A day in my life when I needed access to technology…
A day in my life when I needed access to technology & internet and had to find it
I woke up in the morning by the first called to the morning Prayers in Misera village about 190 km away from the Capital City Banjul after a long night without electricity. And therefore I was at the mercy of mosquitoes and heat; this was an experience of a life time. As Training Officer I was supposed to organize training for fifty participants the next day.
This required me to make phone calls, send some what’s app messages, do photocopying and printing, and most importantly to use the internet to browse and down load some vital messages.
In the Morning it was a nightmare in that there was no electricity and the telephone network was poor and reduced to the minimum and I could barely do any of my planned activities for the day.
After having been told that internet was erratic and could take a whole day to be restored back, I hurriedly got into a ‘bush taxi’ to Soma the regional capital which is 10 kilometers away from home. There, I was able to access the internet, make calls, to do all the photocopying and printing I so desperately needed.
Having stayed there for the most part of the day doing my research and all what I needed to do to have a successful training the next day, I finally came home with a sense of relief that I’m fully prepared for the task that was ahead.
Finally, the training was conducted! I was indeed happy that I was able to overcome the challenges and conducted a successful training. But no doubt the challenges of having access to technology at the time I needed were great!
By Baba Sallah • May 12, 2021

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