A Summer without a JOB

As I always say, writing is not my call, but I am still doing it for the fun of it. So, this summer I was expecting to accomplish lots of things, but getting an internship was my number one priority. And guess what? I didn'tfind any. I tried to apply at different companies, I sent my resume almost everywhere, I joined lots of job seeker's website, but I was not able to find a place to work; it is not fun at all. Not only I did not find an internship, but also I have not yet found a regular job; I thought about getting a job off campus (that means working illegally),but I am not sure if it is worth it. Living a life with no income is the worst thing that can happen to a man.
To keep myself busy, I am reading a really big book; the book is about computer networking because I want to become Cisco certified (CCNA); it'sOK if you don't know what that is, but it is some geeky stuff. Speaking of geeks, I think the geek life is the best one, but only if you know how to live it. A message for all geeks out there: have as much fun as you can get, and then switch into geek mode; you will read or study like never before. I have noticed that if I pass more than three weeks without going out, I cannot concentrate on school at all, and I am serious about that. Humm, it seems like this is the worst of my post, but I felt like writing some thing and I think you liked it. Anyways, thanks for reading my boring post, and come back sometime!

Testing Picasa Slide Show

This is a test I am doing about Picasa web album

Just Launched my New Website

It has been a while without updating my blog, but there is a major reason: I have been building my real website (actually my own blogging engine). The website is called FreelyCoded.com: A Place for Free Downloads. I decided to help the community by creating a website where everyone will be able to download most of known commercial software alternatives. I am talking about alternative for Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD; alternatives for many many commercialized software. Many people are not aware of this term called open source. The open source community lets you download and use their software for free of charge; you do not have to pay any dime. And, you get to download the source code ( I am talking to developers) and see what is going on behind the scene. Anyways, I just felt like letting you know about my website, and if you have ever wanted to download free games, free Anti-Viruses, free Video editing software, free free, FreelyCoded.com is the place where you need to be. Ehh, I forgot to tell you why I decided to name my website FreelyCoded.com, but I guess you have figured out why by now. If you have not, it is because I coded it for you, and you pay nothing, basically freely. All downloads you will find there, were coded for free, just for you. Vive FreelyCoded.com!!

My Work at RITA

This is a report about what I did at Rwanda Information Technology Authority(RITA) as an intern. I spent two months working on a groupware application called e-groupware.

Acknowledgement and Endorsement

This report has been written by me and has not received any previous academic credit at this or other institution.

Thanks to all RITA authorities who accepted my application and allowed me to do my internship at RITA.

I would like to thank Francine Gatarayiha for her assistance during the whole period that I spent doing my internship, and the Student Financing Agency for Rwanda (SFAR) for providing the financial support used to accomplish this internship.

I would also like to thank the RITA staff for creating a safe environment that made it easy and fun to learn.

Executive Summary

For a period of two months, I spent my time doing an internship at Rwanda Information Technology Authority, RTIA. RITA is an institution with a mission of helping the government of Rwanda in attaining 2020 Vision through the use of ICT.

I did my internship in ICT Park, which is one of RITA's departments. The company needed a collaboration web based application to be used by all employees. ICT Park thought of eGroupware, which is open- source software published under GNU General Public License. I became part of the project, and I was assigned to document on it, install it and test it for RITA.

The first section of this report provides important information about RITA such as brief history and services provided by RITA.

The next section describes the kind of work I did at RITA: installation, configuration and administration of eGroupware. I also describe some of the mostly used eGroupware applications such as Addressbook, FelaMiMail…

Besides working on eGroupware project, I also got trained in database management and attended many professional meetings about IT development in Rwanda.

In the assessment section, I summarize what I have learned from this internship: I put under test my skills and knowledge, and gained a real world experience that will shape my career goals and professional development.

I recommend future interns to choice RITA as their place of work. In RITA you get to work in a safe environment, with people who are kind, friendly and who take seriously things they do.

Appendix A provides definitions of technical terms used in this report. Those technical terms are ended by a "*"superscript.

Appendix B provides list of figures used in this report.

1. Introduction
   

"One goes through school, college, medical school and one's internship learning little or nothing about goodness but good deal about success", Ashley Montagu. At school we gain needed skills on the market, but at work we apply skills we gained from school. I had been learning a lot at school, but I had not yet gotten a chance to go out and apply what I learned before this internship. This was an interesting journey for me and I think it will have a great impact on my decision about what will be my career goal and professional development.

