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"Tequila, your beard is very ugly." "Tequila, you look like an old man with beard." "Tequila, you were very handsome before beard. Now you are very ugly." Fine, I'll shave it. "Tequila, where is your beard? You look bad." "Tequila, you look like a children. Maybe students think you are a children." "Tequila, you grow beard maybe." Go to hell, Mongolia. I can't win.
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Oct 10, 2013 11:03
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| # ? May 19, 2024 18:24 |
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Compromise. Rock a Handlebar moustache.
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Oct 10, 2013 11:17
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Tequila Sunrise posted:"Tequila, your beard is very ugly." Maybe they wanted a well-groomed one? how long had you been rocking it? People in my town didn't seem to mind mine even while PC staff were telling me it was of dire importance to shave it. But towards the end I started growing it out on purpose and it got a little ridiculous, and then I started getting teased a little about it. Still didn't cut it though cuz gently caress 'em.
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Oct 10, 2013 18:50
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Why were they telling you to shave it?
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Oct 10, 2013 20:58
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Me? In PC Cambodia it's a rule for volunteers to be clean-shaven, because, according to office staff, facial hair is seen as unseemly, unprofessional, and dirty in Cambodia. Another reason I heard is that, in their TV shows and movies, only bad guys, thugs, and crooked police officers have mustaches/goatees, and so they associate them with bad people. The reality of the fact is that the average Cambodian simply doesn't have the genetics for facial hair. Most of the time, their growth is patchy, wispy, or just kind of gross and weird-looking, like a bunch of high school students. So it became a rule that, because Cambodian professionals don't have it, we as volunteers shouldn't have it. I shaved my beard off when I first got to the country but I grew it out again after a few months and I actually found it of benefit to my service. Our PM bitched at me that it "made [me] look different", but I figured the pale white skin, blue eyes, and 6 foot frame were already doing that pretty effectively, and the beard became a talking point with men around my town. The cops LOVED it and were always asking me what sort of "medicine" I used for it.
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Oct 10, 2013 22:47
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CronoGamer posted:Maybe they wanted a well-groomed one? how long had you been rocking it? People in my town didn't seem to mind mine even while PC staff were telling me it was of dire importance to shave it. But towards the end I started growing it out on purpose and it got a little ridiculous, and then I started getting teased a little about it. Still didn't cut it though cuz gently caress 'em. It actually was quite well groomed. The thing here is that traditionally men are not supposed to grow a beard unless 1.) they are 33 years of age or 2.) their father has passed away. But seconding the "Locals don't have good beard growing genetics". We certainly don't have a rule about growing beards, I know about half my batch has at some point grown a beard. They just liked to give me poo poo because they almost never see people with beards.
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Oct 11, 2013 03:25
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Anyone have any good recommendations for Peace Corps books written by early volunteers? I've heard some crazy stories that I'm not sure if they're real or exaggerations and I'd like to read some first hand accounts by volunteers.
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Oct 24, 2013 14:28
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huhu posted:Anyone have any good recommendations for Peace Corps books written by early volunteers? I've heard some crazy stories that I'm not sure if they're real or exaggerations and I'd like to read some first hand accounts by volunteers. Me (and pretty much everyone else in my batch) read "When Things Get Dark" by Matthew something or other. It was specifically about Peace Corps Mongolia. I remember thinking it was pretty decent, but I've actually been meaning to go back and read it again now that I've been here for a year and a half and see what I think of it. As far as "hearing crazy stories", this might be a good place to ask. Obviously it's still the internet but SA is probably a more reliable source than "My cousin's brother's friend was in [3rd world country] and told me they ate rats from the streets and worshiped a drain pipe" or whatever you might here from John Rando.
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Oct 24, 2013 15:03
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Tequila Sunrise posted:Me (and pretty much everyone else in my batch) read "When Things Get Dark" by Matthew something or other. It was specifically about Peace Corps Mongolia. I remember thinking it was pretty decent, but I've actually been meaning to go back and read it again now that I've been here for a year and a half and see what I think of it. My crazy stories come from other volunteers in my country. The craziest I've heard is of a volunteer many years back who had a month hike to get to site. Her mom/sister came to visit and they hiked the month in and out and spent two months hanging out there.
