Can Lice be from God?

Yes.
Tip #239 for people prepping to come to PNG. Bring a lice comb.

Lice are my cockroach. Let me explain. My wife, when we first got
here, strong as she is, was always creeped out when a roach would appear
and run around. Now she shoos them away without even being bothered.
Weevils in the flour? No worries, sift the flower and they come out.
Bugs in the food? We've learned to pick them out.

5 years in a place with creepy crawlies helps you get a rather healthy
resistance to being 'grossed out'.

But lice for me, was always the one that really got me. I used to treat
it like the plague. That has changed.

A lot of people (like me) have never had lice, nor had to deal with it.
But part of working and living alongside people with different grooming
habits, is that your children (and thus you) can contract lice.

Today we found it in my son. Which means we have to comb everyone's
hair with a special comb, clean all the linens, rinse the hair in a
special oil and wrap it in plastic wrap, then take special showers.
It's an ordeal, and on a Sunday when you have a cold and you're trying
to get to church... it's just one more stress.

But I began to think of it as a blessing from God. I'm not the type of
over spiritualize everything, but hear me out. My wife had long
beautiful hair (now it's shorter but still beautiful) and has plenty of
experience since high school with lice. When in college her dorm had a
lice outbreak, she knew how to deal with it. She had that experience,
that training. And so, when we have had our lice outbreaks in the home
here, she (as both a teacher, and a patient) knew exactly how to deal
with the lice, and wasn't creeped out. She simply began the long and
methodical process of ridding the house of lice.

A lot of people not used to how to deal with lice, have to go through
this process multiple times because missing a small set of eggs could be
enough to cause another upcropping. But my wonderful wife, having been
prepared by God in her life for such moments, has always been able to
rid our family of the lice.

And I sat there admiring my wife and thinking 'wow, she's great! And to
think God prepared her in this way to help our family'. Because until
lately, this was my achilles heel. Rats, mice, roaches, snakes, I'm
fine with all the creepy crawlies, but lice... I didn't know how to deal
with lice. She just... starts right in.. we need to do this, then this,
then this.... and before long the lice are gone.

Every now and then, you see a glimmer of the truth of God's preparation
for you. I see it most often in skills. How does she know how to do
this? God prepared her earlier in life. We can easily overlook the
fact that having these skills is more confirmation that God was
preparing us for a long time to be here.

And so yes, today I saw lice as a blessing from God. As confirmation
that we're here in full compliance with His plan. It is a good feeling
when you get to see that. Those moments when you say 'wow, I was able
to accomplish this, because God prepared me.'

crashing fixed

a while back we decided to upgrade our primarily file server to Windows
2008 Server R2. As soon as we did, it started crashing, randomly, once
a week. Suddenly the file and printer shares went offline.

Each week we'd try something new and wait.
Then we virtualized it. In preparation to rebuild it... then we
questioned 'maybe virtualizing it made it worse'

We tried everything, not excluding writing back to friends in the U.S.
for ideas.

Randomly throughout the week, ALL our printers and ALL our files would
go offline. 5TB worth. And the only fix was a total reboot.

In my head I was building the unix file server already. We were at our
wits' end on this issue. Having read every forum, every article, every
bit of data we could to find the issue. No error logs, no errors, no
symptom other than file sharing going offline and the service crashing.

And then.... we were able to isolate the problem. After the crashes
increased, we were able to run perf mon tools and found that right
around the time of each crash, someone had accessed the same folder on
the same drive.

We scanned the folder and found 4.5million tiny files in that folder.
Sometime, over 6 years ago, someone had run a program that fragmented
files into millions of tiny little files. No idea why this was done or
what was supposed to be achieved by it.

So delete the files right?

How? If we access the files through windows, file sharing crashed, AND
they were totally un-deletable.

the only way we could effectively delete them was from the command line
prompt.

It took more than a full day to run the scan, and delete all the
files... but it did. And as soon as they were all gone... the server
was happy again and has been for weeks.

I'm not bashing Windows.... but I am saying... command line still has
it's place.

Why do I mention this?
Because often in the world of computing, answers come immediately. One
of the skill sets necessary to excel in mission tech is patience and
longevity. We had been working this particular problem for weeks.