As a student in computer engineering looking for a good company where to do my internship, I had to consider many criteria: does the company really do work that is related to my major? Do they use smart people from whom I will gain something new? What kind of work do I expect to do in that company? RITA, which is Rwanda Information Technology Authority, was a good choice for me. I saw it as the answer to all those questions that I was asking myself. The work I did there was of my interest; the experience I got from there was priceless.

1. Brief History of RITA
   

RITA was established in 20002 by the government of Rwanda. It was created to help the country of Rwanda in attaining 2020 Vision¹ through ICT. As a government institution, RITA has responsibilities of sensitize the citizens of Rwanda to use ICT, and advice all other government institutions to use ICT.

RITA is located in Kigali; in Telecom House right aside the Boulevard de l' Umuganda.

1. Structural Organization of RITA
   

RITA is divided into 12 departments. This is the list of all RITA's departments: E-Government, e-Rwanda, Business and Private Sector Development, Human and Institutional Capacity Building, Rural and Community Access, National Computing Center, Administration and Finance, NICI Coordination, Innovation Research and Development, Internal Audit, Karisimbi Project, and ICT Park in which I was working as an intern.

1. Services Provided by RITA¹
   

As stated by the Law that established it, RITA has the following responsibilities:

1. Setting up a unified e-Government design including IT infrastructure, applications and shareable databases of services and public information
   
2. Connecting the entire government of Rwanda via a secure electronic information network
   
3. Creating an IT governance framework, standards and guidelines for national ICT infrastructure, and a security framework
   
4. Developing plans and policies for training and development of human resources in IT while enhancing existing competencies
   
5. Enabling easy access to appropriate and relevant public information accessible to all through a wide range of delivery channels
   
6. Deploying ICT education and training programs suitable for various segments of the society based on systematic studies and comprehensive planning.
   

7. Internship Activities
   

It is certain that every company, small or big, needs a collaboration software so that employees can easily communicate among themselves. When I got in RITA, the department of ICT Park had thought of a collaboration application that is easy to use, user friendly, platform independent, and that comes for free of charge. They chose eGroupware and I was assigned to document on it, install it and test it. The next section of the report is going to explain eGroupware installation process and briefly describe some of its mostly used applications.

1. Installation, Configuration, and Administration of eGroupware
   

2. What is eGroupware?
   

EGroupware is a web based^*, open source^*,
collaboration software, used by small companies to enterprises. It comes with a native web-interface that allows accessing your data from any platform, all over the planet. It also allows accessing data from a mobile phone or a PDA^*.

EGroupware is platform independent. It can be installed on any server^* that runs Windows, Mac and other operating systems. EGroupware users do not need to install any program on their computer to be able to use it. What they need is an internet browser^* (Firefox, Internet explorer…) and they are ready to go. EGroupware is written in PHP^* and is distributed under GNU General Public License^*.

1. EGroupware Installation and Configuration
   

Before eGroupware can be used, it needs to be installed on a server. The packaged can be obtained from the web at www.sourceforge.net. To work properly, eGroupware requires an operating system, a web server, a database^*, and a mail sever if one intends to send emails with it. Once the main package is downloaded, the installation process is straightforward. Here is the installation process on a windows machine:

Step 1: Using a program like WinZip^*, you simply unzip eGroupware packaged to any file that is under a web server's root. In other words, the folder must be accessible from the internet. The folder location should something like: D:\websited\yourwebsite\egroupware\ (all other files in the eGroupware package).

Step 2: Before this step can be done, a web server and a database using eGroupware must be started. Once started, open your internet browser and point to http://yourdomainname/egroupware/setup.

Step 3: The check installation script should start automatically. If there are errors found, then one must correct them before they move on. When there are no more errors, then scroll down and click "Return to setup".

Step 4: When all conflicts are resolved, you can click on "Continue to the Header Admin"

Step 5: Complete the table on the above mentioned screen as follows:

The Server Root and Include Root variables should be automatically filled; one does not have to change anything unless they really know what they are doing.

Create an administrator account and assign him a desired password. This is the account one will use to be able to login to the header manager.

Change the persistent connection to false

Jump to the database information and enter the following:

-DB Type: mysql

-DB Host: localhost (if the user is on the same machine where eGroupware is installed) or the appropriate name of the machine

-Leave the DB Port field empty

-DB name: Enter for example "egroupware"

-DB User: username

-DB Password: userpassword.

Create a Configuration user account and assign him a user name and password. This is the account that one will use to manage the configuration.

Create the header file by clicking on the Write Config button.