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Oct 24, 2013 20:24
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I ate moldy pancake mix? ...Also, lard soup. It was 25 degrees in my room for 3 weeks straight. That was pretty much the worst.
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Oct 26, 2013 21:36
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One of the volunteers near me had Malaria, Typhoid Fever and Giardia at the same time, poor thing. And another volunteer near me was literally struck by lightning. Me, personally? Uhmmmm... I kissed a goat once?
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Oct 26, 2013 21:52
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I've eaten goat face, eyes, stomach, and balls. For several months during the winter it is -25 degrees, and when I wake up in the mornings during that time my home is usually hovering in the low teens (Fahrenheit). My home is also heated by a small iron stove, and I use coal and camel poop to heat my home and cook food. I got punched by a Nazi in a bar. I just spent 4 hours in a vehicle the size of a standard mini-van with 5 adults, 14 middle-school aged children, and 2 babies. The weird part of that story is when we got in my first thought was "Man this thing isn't even full".
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Oct 27, 2013 13:11
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Tequila Sunrise posted:I got punched by a Nazi in a bar. You can't not post this story now. 
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Oct 27, 2013 16:15
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Peace Corps and City Year is coming to my college to do a Meet and Greet and panel discussion, should I go dressed in my best suit or tone it down a bit?
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Oct 30, 2013 15:35
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No need for the suit. It doesn't have anything to do with your application process.
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Oct 30, 2013 17:44
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Slaan posted:You can't not post this story now. WELL Last Thanksgiving we had our big Thanksgiving dinner in the capital, and for the new batch it was the first time that we were allowed to leave sites since PST, so we hadn't seen each other in about 3 months. Naturally we were excited, and alcohol was involved. We decided to head to a big club that the older batch told us about. The place was huge, and ended up being about 50% foreigners, between PC and all the Fullbright scholars there. If you're not aware, there's a growing nationalist movement in the capital called Tsagaan Khas (White Swastika), and they're not fans of foreigners. Apparently someone at the club informed them of our presence, and they showed up en masse. At about 12:30, I was moving off the dance floor back to our section of the club near the back. As I go to slide by some Mongolians who were conveniently bunched up in my way, someone grabs my shoulder and spins me around, immediately followed by a right hook to my jaw. The back of my legs were basically pressed against a bench, so I immediately fell/sat down, and then jumped back up. I was facing a massive, shaved-headed Mongolian guy. Not knowing if I did something wrong I immediately apologized to him. He responded by punching me again. This time I got angry and as I started to fight back I felt hands grapple me and a girl's voice say, "Tequila, get away!". I start getting dragged by a pair of people, still shouting what few obscenities I knew. As I was doing so, I had a view of the entire club. It had erupted in a massive brawl. I saw Mongolians punching PC, Fullbright's punching Mongolians, and every other combination. It was insane. The bar had to have 125 people in it and half of them were fighting. We quickly got everyone separated and safe, but there were two events I witnessed I will never forget. One was a Mongolian friend of mine, a doctor who speaks flawless English and is pretty small, throw down his drink and engaged a much bigger Mongolian man. He ran in, and without a moment's hesitation, rabbit-punched him square in the throat before making a hasty retreat out the front door. The other thing, and this has already become something of an apocryphal legend in PC Mongolia, was done by someone I swear was a now ex-PCV, but the person I thought it was claimed it was someone else. As I'm getting dragged away I see a smaller dude pounce through the air, hitting this big Mongolian's chest like a torpedo and bringing him to the ground. Now crouched on top of him, this paragon of diplomacy reared back a fist and dropped it like a hammer on the Mongolian's jaw. The Mongol kind of went limp for a second, and the guy jumped off him. This mystery man then thrust a fist triumphantly in the air and shouted "Peace Corps!" Before disappearing into the crowd. Some people don't believe this happened, but I know what I saw. Anyway, cops showed up, a lot of people got their IDs taken, it was pretty obvious that they started it, so we were all told to go home. I heard later PC got in pretty hot water over it and that they were pressured to AdSep a bunch of the PCs that were involved in the fight, but that didn't happen, which is fortunate cause I'm sure I would have been one of them. Here's hoping this Thanksgiving is a little less dramatic.
