Disaster.

The other day I discovered I'd saved one of my Peace Corps application essays (along with a scanned recipe for cranberry & white chocolate chip cookies and several term papers from my final semester of college) to one of the flashdrives I’d brought with me to The Gambia. I thought, "hey, this essay’s not half bad; maybe I should share it on my blog." But--when I inserted the flash drive into the Basse house computer (yes, I’m typing this in front of the computer RIGHT NOW) I discovered that my flash drive contained several folders I’d never put there, all claiming to be applications, and the folders I had put there, containing essays and that recipe and other assorted things, were nowhere to be found.


A virus.

Before today, I'd yet to have a run-in with a virus on my flashdrive, but this was actually my second infected flashdrive of the morning. Earlier I’d inserted Grendel (I’m not particularly fond of Beowulf but I do like the name Grendel) into the computer to look at some photos. I didn’t bring a laptop with me to The Gambia, but Grendel contained a Surprise Medley of photos selected by my sister before I left. Today, however, Grendel started doing funny things. I double clicked to open him and he kept on opening. I tried to delete some files and they wouldn't delete. And then I noticed some folders I’d never put there, the same folders I later recognized on my other flashdrive, Staples. (which isn’t a name I gave it but that’s the company that manufactured it). I panicked, and wiped everything from Grendel. He’s empty as the day I got him. Emptier, actually, because when I got him a couple of years ago, he came pre-filled with job-related documents for my duties as a resident assistant.

There's a serious problem with viruses and flash drives in The Gambia, so I've been limiting the number of computers I put my flash drives in contact with. It’s been easy to do, because I haven’t been around many computers. Grendel’s been in three of the four computers in the computer lab at the Peace Corps office and two other volunteer laptops. Staples has only known one of the computers in the lab at the school. Oh, and the Basse computer. The only computer they’ve shared… I’m not Sherlock Holmes, but I think I’ve found the source of the problem. I am currently typing on an infected computer. I feel the same way I do when a child coughs directly into my face—like I’ve got limited time before disaster strikes.

All of which is to say, sorry, you won’t be reading my Peace Corps application essay anytime in the next fifteen months.