If everything was done correctly, one should get a message that says your header file was created.

To go to the next step, click on the Continue button.

Step 6: Now, one should be on the eGroupware login page. Enter the correct information in the Setup/Config fields to login into the setup control.

Click on the "Login" Button to move on. The setup screen should show up. You will see some errors that the database does not have any table, but it's ok because we do not have any table installed yet.

Step 7: Click on the "Click here to setup 1 admin account and 3 demo accounts" to continue. Enter your desired admin account and check the "Create Demo accounts" checkbox to create the demo accounts.

Click on the "Install" button to create the missing tables. If you do not see the error anymore, the tables were created successfully.

Click on the Re-check My Installation button to continue; the setup page should refresh and all other stages should have been completed at this time. One should not see any errors now.

Click on the "Save" button to save all the settings and the installation is finished at this stage. Go back to eGroupware setup page and click on the 'User Log in' link. The screen should look like this:

Enter the user name and password you created earlier and click on the "Login" button to login into eGroupware. Now, you should be at the administrator control panel of eGroupware and be able to manage the system. By default, the Calendar application is displayed after login.

The next section briefly describes some eGroupware applications.

1. EGroupware Applications
   

2. FelaMiMail
   

FelaMiMail is an email client that is user friendly; it allows sending emails using SMTP server and receiving emails through IMP server. To be able to use FelaMiMail, the following settings must be configured in the emailadmin as follows:

SMTP server: yourdomain.com

Port: 25

Use SMTP authentication with the following credentials:

Username:emailuser@yourdomainname.com

Password: the corresponding password.

FelaMiMail has all standard operations just like other email programs. It even allows filtering and adding emails in the address book.

1. Calendar
   

With the calendar applications, you can create your daily, weekly, and monthly schedules and add custom events. You can even include holidays and set alarms for evens. You can also import to your outlook calendar.

1. Addressbook
   

With this application, you can create your won address book and include important fields like Full Name, company name, email, phone number. You can also import and export address book and Vcards.

1. ProjectManager
   

This application allows creating projects and calculating their estimated value. You can list, add, edit, and delete projects.

1. Info Log
   

It allows creating and managing a to-do list and supports all other customer-relation-management.

1. Timesheet
   

Timesheet works with project manager to track time and check periods of time.

1. Filemanager
   

It allows sharing documents over the network. You can copy, edit, move, rename, manage and create folders and subfolders as well.

1. SiteMgr
   

With this application, you can build a website for your eGroupware; you can select from available templates or download free templates from the web.

1. Wiki
   

Wiki allows users to share knowledge in a discussion form. You can post an entry, edit and comment on others' entries.

1. Bookmarks
   

The Bookmark application allows saving your favorite websites in an organized manner.

1. Polls
   

With this application, you can create online voting and collect people's opinions.

1. Other Internship Activities
   

Besides installing and configuring eGroupware for RITA, I got trained in Database management using C-# as a programming language. I learned how to connect to ODBC and SQL Client, how to retrieve data from the database, change it and save the changes.

I also followed a training offered by CISCO about video teleconferencing. I learned how the front end works, from making a simple phone call to making a video teleconference. When I got in RITA, they had deployed a teleconferencing project to be used in all governmental institutions; that is the reason why all employees in charge of ICT had to be trained about teleconference. As an intern, I felt interested and decided to go and follow the training as well.

I also attended several professional meetings about IT development in Rwanda.

1. Assessment of the Internship
   

Working as an intern at RITA helped me to gain real world experience. As a sophomore in computer engineering, I needed to have a taste of how working with smart and experienced engineers feels like. RITA was a good choice because they use mostly computer and software engineers as a company that has a mission focused in IT development and deployment.

Besides working with experienced people, I got to learn how to start a large project from the scratch. Once I got at RITA, I was given a project to work on and had to finish before my internship period was over. I learned how to do research on the web, knowing when it is time to ask for help, being honest about my abilities, and communicate early and often.

In schools, we are taught new things but mostly teachers show us what do and then we are ready to go. In professional industries, you do not have a teacher to show you everything. They only assign you a task and you have to figure out what to do by yourself. What I appreciate from school is that we are taught how to teach ourselves; especially in the engineering field, self-training is a key concept we all should have before we graduate from college.

The experience I gained from RITA will strongly influence my future career: I got to know what bosses look for when they are choosing employees and what they expect from them; I got also to know what is really needed on the market in the computer engineering and Information Technology fields.