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Oct 31, 2013 05:57
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Tequila Sunrise posted:Now crouched on top of him, this paragon of diplomacy reared back a fist and dropped it like a hammer on the Mongolian's jaw. The Mongol kind of went limp for a second, and the guy jumped off him. This mystery man then thrust a fist triumphantly in the air and shouted "Peace Corps!" Before disappearing into the crowd. GLORIOUS!
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Oct 31, 2013 06:01
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:masterstroke: drat, we are going to have to start one-upping you guys over there. Maybe we can find a hive of Maoist 3rd Worlders to infiltrate during our Thanksgiving coming up? 
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Oct 31, 2013 07:52
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We all keep joking that now is a great time to do something that could get you kicked out, or take a few weeks of international vacation without telling anyone. I don't know about you guys, but we're basically running on fumes financially. Our post hasn't got its 4th quarter budget, and it basically seems like PC Washington just said "Hold tight till January". I feel like they wouldn't be willing to spend the couple grand it costs to AdSep us unless we're like...setting the entire country on fire. They cancelled a bunch of stuff due to lack of funding, Thanksgiving included. We haven't got our allowance for November, and we have a national holiday next week, so it could be a while 
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Oct 31, 2013 11:09
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Yeah, we are running on fumes too, though to a lesser extend thanks to the billions USAID and other groups pump out every year into Africa; we don't have to spend nearly as much of our budget on grants and trainings, because USAID/UN/GiZ, etc pays for it all. But we are definitely hurting. Last year, they gave us gas cooking stoves, mattresses, a free taxi ride to our post with our stuff, $200 of move-in allowance and solar chargers. The group that just finished training? They got the $200 move-in allowance and told to buy all that stuff themselves. My group and the third-years went ballistic.
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Oct 31, 2013 11:25
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That's about what they did to us, but as far as I know they haven't changed anything in the last few years. I feel back for the volunteers in the capital city though. They get the same settling in allowance as we do, and only a little more monthly allowance, but inflation has caused roughly a 400% increase in EVERYTHING in the capital since 2009. I don't know how the hell they survive.
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Oct 31, 2013 15:02
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PC China slashed our language learning budget to about 30% of what is used to be, and we weren't told that was happening until the day before swearing-in, so that was awesome. Living in the capital city isn't so bad, at least in China -- I'm in Chengdu, and I'm pretty sure that's the biggest city in the entire PC, and probably fairly expensive compared to most other posts. You have plenty of money to live -- although my move-in allowance was not high enough to fully furnish a bare apartment, so that sucked -- but not really enough money to take advantage of the nice things that are here. Especially if you want to save. I basically spend my money on food, my cell phone, and restocking my groceries. I manage to save about $70 US a month, so, it's doable... but not very fun. I go out with some other Chengdu goons once or twice a month to eat non-Chinese food, and that's basically me splurging. But trying to find a Chinese tutor when you get 145 RMB a month for a stipend sucks, especially when the good tutors start around 100 RMB an hour. Also our summer language programs are no longer funded. Kind of a lovely blow when one of the big reasons you were so happy to be here was to continue studying Chinese, but such is life. If my tutor wasn't charging me half of what she normally does, and I didn't have savings from home, I'd be boned on the language front. Basically what I'm getting at is gently caress the sequester and budget cuts. I can't really complain too hard, though. I have TWO Burger Kings here in Chengdu.
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Nov 1, 2013 09:26
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I'm trying to find words to console you, but the only part of your post I can see is "I don't have enough money to fully furnish my apartment and get paid to learn Chinese". How the hell are you saving $70 a month and complaining about costs? That's like half my monthly allowance.
