Monday, December 13, 2010

Laptop virus that spoilt my presentation

mwalimuandew@gmail.com
When our AEO called for a meeting for all Primary School Heads and Deputies, I planned to use this opportunity to win favour with him – with an eye on a promotion.
In the invite, the AEO had asked each of us to draw strategic plans for our schools and share this at the forum in an effort towards “making our division the epitome of best academic practice in our great county.”
A week before the meeting, our HM, Mr Juma, called me from Mombsa where he was attending a Heads meeting and asked to prepare the presentation. “You will also present it at the meeting,” he also said.
I knew that his English was poor and so he never wanted to embarrass himself by presenting the plan before his seniors and colleagues.
I spent last weekend preparing the plan, but when I showed Pius what I had done, he had other ideas. “You have a laptop, use it for the presentation,” he advised.
When I told him I was not good with laptops, he helped me come with a presentation on the laptop with the information I wanted organized in such a way that it bounced on the computer every time I clicked any button.
Pius also encouraged me to use the laptop to perform my job better. “What did you buy it for?” he asked. When I told him that we do not need computers in our job, he laughed off at this.
“You can prepare your schemes of work here and update them after every lesson,” he explained. “You can also enter the students’ mark on it and easily and accurately calculate get their totals, averages, ranks, at a click of a button.”
Following this, I started going with the laptop to school every day since last Monday. Although I rarely use it, every time someone comes into my office, I immediately switch it on and pretend to be busy with it. Just as expected, word spread around other schools that there is deputy who runs the school on a laptop. The only challenge is that I have to charge it at the neighbouring secondary school every morning.
So on the day of the meeting last Thursday, I woke up early, and put on my latest Kaunda suit. Under the Kaunda suit, I put on the yellow T-shirts we used during the 2007 elections. This really matched with my white Reeboks and red socks.
I passed by school to ensure that all was fine – then rode my bicycle to the venue of the meeting, arriving to find the place milling with many teachers. All the trees around had already been taken and I had difficulty finding a place to park my bicycle. Since the meeting had not begun, I sat behind, took out my laptop and started going through my presentation again. This attracted other teachers who surrounded me marveling at the laptop and asking many questions.
“Is it true that if a student sneaks out of school you can see it on the computer? Can it tell you the teachers who arrived late? Can it show tell you how many teachers are absent today in your school? Is it more expensive than a motor cycle?” These are some of the questions that I was asked.
Soon after, the meeting began and I switched it off to save battery since I had not charged it that morning.
“With the creation of a new county, we need to start positioning ourselves early enough so that we remain relevant in the new county dispensation,” started the AEO. “This is going to be a performance based meeting and so I expect each Head or Deputy to present facts.”
Three Heads made their presentations. They simply went in front with a piece of paper and read aloud with little elaboration. Next our school was called and Juma gestured on me to go make the presentation.
I walked in front with my laptop and greeted everyone as I unpacked it. I placed it on the table from where only the AEO and other senior officials could read what I had on it.
“Professional colleagues, my presentation is entitled Marching our school to the next level under the new constitutional dispensation,” I said. Just when I was still on the introduction, something popped up on the computer screen: Low Battery, it read. I knew that I had to present very fast but elaborate fully as I noticed the AEO, who was behind me, taking notes from my presentation, something he had not done as the other teachers presented.
Abruptly, the screen of the laptop went black and the following message appeared on the screen: Preparing to Hibernate. Even before I could do anything, the laptop just went off at a time when I had just started my presentation.
This really confused me as everything was on the laptop and I had not written it on paper. I tried to switch it on but it only produced a loud beeping sound. “Am sorry my computer has been attached by a deadly virus and I have to rush to have it removed,” I said as I packed it ready to leave. Everyone was disappointed.
I went straight to St Theresa’s where Mr. Mboya helped me repair it. “The laptop had a very dangerous Virus,” he said after repairing. He said that he suspected that the laptop must have contracted the virus when I allowed a few teachers to touch it. He charged me Sh3500 for the repair. Going forward, I will not allow just anyone to touch my laptop.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Noo..poor Dre should have charged the battery. I am imagining the state of confusion at that moment. ��

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