1. Conclusion
   

At RITA I got everything that I expected from my internship. The work I did there helped me to evaluate my skills and my knowledge. The installation of a collaboration application for a company is something that I am proud of. It is not a huge task, but it is something. I am very excited that I was able to be part of the eGroupware project and I hope it will be very helpful for RITA. Besides the work that I did there, I gained an invaluable experience. It was my first time to work in a professional setting. I was used to work on several projects at school, but I never got to work as an employee. At work, you just do not get graded about what you did; you work to finish what you have been assigned to do and you have to finish it on time. I could not have gained that once in a lifetime experience if it is was not the positive and enthusiastic attitudes of RITA staff. Thanks for everyone for their friendliness and their patience, I have learned a lot. This project is very helpful in shaping my professional goals and development. I could not ask for a better experience.

1. Recommendations
   

I strongly recommend future Rwandan students who study abroad or inside the country in the engineering and IT fields, to choose RITA as their workplace. At RITA, they will gain a precious experience that they cannot find anywhere else. For people who like exciting and challenging work, RITA is a good choice. There, you put your skills and knowledge in practice, and you get to work with people who are serious about what they do, but also who are enjoyable and fun to work with.

1. Appendix A: Definitions
   

• Web based application: an application that is accessible via the internet, online.
  
• open source: open source programs are assured of there rights:
  

-The right to make copies of the program, and distribute those copies.

-The right to have access to the software's source code, a necessary preliminary before you can change it.

-The right to make improvements to the program⁵.

• A server: a serve may refer to a computer program that provides services to other computer programs (and their users) in the same or other computers. A server is also defined as a computer that a server program runs in, which is the meaning used in this report³.
  
• A database: A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated⁶.
  
• WinZip: WinZip is a Windows program that lets you archive and compress files so that you can store or distribute them more efficiently⁷.
  
• GNU General Public License: The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. It is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users⁴.
  
• PHP: PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily on Linux Web servers. PHP, originally derived from Personal Home Page Tools, now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, which the PHP FAQ describes as a "recursive acronym⁸."
  

1. References
   

2. Rwanda Information Technology Authority website, 2007.
   

   <www.rita.rw>
   

3. Egroupware Official Website.
   

   < www.egroupware.org>
   

4. TechTarget website. 2008.
   

   <http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212964,00.html>
   

5. Free Software Foundation. 2007.
   

   < http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>
   

6. Treasurer, Open Source Initiative. Bruce Perens
   

   <http://perens.com/OSD.html>
   

7. TechTarget website. 2008.
   

   <http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid87_gci211895,00.html>
   

8. TechTarget website. 2008.
   

   <http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid1_gci213378,00.html>
   

9. TechTarget website. 2008.
   

   <http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid39_gci334246,00.html>
   

   
   

   
   

Back home

It seems like blogging is not my thing, but I am not giving up anyway. One post in six months? That's not too bad I guess, jk. Anyways, his last summer I finally got to go back home and visit. It was one of my best experience I have ever had. Right after I got off the airplane, I was welcomed by my two aunts, my brother and other friends. They were all excited to see me; I was too. We took a bus to get to my hometown, which is two hours from Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. There, they welcomed me like I was some kind of local star or hero. They thought maybe I was somehow changed by living in the States. They used to call me " American". Like my friends would come to my house and say:" Hi The American guy". I honestly didn't like that. I was treated like a stranger in my own country. I mean I was happy and excited to be back home, but I had hard time with reversal culture shock. I had to be as careful as I could to show them that I am still the same Placide they knew couple of years back. I knew I had changed a little bit, because the American culture is way different that Rwandans. Here is an example: In America, people value time a lot. They only do things they have scheduled and planned to do. In Rwanda, people are more important than time. If someone comes to your house, you have to cancel whatever you had planned and just stay at home until they leave. If you leave him or her, they will think you are rude. Another short example is that when people come to visit you, you have to walk them to the gate. I experienced a lot when I was back home. I came to notice some values of our culture, but again there are other things that don't make any sense to me. Like men don't eat out on the streets; men don't cry; women don't whistle...The list is long.

Longtime no see!