Another example of this is the VSAT that recently came online. I've
been working that since October of last year.

Patience as defined in my context. A computer guy moved to a third
world country. Someone who valued speed and quick resolution... getting
things done... moved to a world that does not value speed. Patience as
defined by me is... the ability to not get angry when something that
should take minutes to accomplish, takes months. To not let it drive
your blood pressure up, to not let it eat at you, and to never utter the
phrase 'this would be SO MUCH FASTER where I come from!".

My God is teaching me patience, He has been for 5 years, if not my whole
life.

I have also recently learned another survival technique for living here.
HAVE something in your life, where at least once a day you can have success.
For some that's cooking. No matter how many things at work break....
when they go home, they know they can cook a decent meal.

Find something you can do daily, to be successful at, otherwise the
daily failures will overwhelm you.
For me that thing is repair.
If I can fix something... a broken toy, or a burned out light bulb....
just one thing, then I feel I've somehow stemmed the onrush of broken
things coming at me... and at least fixed 1 thing today.

-chad

Communication

Here's a practical example of why I am here in PNG. I firmly believe
that increased communication (including through technology) will speed
up the work of reaching people with the life changing message of Christ.

Two days ago someone posted on our internal forum "I need a usb cable"
it was a specific type of cable, hard to find. He needed it for work,
he is a helicopter pilot.

I happen to be in town (3 hours away) and Town offers 3g cell phone
service. On my cell phone I got the email/rss feed from the forum that
stated he needed one.

So I popped into the store in town that might carry it, they had
nothing. But then later while perusing a shelf I found 2 cables that
would meet his need. One for $80 and one for $10. I bought the $10 one
and texted him, he got it, and was relieved.

Had I not been in town, he would have most likely had to order the cable
from Australia and wait 3 weeks, or drive into town himself, thus taking
time off work (3 hours 1 way means you miss a day of work).

This quick cell phone communication via email, allowed us to accomplish
something rather quickly. THAT is one of the very practical ways we can
speed up this 25 year process.

Sophisticated Burger

We took Kendal to town this week for her birthday. Around town I
snapped a few photos.
This burger is so sophisticated it is SOFIsticated! Seeing this way of
spelling the word is another fun example of 'lost in translation'. We
see it a lot as products from China come here, or as Tok Pisin tries be
English. But this instance led me to doubt the menu when my wife
ordered the 'pie' of the day because it was chicken curry on rice so I
thought it meant 'pic' of the day. I warned her 'I don't think it's a
pie' and she said 'so I'll be surprised!' For her birthday they served
her a chicken and curry dish in a bowl, and placed a wafer over the top,
thus making it a 'pie'. So...fisticated.

dmv

went into the DMV to renew our licenses. There is something very
cultural about lines. Or as they are called here 'Queues'. IF you walk
into a building in your home country, you have a sense of how to find
the line you need to be in, and who is not in that line or who is in the
line. Here it's very hard. There were 3 windows and people standing
all around. Not wanting to be rude and cut, I stood in the back until
many men ushered me forward. I stood at the window waiting for 15
minutes, but when the person came to help, the same people who ushered
me forward, pushed to the front and slid their forms in front of me.
That is how it is done here, it seems very rude to an American, but it's
push and shove and get in first. Often times when I encounter this I
opt to return when there is no line because this culture often gives
preference to me, because I'm large and white. In order to fully
assimilate I think I need to throw elbows and push as well but I haven't
gotten to a point where I'm willing to do that because it still feels
'rude' to me. So in that respect I haven't gone fully 'native'. (to use
a phrase).

All in one

We took Kendal to town this week for her birthday. Around town I
snapped a few photos.

I got a kick out of this one as it is a Universal Remote, but it's WAY
better than 'all in one'. it's 1 in 1.

Cost of Living 2

We took Kendal to town this week for her birthday. Around town I
snapped a few photos.
This 'ice chest' is often called an 'esky' by the Aussies and thus the
PNGians because a popular brand of cooler is 'esky'. Coolers are like
sodas. Different places call them different things.

