Basse, Computers, and Feeling Useful

Coming to The Gambia, I considered myself to be computer literate, but not exactly skilled at troubleshooting and resolving problems. Over the past 9-12 months I have been hard at work trying to develop such skills. Two weeks ago I traveled up to Basse and spent the weekend working with another volunteer to try and turn the Regional Health Team's computers into something they could actually use. This gave me the opportunity to put all those skills to use in one very busy, yet fun, long weekend.

The lab was having two major problems. First, the computers were full of viruses, worms, malware, etc. to the point that many were unusable. The one connected to the printer was so bad, that as soon as you put your flash drive in it, the flash drive was effectively rendered useless until cleaned (I have scanned a computer and literally had the scanner detect more than 10,000 viruses). Computer viruses/malware/worms/etc are a serious problem for The Gambia. Many Gambians have flash drives, but almost no one has any sort of anti-virus software. Of those that have the relevant software, very few actually keep the software up to date. As a result, almost all computers in the country have serious virus problems. Second, while the computers used to be networked, the network was no longer functioning.

To solve the first problem, I chose to reformat every computer to clean them out. Then to prevent future trouble I disabled all the USB ports on all the computers running Windows. Sharing flash drives is a major cause of spreading computer viruses (there are a shocking number of parallels to sexual health and preventing STD transmission) so making it so users cannot use flash drives is a major barrier to future virus transmission. I also set one computer to run Ubuntu instead of Windows. Very simply, Ubuntu is a free operating system that is relatively intuitive to use, and since most viruses are written to take advantage in security holes in Windows, relatively free from viruses. This computer was connected to the lab printer and also was the one computer that users could use their flash drives to add or remove files (until the lab internet connection is repaired and then people could email files back and forth).

The resolve the second problem I just recreated the network and added all the computers to the network. I set up a shared folder that allows users to transfer files back and forth between the various networked computers without the need for internet access or flash drives.

With all this said, there are still a few things I would still like to do. Right before leaving, we noticed another computer that was in a different room, but should be added to the network. If I go back to Basse I will have to clean out that computer and make the ethernet cables to join it to the network (the wire is laid, but the small plastic pieces that physically connect the wire to the computer and the switch are not there). Supposedly all I need is a wire crimper (which I should be able to find in country) and then I can solve that problem. I would also like to resolve the trouble they were having with their internet connection. Finally, I would like to set up an automated backup system so in case their server fails, they do not lose all their data.

So far so good - two weeks in and neither I nor the volunteer I worked with have heard of any major problems. While I picked an unfortunate time to travel to Basse (May is one of the hottest times), I had a lot of fun and I am glad I went. It is always nice to feel useful...

Its also nice to have developed a new skill set. I enjoy the work and would like to continue when I return home. I am not saying I want to shift to the IT sector, but it would be fun to continue playing with some of these things in my free time.