Oh man, writing is not just for everyone. I created this blog about a longtime ago, but I haven't posted more than 10 postings, isn't that ridiculous? Maybe not, sometimes I forget that I have a blog and waiste my time doing meaningless things, but now I have decided to change; I have decided to wake up and fight against laziness. I have realized laziness is the source of ignorance; so is negligence ( By the way I just found that negligence is an English word; I knew it in French, but I never thought it exists in English. How was I to know if I didn't come and write this post?). It never used to happen that I totally lack strengths of studying when I have a test, but right now, I have an exam tomorrow, but I don't feel like spending even 20 minutes reading for it. It's not even a difficult exam; it's one of favorite and easiest classes during this semester: that's Differential Equations. Ok, let me try to end this conversation and see if I can at least make an cheat card; don't I love America? I remember those days in high school when I used to memorize all those calculus formulas before every exam: about 20 derivatives and 30 integrals, man I can't even believe I am the one who used to ace all those exams, but right now, writing those formulas on that index card is getting hard. Oh, I just remembered something: I am about to go back home to Africa to visit. Yeah, that's why I don't feel like doing anything. Yep... ok, I can't stop witting. Hhummm, this is really scary, I am talking to myself; have I become a psychic?

Sometimes you can't help it to keep secrets!

It was so hard not to share this:

"I don’t know how much I like you
I don’t know you enough to be your
girlfriend but I like you enough to
stay up till four and cry because
we can’t seem to figure this out and
I like you enough to fight ever language
and communication barrier that is thrown
at me and I like you enough to walk out in
the cold to say goodnight every night and
text you goodnight when we are apart and
I like you enough to know that I would never
want to hurt you and I like you enough to not
just give up when im frustrated more than I have
been in a long time and I like you enough to kiss you
I mean do you want me to give you a scale of one to ten?
Because I can’t do that I can just say that I like you and
I want to know you better and I don’t know what else to really tell you"

Just For Fun

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Birthdays are way to go!

July 21st is my birthday. This last one (2007) was special to me:I turned 21, Hurray! And it was mt first birthday in America.My adoptive parents organized a Bday party for me and my friends. We had so much fun:first of all we had a swimming party at my parents' house, and had dinner together and ate a birthday cake. I was so excited to turn 21. In the US, 21 is one of the best birthday because that's when you became legally a MAN. You can do punch of stuff like renting a car, going in a casino, buying a drink or going in a club.I was excited but also sad that I am getting older and older!






We had so much fun. I got so many presents and gift cards:two cameras, three walmart cards, a watch, and other stuff from my friends and parents. Thanks to everyone who took his/her time to come to celebrate my Bday!

After a while!

Man, posting on blogs is very boring too me; I don't know, maybe I am just lazy or I have another problem. It is so ridiculous how I can pass three months without posting any note on my blog. I have been receiving comments from my friends telling me to update my blog or to close it. Anyway, I am going to go ahead and try to update it as much as i can. It has been summer, i had fun even if i had to take some college credits. This summer was special to me: I got credits in Fine Arts and Psychology, now in only one week I am going to take History. Besides classes, i met new friends, went in Texas at Six flags. Man, I had fun out there with my friends Phil, Alain and Collin. Yeah, I also got my Learner Permit, and tried to drive in the road. My friend Paige let me drive her car, and I did pretty good in the road, but I almost crashed her car in a parking lot. She was scary to death, and stopped giving me her car for a while until her nerves calmed down.

Spring Break 2007!!!

Classes are really tiring; I couldn't wait for spring break. After a long time that I was concentrated, now spring break comes up. I did not have too many plans for it, until I was asked by my friend, Tracy, to spend with him the whole break. He had a very good plan. The plan was to go spending some time at the beach, visiting an amusement park at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, visiting an Aquarium Museum (Corpus Christi), and spends the rest of the break at his house in Odessa Texas.
At the Aquarium Museum!
We had a very good time there: we saw a very big diversity of sea animals. We get to watch a dolphins show: it was impressive and surprising. I can tell that the dolphins are the smartest animals I have ever seen. They did amazing things out there: like following the instructions to accomplish some tasks. It is impressive how you will tell a dolphin to greet you, to bring something for you. I was only wondering how long it takes to train them to become that smart...
In the US NAVY Battleship!!
There at Corpus Christi beach, we went to visit an US NAVY battleship. That war ship fought in World War Two. We get a chance to see some memorials of soldiers there. The ship very was huge so that some airplanes could land on it. We saw some torpedoes inside there.



At the beach!!!
We also decided to go and spend the whole day at the beach, feeling the air from the ocean. It was a part of Atlantic water, near the Gulf of Mexico; the place itself is called “Gulf of Texas”, still in Corpus Christi. We went out there; it was me, Mark (from Malaysia), Seth from Scotland, and the Tracy Tindle, the guy who took us there! We made a fire; we roasted some hot dogs and marshmallows. It was fun. We tried to through a net to catch some fishes, but unluckily we did not catch. We swam in the ocean, it was s much fun!

