Computer up and running

It only took five weeks but finally on Thursday, my computer’s CPU fan was replaced with a new part purchased from Australia.

I originally consulted a young Indonesian man that my NGO employs on a regular basis to fix the myriad of IT problems that besets them (often due to the frequent power blackouts which quickly wear out our computers).

However, his customer service skills were so appalling (it took me four full days of persistent badgering to retrieve my computer from him) and moreover that I would have to wait until he next visited Indonesia to look for the part, that I decided to look elsewhere.

I then consulted a bloke from Singapore who said that he would need to email his home country to see if the part was available and would then call me. To this day, he has not called.

With ever growing frustration, I consulted an Australian IT consultant who is regularly employed by Daniel’s NGO. Within half an hour of Daniel texting him with the problem, he arrived to look at my computer. He said he would need to email Australia and would get back to Daniel within three days. This he duly did and said that he had procured the part for us, although it would take two weeks to arrive. On Thursday he replaced the dead CPU fan with the new one. Finally!

The whole incident demonstrated again not only how poor Timor is, that the part had to be procured from Australia, Indonesia or Singapore, but also the lack of human resources and education amongst the Timorese population which led me to consult three foreign men. Moreover, I learnt first hand the differences in customer service offered by three different cultures (although I wouldn't want to generalise these single experiences too far). I certainly know which one I prefer!

After five weeks without films and television series we were very keen to start watching the many DVDs I have honed my retail therapy skills on. The first night we brought the computer home we watched the first episode of the second series of Desperate Housewives. It was so good to watch, but when I went out to the kitchen during “intermission” I realised I was still in Timor and not back home. What a downer that was!

We followed this up with an episode from the second series of Spooks which was one I hadn’t seen. It wasn’t one of the better episodes but it was still good to watch. On Friday night we watched the Italian film Respiro which was a lovely little gem set in southern Italy. Last night we watched Ali G the Movie which had its wildly funny moments but was definitely not a movie I could recommend.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)