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Nov 1, 2013 10:59
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I had that same reaction at first (we only got $90 a month for monthly allowance) but it's a petty one because COL is so different. How much does a meal cost in rural nowhere, Mongolia? Now compare it to urban China. He can't just borrow the neighbor's horse to go get groceries, maybe has to take a bus or taxi, spend a few bucks. Etc. I'm sure it adds up. The real trick, though, is to save up that $70 a month, and then go visit the poorer PC countries and live like a king for a week or two.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:04
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Wait, seriously. You guys are only getting like $90-140 a month? My living allowance here in Benin is $240. And I generally only use like $150 of it. 
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Nov 1, 2013 11:28
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In Cambodia we got US$200 a month, half of which went to our host families for room and board. If we negotiated a lower price or figured out some way to live on our own they would cut that extra bit appropriately, so we basically got US$100 a month.
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Nov 1, 2013 12:08
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1,700 tugriks = $1. We get about 270,000 a month. 30,000 of that is technically "vacation" allowance, but I never separate it. An average meal here if I go to a little cafe is about 2,500-4,000. It's a lot more expensive in the city to be sure. You can eat for cheaper if you make all your own food, it's not a massive difference in price though.
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Nov 1, 2013 13:52
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Tequila Sunrise posted:I'm trying to find words to console you, but the only part of your post I can see is "I don't have enough money to fully furnish my apartment and get paid to learn Chinese". How the hell are you saving $70 a month and complaining about costs? That's like half my monthly allowance. Going over my goony excel sheet it will probably be closer to $50-60 a month. My LA is like... $230 a month? Or 1410 RMB. I had a long post written out detailing my costs and everything else, but: Monkey Fury posted:Living in the capital city isn't so bad Monkey Fury posted:You have plenty of money to live -- although my move-in allowance was not high enough to fully furnish a bare apartment, so that sucked -- but not really enough money to take advantage of the nice things that are here. Especially if you want to save. I don't really think I complained too hard about the COL here? The biggest griping in that post was related to the language budget. Furnishing my apartment was expensive. I'm not joking about the empty part. There was the stuff that the school has to provide foreign teachers -- like a TV, a fridge, couch -- and a mop. Nothing to cook with, no linens, no pillows, nada. Last vol didn't cook, and left nothing behind. I tried to keep it cheap, and then a sauce pan melted on me and made my apartment smell like an aluminum smelter for a few days. After that, I sucked it up, and spent the extra cash so I could cook food that wouldn't make me sick... that's the sole job of the local restaurants. I think the key take away from being a PC in a capital city is that you can either save money or have nice things while eating at one of the two Burger Kings in your city. Your choice. At the same time, the reduction in language stipend and schooling funds sucks. I am unhappy about not getting paid as much to study Chinese as I thought I would. Peace Corps said they were going to put up money for me to do that, and then backed out to the tune of ~$1645 USD over two years. Withholding that until the day before swearing-in sucks. Every other PC group before mine was able to take advantage of that, and now we get the shaft, because other PCVs were either cheating the PC out of reimbursement money, or whining about Chinese being really hard, and tutoring just not fitting their super special learning styles (seriously). Continuing to learn Chinese was a big part of my coming here, so, yes -- I'm kinda salty about that, but it's working out, and my folks are pretty fantastic and awesome and are helping me with the tutoring cost. If they weren't, I wouldn't be putting any money aside. CronoGamer posted:I had that same reaction at first (we only got $90 a month for monthly allowance) but it's a petty one because COL is so different. How much does a meal cost in rural nowhere, Mongolia? Now compare it to urban China. He can't just borrow the neighbor's horse to go get groceries, maybe has to take a bus or taxi, spend a few bucks. Etc. I'm sure it adds up. I wasn't really looking for sympathy, but was just talking as someone who does live in one of the giant PC cities -- I mean, two Burger Kings! Although it's strange to think of Burger King being a really, really special place to go to  If I wanted to bust my bank and not save a dime, I could, but I also really want to travel during the crazy long breaks we have, so I'm dealing with it now in the hopes of jetting out of here come winter.For reference, our move-in allowance was ~$116 USD. It doesn't go very far for durable household goods in a city of 14 million people.
