Give me my check, I am going back to the hall.

When we last saw our hero, he had a lead on a job working for a small contractor, Ron...

Yeah, that lasted for exactly 3.5 days. I could spend a lot of time explaining why it was only 5 days, but I am going to hit the bullet points:
1-The toilet on the jobsite was a hole in the sewer line in the yard;
2-No tools, no material, no prints, no direction;
3-Attitude when I leave early one day because Reason #2 means I am standing around picking my nose;
4-Two guys who had done some plaster work kept coming by looking for Ron because they said he owed them money.
5-The laborer warning me that sometimes Ron had problems with coming up with money.
6-Ron telling me when I first spoke to him that he did not like to hire French electricians because they want to keep the job conditions too high.
7-Ron complaining that something cost 80Euros.
8-Asking for some black tape and Ron buying two (2) rolls.
9-Asking for dust masks and Ron buying two (2) dust masks.

After day 3.5 I had enough, and told him "This is not what I am looking for, nothing personal". What did I learn from this? Once again, for brevity I am doing bullet points:
1-That cheap and s***** rat contractors are not just an American phenomenon.
2-That people actually do say the check is in the mail. The a****** never did pay me and stopped answering his phone when I called.
3-That s***** Port-A-Johns are better than pissing in a hole in a yard (I did it the first day. For the next 2.5 days, f*** him, I walked to the public restrooms).
4-That I REALLY need to pay attention when my Spidey Sense starts tingling.
5-No matter how bad you have it, others have it much worse...

The laborer was a Filipino who was working in the black (i.e., working illegally). He had been in France for 3 years without his family (wife and little son). He lived with his two sisters and sent home half his pay to his wife, which is was still more than if he was working and living at home. To him, this was a dream job.

Sometimes, you want to cry.