Every Day I'm Hustling

MTN Center

Well, I learned a hard lesson last night - never lend out your harddrive to people unless they swear to protect your harddrive to the death. Because, apparently, most people don't understand the fragility of harddrives.

I leant my perfectly working harddrive out to my housemate so that he could download the wonderful amount of movies I had on it. I had actually received most of the movies from my friend Felicity, who wonderfully let me use her harddrive. And I cared for it as you would a religious relic. It was a baby in my hands.

Well, last night, after he returned it to me, it was no longer working. I mean, it turns on, and my computer knows it's there...but the data doesn't show anywhere. I'm pretty devastated about it; there goes all of my entertainment! My music, movies, and books are all gone. Gone! What happened? Well, apparently the harddrive took a tumble from the chair seat to the concrete floor...

I swore a lot, and went to bed early because I was so upset. I put the harddrive in the freezer at work, per The Man's recommendation, and I tried to coo and woo the harddrive into functioning. But to no avail.

I am going to see if I can muster up the cash to get it looked at by a random Indian guy here and find out if my data can be saved. I pray it can be!

Yesterday I started my tutoring lessons. A Sunday, and I was working? Yes. It's necessary so I can make extra cash. I knows me how to hustle, is all. And it was pretty fun! I learned all about fiber optics, and I helped the guy learn how to better express himself. The payment isn't bad, either. I just found out that he's leaving in 2 weeks, but there's another group of guys interested in some lessons. We'll see about that.

Today I had to start pulling out the meaner version of myself in class. I feel like my students have a few issues:

• They don't know how to learn! I truly, truly believe this is a key issue. I don't think they ever learned how to learn, and so now they're my age and act like middle schoolers in my class. It's very frustrating.
• Their English begs for improvement. Half of the time I'm not even sure they understand a word I'm saying.
• If you are super nice and fun in class, they assume they can walk all over you.
• They don't follow directions. Homework? What homework? Only the homework you recited back to me last class...
• They never touched a computer in their lives.
• They don't know what professional is. They come into class late. I told them if they are late three times, I'll make an absent for them. I keep telling them that in the hospitality industry, their bosses will fire them for not being punctual, uniformed, and respectful. They just look at me like deer in the headlights every time.

So I have to be a bit firm right now with them, so they understand I mean business. Today I told them that those who didn't do homework will get a zero. During IT class, if I saw them on the internet, I turned off their computers and made them use their notebooks instead. I had to raise my voice a bit, and if they're talking, I stop the class in its tracks. It's discouraging a bit, because I want so badly to be the teacher that inspires and encourages students, not scold them. I'm doing things I feel like teachers do when they're not good. I don't like that, but I don't know any other way to get through to them. Any ideas?

Did I mention I'm a hustler?

Today after a long day of work, Denise and I opted to walk to MTN Center to get a nice iced chocolate from Bourbon Coffee. That stuff should be illegal because it's so addictive, and probably equally bad for you! I just imagine it all day, though, and then it's inevitable for me to get it. But Denise and I opted to walk the hour-long, hilly trek to get said chocolate so that at least that way we'd feel justified in our guttony. And we totally did.

While we were at MTN Center, I noticed that they had two shops of interest: one was a shop where they seemed to fix computer parts, and another one said "Network IT" or whatever on the sign. So the first one I went into and they estimated my harddrive data retrieval would be, including new harddrive, about 150,000 fRw, or about $250. Ahhh!!! WHAT?! I am really not sure about that....

The second shop, the IT consulting firm, seemed interesting. On their signs they had the logos for Cisco, Microsoft, and a bunch of other recognizable technical international firms. I strode right in. 

"Hello, there! I need your IT help." I said.

"Hello, how may we help you? You've come to the right place in all of Rwanda!" Said the man, named Shema.

"I Want to know what kind of Network IT work you do here."

"Well, we do a lot of great consulting services. What is your need?"

"I need you to hire my boyfriend."

"Oh really?"

"Yes"

"What does he do?"

"He's in network security."

"But what exactly."

"I'm just a mere business teacher. I am not good with IT. But I do know he's the IT guru and extremely good at what he does. He's very valuable, and I think you should talk with him."

"Can we talk to him today?"

"He's in the US."

"When is he coming over?"

"When I find him a job?"

"Oh? Can he stay a year?"

"If the job works out, absolutey."

"Do you have his CV?"

"Give me your email, and I'll give you his CV AND his email contact. You can talk to him whenever you like, and about whatever."

"Excellent. Here's my email, and I look forward to hearing from you. If it works, this is the perfect place for him to be valuable for Rwanda."

*End scene*

I'm awesome.

My French is starting to come in handy pretty majorly. Lately I've been using it for getting taxi rides to places, and for getting business transactions, and for finding out how to get places. Today I used it to find out about the harddrive information, and I used it for the taxicab who took me home later at night. I think my French is pretty good, thank you very much. We chatted, I found what information I needed, and I even got a ride to immigration tomorrow so I can get my proper visa FINALLY. Yes, I'm finding places to speak French, but maybe it'll become more important here than I thought.