Receiving goods
Boxes of monitors
Checking the monitors worked was quite a time consuming affair, especially after the store manager told me that the electricity was ‘slow today’. I soon found out what she actually meant – that the electricity wasn’t running at the normal voltage. I returned later in the afternoon to find the electricity had resumed it’s normal speed.
Fortunately the only problem was that the monitors were supplied with a 3 round pin plug, rather than two pin – the shop which supplied them happily took them back and exchanged them, although I had to get a gate pass – signed and stamped by both my line manager and the stores manager to be allowed to take the incorrect items off the campus and return with the correct ones – all of which is quite time consuming.
Now I’m waiting to get a ‘receiving voucher’ from the store to prove that the equipment really was delivered – especially important for Alcala Uni who are providing the funding and I’m sure will want to know that their money hasn’t just disappeared!
What I did find a little odd was that in the store was a small boat and Yamaha outboard motor, given there are few streams, let alone rivers or lakes around here, I’m not sure exactly what this is for. I later found out that it’s for the agriculture dept – although I’m still unclear in which body of water it ever gets used.
Testing the keyboards
Devices get imported from everywhere. So you get different plug types (European, UK, US,…) in Ethiopia. It’s a good idea to get power extension cables that support these different standards. Specially you need these extensions in computer labs.
Even worse is buying devices that take 110 volts. Fortunately most computers these days (and other electronic devices too) can take 100-240.
Maybe the machines don’t sit idle ….. but just in case, don’t forget to use monitor power saving mode