Monday, July 24 - The Challenge of Printing our Data

The amount of work remaining to be done as we started the day today seemed small, but it took us until about 4:00 in the afternoon to get the last sheet of words entered into the database. This was due in large part to the fact that there were several other things vying for our attention. I needed to get my computer set up to be able to print out the data from the database so it could be checked for spelling mistakes and so on; at the same time, the Djimini-speaking part of our work force was making preparations for an official closing ceremony on Thursday. As part of the latter, Justin and I made visits to government leaders in town, while Bamoussa drew up two letters—one asking the mayor to emcee the ceremony and another requesting the use of the town hall meeting room for the occasion.

Getting all of the pieces in place to be able to print data from the dictionary database was no small task for me, and it took me most of the morning to get everything just right. Either I had misplaced some of the instructions I had been given or they were incomplete, leaving me to guess how to fill in the gaps. On my first attempt to install the necessary programs, my computer hung. Th installation progress bar showed that the process had stalled. I finally aborted the process and as I began my second attempt, I was given insight into the possible cause for that and noticed the checkbox I needed to tick during the installation process in order to avoid that scenario. On that attempt, however, I got a cryptic error message whose real meaning took me a while to decipher, but again God got my mental wheels turning in a helpful direction and I was able to make an educated guess as to how to achieve my desired outcome.

When I finally got all of the pieces/programs installed that are necessary for the exporting of data from the database and into a printable document, the document that was produced was devoid of data! I had no idea why that was, so I set about writing an email to a technical expert back in the US who might be able to provide some insight. Unfortunately, waiting for his response would delay our ability to print out the data. It was as I was writing up the details of what I had done and the results I had obtained that I again received a flash of insight, motivating me to attempt the export once more, this time providing a different answer to one of the enigmatic questions that had popped up in the process. Sure enough, answering “yes” to that question instead of “no” made the difference, and I suddenly had pages and pages of Djimini words, along with their French meanings in a form that could be printed out. Praise God for all of those helpful nudges to my thinking process as I worked through this challenge today!