WANTED to do's as well here in the Solomon Islands. Being that nearly everyone here is translator staff, I was really privileged to support Bible translation so directly.
off the top of my head:
We have accomplished a LOT here:
-file sharing
-secure wireless
-wireless and physical network coverage
-firewall
-billing/metering solution
-better throughput
-networked printing
-physical cabling to specific locations
-computer training
-language data backup/archiving
-offline windows updates
-anti-virus strategy planned
-hf-email more reliable
-remote access
-overall faster network performance
-webserver
-webserver
-usage reporting
Then there are the smaller one off issues as people found me and asked me questions.
I.T. guys, you'd be hard pressed to find a spot of the world more grateful for your help, and more hospitable to boot. I had dinner in every one of their homes, some more than once! Great group of people.
At the end I had to fight back tears for the 'thank you' dessert they threw me and the prayers they prayed over me. They called me a blessing. Having those people, call me a blessing.... that's one of those.... 'woah, me? wow!' moments. I can't express to them how awesome an opportunity to serve them this was for me. To serve God with my skills.
Let's be totally honest, I'm not the world's smartest guy, nor the best I.T. guy around. I'm just a bloke who said 'yes, I'll go.' And God has filled in all the gaps since. So all the glory goes to Him. He kept me from crashing and burning this week, He gave me what skill I have, He solved problems quicker and smoothed the path for me. I GET to do this? Are you serious? Go exotic places!? Serve people who call ME a blessing?
THEY are the blessing. They brought me here, paid my plane ticket, fed me, and made me useful. Then they appreciated my work, and heaped thanks on me, and gave me a special 'dessert' send-off where they prayed over me. I covet their prayers.
Anyway, it has been a very incredible week. I miss my family and it's time to go home, but thanks God for letting me do this, and for making me useful to these people and this project.
HERE are some of the languages that I was able to directly impact this week:
| LANGUAGE |
| Areare |
| Aiwoo |
| Amba |
| Anuta |
| Arosi |
| Asumboa |
| Babatana |
| Baeggu |
| Baelelea |
| Bauro |
| Bilua |
| Birao |
| Blablanga |
| Bughotu |
| Cheke Holo |
| Dorio |
| Duke |
| Fagani |
| Fataleka |
| Gao |
| Gela |
| Ghanongga |
| Ghari |
| Gulaalaa |
| Hoava |
| Kahua |
| Kiribati |
| Kokota |
| Kusaghe |
| Kwaio |
| Kwaraae |
| Laghu |
| Lau |
| Lavukaleve |
| Doku |
| Longgu |
| Lungga |
| Malango |
| Marovo |
| Mono |
| Nagu |
| Nalogo |
| Natugu |
| Ontong Java |
| Oroha |
| Owa |
| Pijin |
| Rennel-Bellona |
| Ririo |
| Roviana |
| Sa'a |
| Savosavo |
| Sikaiana |
| Simbo |
| Talise |
| Tanema |
| Tanibili |
| Teanu |
| Tikopia |
| To'abaita |
| Touo |
| Ughele |
| Ulawa |
| Vaeakau-Taumako |
| Vaghua |
| Vangunu |
| Vano |
| Varisi |
| Wala |
| Zabana |
| Zazao |
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