Disaster Averted!

I nearly lost all my work this afternoon. All of it. My USB was, for all intensive purposes, wiped clean of WSH and anything to do with DukeEngage.

The ordeal began when, after a long day of translations and re-formatting, I plugged my thumb drive into a desktop at the foundation to print off the remaining documents for Jordan to proofread by hand. Big mistake. The antivirus/antispyware program on the computer really didn't like my USB and somehow deleted ALL of my folders and all of my work. I was in shock. It's not just my work--it's the work of Jordan and Becky and all the other translators as well, who have spent countless hours translating and back-translating these documents, which we continue to edit and revise, making even more work for them.

Thankfully, I had the modem with me, so I began frantically Googling "how to recover deleted files from USB." I was able to recover two of my most important files--both the English and Runyankole versions of the CVC education curriculum--but I was still missing three sets of scripts (tank openings, primary schools, and adult education) and a CVC cover letter that had been translated.

Just as I was about to lose hope, my knight in shining armor (read: Adam) called me via Skype and talked me through my panic/stress/self-loathing. But it doesn't stop there: His wonderful parents were kind enough to take time from their day off to help me with my problem, and thanks to their IT skills, I had 3 file recovery links waiting for me in my inbox when I checked my e-mail after dinner. Thank you, Gretchen and Roger!

The happy ending to this story is that I've been able to recover all but one of the documents! (That single document also happens to be the easiest to replace.) My day went from extremely upsetting to much, much better. And aside from the documents, I am incredibly thankful to know that I have people who care about me so much in my life!