The story of the boy who left the village to become a computer scientist - Part1

Published By zooboole

This article was originally published on Quora to answer the following question:

How did you study when programming was hard to study and how do you stay motivated?

There is really been a moment when programming was hard, and the reason was I came from a village. Prior to that, I had no idea of what computers looked like in real life, except on TV. But I have been dreaming of having them. I used to love electronics. The day I saw a computer for the first time(back then in 2001), that day changed my life until now. I started saving my pocket money to go to Internet Cafe in order to have access to a computer. I would go and sit by it and just be watching, touching around without knowing what to do.

Then I discovered the algebra of Boole through electronic books. While I was trying to understand that beautiful stuff, I discovered the term “programming”, then I decided to further my research on it. My motivation is to be able to program my circuits and make them smarter. Until then I did not have a personal computer. Lol, that was too expensive for me.

Through that, I discovered I could create websites with a language called HTML. I thought, well, let me learn that a bit maybe I could create a website for someone and get money to buy a PC. A new journey as web developer started. I dropped electronics for a while. I learned HTML, CSS(this was just at its early age. There were vendor prefixes all around), Javascript(Then who would believe JS will become a popular language today), and PHP(The prophet of the time). And a note about PHP. This language really gave me the opportunity to have feedback of my logic. Making a website handle a form, to create these shot boxes and chats was awesome. That’s one reason I loved PHP and the love is still here today. If you knew the history behind this language, you would respect it.

I ended up having my first client around 2005. It was 10.000 CFA. It was a website I built for an old man who lived in France for some time and came back to Benin. He used to have this traditional medicine pharmacy called Paraclepse. I built a basic website for the pharmacy. Note: He wanted it in a day :). Believe me, I did it. The following morning I had 10.000 CFA. Unbelievable! This changed my opinion about the field. It’s a money-making field.

I started to dig more into programming. I read and practiced a lot of C programming in addition to HTML and CSS. I learned a bit of C++, and Java(But never took it too seriously). I particularly loved C. I learned till I even wrote a few sockets and some programs in cryptology. I loved those James Bond movies where the spies always get away from the bad guys with their smart communication system.

All this time, I had no one to ask questions of the real use of all those things I am learning and what is the future in it. I was just motivated by the simple LOGIC I found in the code.

Until here, I had no computer still.

And you will ask me how I code. I get to touch a computer very scarcely. Maybe once or twice in good weeks. Or none for months. I used to write on paper.

(One of my old codes)

There was this place called CCF(Centre Culturel Francais). They had a library and a place with computers. I could borrow two books maximum for two weeks. I use to take books on C, C++, Java, and HTML. I would take a book of thousands of pages once home, I wouldn’t get time to eat or even read my school books. Don’t judge me. It was too sweet to drop. I would stay under the street light pole just opposite our house for a whole night, killing mosquitos, left and right hahaha. I just wanted to eat all the books instantly. I have kept that love for books up to now.

They give us access to the computers every Saturday for an hour. All you could do is to use Google. You are not allowed to check your email or code on it. That was enough for me. I just needed to do research.

Later on, I discovered a field called hacking. I was very seduced by those cracking practices. I did all my best to learn it. I remember there was a website called loadation.com. That site helped a lot. To learn HTML and PHP I used to love siteduzero.com, now openclassrooms.com , and developer.com.

Before the event of Google, I used to keep a catalog of domain names. I would go through any newspaper or magazine, picking up domain names and writing them in my book. I could have created Google lol.

Notice that I came from a French-speaking country: Benin. So, I had to face another challenge: understanding technical English terms. I used to love English, I have always been good at it at school. Reading those books was to be a great opportunity to improve my English skills.

I thank God, I was adopted then by one uncle who was a learned man. He used to be an English teacher. I use to read his university books. He never taught me English but he had all the books I needed. And, he gave me the time and the space to learn as wished. Many people would see then that he wasn’t educating me well. I remember his wife used to beat me up or insult me or deny me food because I couldn’t wash the dishes or sweep. Only me and my God knew how time was important to me. And trust me, those things were a serious waste of time. I would go out to stay in an Internet Cafe until 1 or 3 o’clock AM. When I get home and meet the gate locked I would climb the fence. I was lucky lol because someone could have shouted “Oleee”! (thief).

Fast forward, I kept on doing that I until I failed my BAC(International Baccalaureate) in 2008. I think the main reason was that that year was the toughest in my life. Although things weren’t good, that year I had to work harder to survive and pay my school fees. I worked as a mason, a house cleaner, and a watchman. I Could not sleep well. The same year I had the idea of starting an eCommerce website like eBay called oyakoo.com. The idea became clear when I created a similar one for a teacher who is still a friend of mine up to today. I use to roam in town to sell his books.

I did not lose hope. Repeating that class was not classic to me. I never failed and I always fought to be among the first in my class. 2009 I did it. It went through great. I have succeeded. But, as you could guess it, there were no means to go to university. The only university that used to teach something related to a computer could not accept me even if I had money. Guess why? My math grade was bad. I think it was something 7/20 or less.

I stood home between 2009 and 2011. Focusing more and more on my passion. I was already well-known for this computer stuff. But there was no job in it. Few people knew what that was. I used oyakoo.com to practice a lot. If you follow the history you can notice I have built that website more than four times. I built so many other websites over time.

When I said home, it wasn’t a real home. My uncle, I spoke of earlier, created some kind of NGO in the north. So, he left to the north for it leaving me with the room he rented. After a few months, the rent expired, and the landlord had to kick me out. I went to another uncle’s place who adopted my senior brother. But, that uncle was not living at that place, and the house is being broken down for renovation. I use to be there.

Then, a friend connected me with a man who had an Internet cafe who needed people to help him manage the place. I was very happy. We met the man he agreed to take me. In addition, he would give me a room to live in with some other colleagues. I loved the place because the Cafe was the biggest in Cotonou then. A lot happened there. I met a man from the USA. I was dreaming of going to the USA(because my dream has always been to work in the NASA Shhhh -this is a secret :) ). I met some men from Cameroon around the Cafe who promised to take me to the USA. My first and second-month salary, I gave it to them.

The third month. Something VERY serious happens. I was able to have the main server of the cafe with the help of keyloggers. I can access every admin’s account. I could play with the source files of the accounting software. The idea was to impress my boss by reducing my sales total in the server and giving more cash to my boss. It wasn’t to steal the money. Not at all.

I was the only known hacker in the cafes. My boss even uses my services from time to time. He would come very early in the morning around 5 or 6 then we go down and I do the job for him. Thanks to Steve Wozniak for inspiring me with his blue box…. Also thanks to the movie “Hackers” which featured Angelina Jolie.

One early morning he came to wake me up. I thought he was for our usual routine. When I got downstairs. They were a whole crowd of people waiting for me. The friend who connected me to the man was there as well. I was surprised why these people. Then they took me to the server and asked me to enter the boss’ account. I was like “I didn’t know his password”. Suddenly the brother slapped me. The boss started calling the police. The crowd was growing.

I entered all the accounts. And explained the reason. I never stole any money. Of course, which they never believed. It was obvious that I had lost my job. Later on, my senior brother and my cousins came to beg for him to keep me. They explained to him that I had always been geeky and that this wasn’t my first time. He kept me till the end of the month and fired me without paying me for that month.

I worked for three months. I never got money. I never went to the USA. I was tagged as a thief. I lost my home. I was so sad and desperate. I couldn’t use a computer for months. I nearly drop the computer stuff.

Then, I came back to my broken house.... Read the next part of the story