For only $150 U.S. you too can own your own Coleman Esky. (-; We use
these to buy meat in town and transport the 3 hours back to our home
without spoiling. Thankfully we bought our small one (featured here)
when we first got here and it cost less than half of this.

nacho

This rare find of Nacho Cheese excited Calvin who remembers his furlough
'nacho dog'. He pleaded with us to buy the cheese, but it struck me as
not only unhealthy but very costly. So we passed.

Scones

Australians call cookies, 'biscuits' and biscuits 'scones'. So they
don't eat 'biscuits and gravy' and they in fact don't eat 'scones and
gravy' but when they hear we ate 'biscuits and gravy' they imagine
cookies and gravy. This picture is fun because of the spelling in PNG
for 'scone' and also the 'flour is power' motto. Which may be true as
when we spent time in the village Kendal taught ladies how to bake
bread. A skill they can use to feed their family AND turn into a small
business as other folks enjoy bread but don't all have the knowledge of
how to cook it.

Cost of living 1

We took Kendal to town this week for her birthday. Around town I
snapped a few photos.
this plastic bin, similiar to the ones we bought on furlough for $5.00 a
piece on sale..... Costs $22.00 here.

Ice Cream

We took Kendal to town this week for her birthday. Around town I
snapped a few photos. This one seems to be a great example of why
people need the Bible in their own language. It's humorous to us, but
strikes me as rather symbolic of the issue. They understood the
boysenberry was an ice cream flavor... but the meaning was just a little
bit missed in the spelling of it. In the same way often times we read
the PNGians Scripture in English or Tok Pisin and they get partial
meaning, but the crux of it gets missed unless it is in their heart
language.

Number 1

this market claims it is Number 1, but we rarely shop there.

the hand of God

from time to time you get to see what God is doing.

Today I got a skype call from a guy in Illinois who was investigating
the possibility of coming to PNG as an IT manager. His resume wound up
through a circuitous route to me.

We skyped for 40 minutes.

I told him about being a manager here, what our IT department is like,
the challenges of the job and how we really truly do need experienced
managers here.

I wasn't really feeding him a line, but trying to give him data (maybe
too much) to make a decision off of. I remember when we came here and I
really wanted good data.... so I 'spilled the beans'... didn't hold
anything back.. was perfectly open and honest.

At the end of the call he said 'my heart is pumping a million miles a
minute, I'm so excited having spoken with you." you could hear in his
voice God was calling him here...

Which is a HUGE answer to my prayer, as we desperately need people like
this. Being involved in this was a surprise to me, because I thought I
was talking the guy out of it, by telling the truth... but he was eating
it up.

Then at the end of the conversation he asked if I knew his cousin. I
did, she was the mother of my son's best friend here.
What he said next was a total God thing.

"oh!! well, my cousin said if I wanted to know about IT there I should
call the dad of her son's best friend and she was going to put me in
touch with him... but I guess that's you!"

we had met and talked in an almost random way, but we were meant to
talk....
the words I thought were just off the top of my head, were the words God
used to excite him to come here....

God used me today in a way I wasn't expecting to impact someone's life...
and all I can say is..
wow.

I'm encouraged and energized by having just had this conversation.

Buka Vsat Saga

several weeks ago I flew out with a co-worker/friend to Buka to install internet via VSAT. It didn't work. We tried everything. We left.

Weeks later a friend of ours was in the area and took measurements to see if there was any interference. Nothing.

Back to the drawing board.

We decided the smaller dish wasn't good enough and shipped a 3meter dish, it arrived last monday. But I was short handed and had no technicians to go out to install it, and I couldn't leave because I am the only one in the network room right now.

So....?
I emailed a partnering organization asked them if they had any techs in the area. They had one on a plane and would ask him to fly out to the area.

He arrived yesterday, installed the new dish, and tonight they have NET LOCK!

They are online!!!!

Finally!

But... their signal to noise ratio is not good enough and so until they get a higher Watt BUC a cloudy day or a rain might knock them offline.... which removes the entire idea of 'always on'.

So now I have to come up with several thousand dollars to buy a larger BUC (they have 5 Watt, and need a 10 Watt).

Still though... after months of trying, today I finally have confirmation that they are online!

Thanks to all who prayed, and kept praying for this!

