Our Computer Lab Is An Absolute Wreck

Yes, things look pretty awful around my "office" as of late. When the windows were replaced I had a suspicion that the school was serious about fixing up the room where all of the computers are housed. I just did not know that every other change was coming one after the other. My counterpart informed that there was going to be new flooring installed, painting to be done, a full check on the wiring system to eliminate any dangerous spikes that might be disseminated to the machines and components, and so on. I was told that a new whiteboard might be coming as well, which is needed because the one that occupies the front of the class room smudges too much when something is erased. It is a lot of work and from what I have heard about some institutions in the country, there are things that happen and other things that just never get started. It was refreshing to see that our lab was very quickly attended to and with some decent work to boot.

Of course that also meant that the things which I took pains to arrange and organize in the lab are now back to square one. All of the machines that were stowed away as needing repairs got mixed up with all the machines that worked flawlessly, and now I have no clue as to which ones work and which ones do not. My fault for not pulling out a piece of masking tape and labeling things accurately as was suggested to me by another volunteer earlier on in training. You live and learn every day here.

There may be a bit of obsessive compulsive in all of us, but I have it certainly when it comes to arranging and organizing computers. I like the wires to be arranged neatly, and for there to be a distinct lack of clutter. As it stands today, the main room where I would normally teach has every long desk crowded one next to the other, and boxes of mangled cables and wires stored everywhere, not to mention the CPUs and monitors occupying this and that spot on the floor and on dusty chairs. It is a bit sad to see this and look back at a phone a day before the students arrived for classes.

Yet this does meant that I have ample opportunity to improve upon the setup of the first installation of computers. There is even talk that the new machines (sixteen in all) will be fixed up for the return of the students. I desperately need them to make sure that most of my classes have a computer on which to learn. Lots of dust, plenty of sweeping and washing, and a bit of elbow grease will yield a lab twice as good as the old one.

Oh, and my cold has abated so my attitude is a bit more positive than it was before.