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Nov 2, 2013 13:52
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A few years ago a volunteer in Zambia burned his hut down, hung his dog, and wrote "development complete" on it, then disappeared for a few months. A girl filled her hut with thousands of fried buns and wouldn't let anyone inside.
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Nov 5, 2013 15:07
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HAIL eSATA-n posted:A few years ago a volunteer in Zambia burned his hut down, hung his dog, and wrote "development complete" on it, then disappeared for a few months. These are apocryphal and the exact type of story you shouldn't believe just cause you hear it. I heard the exact same thing about the fried buns when I first got here, they even said it happened in my post.
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Nov 5, 2013 17:04
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Tequila Sunrise posted:These are apocryphal and the exact type of story you shouldn't believe just cause you hear it.
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Nov 5, 2013 18:14
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HAIL eSATA-n posted:What country are/were you in? I was told the bun girl was in Eastern Province, Zambia. Maybe she has a twin. Or maybe the training staff likes to spread rumors, who knows. I'm in Mongolia, and the bun thing was actually in one of those "Peace Corps Newspaper" things that always show up in our mailboxes, but in the article it said it happened in Mongolia.
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Nov 5, 2013 18:43
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Benin had a volunteer who apparently freaked out when she got to post after training and ate nothing but store bought cookies for 2 months straight. They had to send her home when she collapsed due to malnutrition.
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Nov 5, 2013 19:23
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Slaan posted:Benin had a volunteer who apparently freaked out when she got to post after training and ate nothing but store bought cookies for 2 months straight. They had to send her home when she collapsed due to malnutrition. You know, we actually had something very similar with this new batch. I met a girl at the Peace Corps Office at the beginning of the summer who was doing something with medical and I chatted with her for a bit. She was one of the new trainees, but she seemed really distant and odd. She was super, ridiculously skinny also. A few months later I heard from the new groups that she had basically got sent home within the first week of training because she didn't eat a single thing since they left America. They said she skipped all the meals and nobody ever saw her eat anything for something like 4-5 days. Her roommate also said that she would randomly wake up at like 2 AM and start unpacking and repacking her suitcases over and over until it was time for breakfast.
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Nov 6, 2013 06:01
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Tequila Sunrise posted:Her roommate also said that she would randomly wake up at like 2 AM and start unpacking and repacking her suitcases over and over until it was time for breakfast. I actually did that for the first week or so of training, too. Malaria drugs are basically   until you are used to them.
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Nov 6, 2013 08:54
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Slaan posted:I actually did that for the first week or so of training, too. Malaria drugs are basically Yeah, those pills do odd things. I stopped taking mine.
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Nov 6, 2013 10:27
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Mine never hosed me up while awake, but they gave me some pretty amazing dreams for several months running. But yeah-- I think of the 25 people who COSed with me, maybe 5 at most had consistently taken their meds the whole time through. The rest of us had to take additional pills to counteract the possibility of having gotten asymptomatic malaria that was lurking in our livers.
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Nov 6, 2013 20:59
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CronoGamer posted:Mine never hosed me up while awake, but they gave me some pretty amazing dreams for several months running. But yeah-- I think of the 25 people who COSed with me, maybe 5 at most had consistently taken their meds the whole time through. The rest of us had to take additional pills to counteract the possibility of having gotten asymptomatic malaria that was lurking in our livers. Well yeah, it wasn't the day time that was the issue, it was the loving awesome/crazy/vivid/horrible dreams that were the problem.
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Nov 6, 2013 22:22
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We don't have tarantulas here, luckily, but our giant spiders are close enough. The mephloquine spider dreams.   But hey, dry season is started so all the spiders are dying off again!
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Nov 7, 2013 08:42
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| # ? May 19, 2024 18:24 |
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I just heard back from a recruiter today and my spouse and I are on the Get Recommendations Submitted part of the process.
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Nov 7, 2013 21:33
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