Special treat

The power was out this morning, we were tired, and decided either not to cook breakfast or to make a fast one. My wonderful wife pulls out a box of pancake mix!!! Wow.. only $6 at the store. What a treat! And there's blueberries! So I whip up a quick breakfast using the mix instead of by scratch (which is good because we've been short on eggs lately).

So if you wanted to know what excites us... that's one of the things.

Garden yielded a huge pile of carrots too... so we've been eating carrot sticks for every meal (-;

my day

how can I describe my day.

It started with discouragement, because our vehicle is most likely going
to be out of service until I can tow it to some place to fix the fuel
injector. Thinking we really need to consider buying a new vehicle, but
don't have the funds.

Then it moved to encouragement as we got an awesome care package from
friends that really lifted everyone's spirits.

Then it moved to matters of grave importance as I sat in on my first
ever director's meeting as I'm filling in for one of the directors.
This is a serious job and a serious meeting and we discuss serious
things about the organization and how we are to accomplish Bible
translation here. Decisions in these meetings affect hundreds of people
and thousands of dollars. The gravity of the meeting was not lost on me.

Then it moved to personal relationships, as I took a walk to a different
department, I multi-tasked and asked a PNG friend to walk with me. He's
a non-christian man who I've been getting to know, and I'm hopeful that
the relationship will grow because I really like this guy, and have a
heart for his family.

Then it moved to awesomeness as I got an email saying that there is a
qualified person out there who wants to come to PNG specifically to do
management for the computer department!!! What a huge blessing that
would be (even though it takes more than 2 years to get here because of
partnership development)! Imagine, someone who actually WANTS to be
managing and has experience at it?!?!

So...
bummed
encouraged
heavy, concern for future
ministering
excited about future.

wow, what a day it's been. That's just 9 hours of it!

-chad

low tech jury rig #238

In the past 2 large earthquakes I've been present to hold the servers up. they moved enough this last time to pull power cables out of the wall.

So I rigged up a 2x4 (aka 20mm x 50mm) piece of timber, and bolted it to the wall and to my server racks, so that I don't have to keep them from shaking by bracing them with my shoulders during a large quake.

There was a moment when I looked up at the large Air Con unit above my head and wondered if it would pop off and fall on me while I was holding up the servers.

And for a moment I thought 'this will be hard to explain.... Here Lies Chad, killed by an Air Conditioner while trying to keep server racks from falling over. Cool.'

shaker

6.7 magnitude, we're sitting right at the epicenter.

8:18am this morning had a bit of an earthquake. As is my fashion I ran
to the server room to keep the racks from tipping over. I'll be bracing
them in place this week, but we've never had this many larger quakes
back to back before (2 large ones this year so far, 2012)

anyway, the quake was enough to pull a few of the server power cords out
of the wall. At home a crock pot fell on the ground but didn't break.
My wife's knick knack collection of wishing wells.... IN TACT because
her husband built her an earthquake resistant shelf and poster puttied
them all in place months ago!

it was a fun ride.

Hats

This is what my outlook calendar looks like for work (not personal) for the next three months

I'll be doing the jobs (wearing the hats) of 6 different roles.

I could use some prayer cover as I'm tired just looking at this. (:

Proactive Uptime

Here's a fun story:
"the other day I saw a switch go offline (a big red blip on my monitor),
so I went down there, realized that a rat had pooped all over the
wiring, and chewed through some of it. I replaced the main cable and
they came back online. As I was going to leave, someone said 'Hey, what
is CTS doing here?' I replied 'I became aware that your department was
offline and I came down to fix it.' They replied 'wow, I didn't know we
were offline!" To which I said 'yes, for about 15 minutes now.' they
paused.... 'Wow, that is proactive! In the old days we used to have to
call you up and tell you about the problem, and then maybe wait a few
days for you find a replacement part.'

That felt good to hear.
One of the earliest things I did was install a NOC suite of software here.
A friend donated an outdated version of Solarwinds Orion (7)
I wrote a letter to PRTG and got them to donate 100 licenses.
I'm running ipSentry for my Windows services because they donated a full
license as well.

So... if a machine, or a router or a switch goes offline, or a service
crashes... I get an alert via email.

And away we go, repairing it, like little invisible mice.... who can
repair stuff.

-chad