Getting to know you!

Getting to know you: Placide Nibakuze!


> 1. What time is it? 4:50
> 2. Name: Placide
> 3. What are you most afraid of? To not be up to snuff!
> 4. What do you drive? Nothing!
> 5. Have you ever seen a ghost? Ghosts do not exist!
> 6. Where were you born? Musanze(huhuhu), Rwanda
> 7. Ever been to Alaska? Nope!
> 8. Ever been toilet paper decorating in trees? Nope
> 9. Croutons or Bacon bits? None of them!
> 10. Favorite day of the week? Friday
> 11. Favorite restaurant? Jimmy’s Eggs!
> 12. Favorite flower? I do not like them!!
> 13. Favorite sport to watch? Chinese kung-fu!
> 14. Favorite drink? Coke!
> 15. Favorite ice cream?? Chocolate!
16. Disney or Warner Brothers? Disney!
17. Favorite fast food restaurant?? I do not like restaurants!
> 18. What color is your bedroom carpet? Some kind of ugly gray or something
> 19. How many times you failed your driver's test? None
> 20. Before this one, from whom did you get your last email? Windows Live ID
21. What do you do most often when you are bored? Listen to music!
22. Bedtime: at 11.pm!
23. Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? I do not expect anyone to respond!!
24. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? Same as above!!
25. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? Same as above!
26. Favorite TV show? Millionaire!!
27. Ford or Chevy? FORD!!!!
28. What are you listening to right now? Too little too Late, by Jojo!
29. What are your favorite colors? Blue, black!
30. How many tattoos do you have? NONE
31. Do you have any pets? I do not have any pets
32. Which came first the chicken or the egg? The Chicken
33. What would you like to accomplish before you leave this earth? Leave without upset anyone!!(I have too many things, leave a cute kid!)
> 34. How many people are you sending this email to? Lazy to count!
35. My own question: "is your life as you wanted it to be?", by Placide!

Not Easy, not at all!

The first semester was hard actually because of the new language(English), but this second one is going to be harder. All classes that I have now need a long time of concentration. Everyday, I have at least 3 home works for every class. and guess what? I am supposed to spend not less that 3 hours for everyone of them. If you sum those hours, it would take me at least 9 hours per day, which is completely impossible! I am thinking about two solutions: Focus on some of my classes, and study less for others; or study all of them but moderately, I mean spend a short for every one of them? What I know is that working hard always gives good results! I will keep trying, but it not easy. Library in my best friend now!

Relax( Ni ko Bimeze!): Hit 100 Clips, Find what you want here.

Click here to get every song that you want:Yahoo! Music Clips : Hit 100 Clips

Life is not as expected.

Before I came here in the US, I was worried about how my life is going to be like. Being away of my family for such a long time, was my first new experience. My first days here in the US were kind oh weird for me; I was half excited and half nervous. During our first week, we went to a place called Dry Gulch. There we spend 3 days in what was called Earn Your Wings (E.Y.W). Actually, E.Y.W takes a week: It is a time when all freshmen gather together to know each other. They do several things to keep forgetting that they are away of their family, maybe. After E.Y.W, we had another week of Orientation; I started to experience the American life: Pizza was my favorite food, I tried ice-cream for the first time, hot dogs, hamburgers,... The food did not taste good for me, I asked myself if I will , one day, be familiar with that kind of food, briefly I did not like the food during my first days.
Now it is the first week of classes. I was really worried of how I am going take my all classes in English which was a new language for me. Since my primary school until I finished my high school, I took all my classes in French; except, the English class that I started to take in high school. Calculus and Bible class were my favorite; Programming was a little harder for me. It is because I was not much familiar with computers; I did not even work with any software before. I was about to quit my major (Computer Engineering), but I remembered one word that the Minister of Education (Jeanne D’ Arc Mujawamariya, in Rwanda) told us before we left our country. She said:" Never give up." .Yeah, never give up. I tried to be away of giving up, until I finished my first semester. And I think I did pretty well during my first semester, Things became completely different than expected!

My Trip to Dallas, Texas.

It was December 29, 2006 that me and my other Rwandan students ,who are studying here to OC, went to Dallas to visit some one's family. There we had so much fun with snow sculptures. Take a look on the pictures. Can you believe that the temperature in there was 9 degrees?