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Slaan posted:We don't have tarantulas here, luckily, but our giant spiders are close enough. The mephloquine spider dreams. Recently I watched my cat fight (play with) a massive spider in Zambia. It was larger than my palm and had 2 inch long legs. It was raising its front two legs and striking at my cat, then flipped over to play dead. I would have taken a photo/video but it was between me and the camera and also 
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Nov 11, 2013 17:24
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Partner and I interviewed, seemed to go well.
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Dec 4, 2013 17:38
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N. Senada posted:Partner and I interviewed, seemed to go well. Now comes the fun part. Hope you like waiting!
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Dec 9, 2013 14:41
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Just moved into my house today. My nearest 'neighbor' is a spider about 4" across that made a web just at the fence to my front porch. I decided to let him stay. I finished hanging up my mosquito net, went outside, came back in, and a two inch long wasp thing was caught in the net. Spiders are cool but freakishly large wasps are not. Ended up catching the wasp and got him tangled in the web and the spider tore him apart in about ten seconds. That was pretty cool. Also, how the hell have I already been in country for six months?
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Dec 10, 2013 19:26
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huhu posted:Just moved into my house today. My nearest 'neighbor' is a spider about 4" across that made a web just at the fence to my front porch. I decided to let him stay. I finished hanging up my mosquito net, went outside, came back in, and a two inch long wasp thing was caught in the net. Spiders are cool but freakishly large wasps are not. Ended up catching the wasp and got him tangled in the web and the spider tore him apart in about ten seconds. That was pretty cool. Peace Corps wisdom. Always leave the non-venomous spiders to their devices, they're there to help you out no matter how creepy they may look. After my mosquito net, my geckos and spiders were my main line of defense against all of the insect life constantly creeping its way into my room in search of blood and cookies. Why did it take 6 months for you to get moved in? How long was your PST?
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Dec 10, 2013 21:39
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Yeah, 6 months? What the hell? Mine was 2.5 months of training. And most of that was language. My spiders and lizards in my house are bros. For the first couple of months they freaked me out, but now I enter my house and am like, whats up spidy?  They keep the mosquitoes away! Also, I live next to Nigeria. Guess where you can still find DDT and use it against roaches and things? 
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Dec 10, 2013 21:51
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I'm lucky enough to spend most of my time here free of insect problems. Although "I'm lucky that it is below 0 degrees for half the year here" is pretty subjective. The only thing that survives here in the winter is ticks. And I loving hate ticks.
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Dec 11, 2013 06:18
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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. Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen is worth a read
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Dec 11, 2013 23:50
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xcdude24 posted:Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen is worth a read This book is excellent but was also written in a way, way different time, and I would not take it to mean anything now for how YOUR standard life would be, especially with how much things vary. I would wait till you got a region and then looked for any sort of PC book from that region.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:07
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CronoGamer posted:Peace Corps wisdom. Always leave the non-venomous spiders to their devices, they're there to help you out no matter how creepy they may look. After my mosquito net, my geckos and spiders were my main line of defense against all of the insect life constantly creeping its way into my room in search of blood and cookies. 2 Month PST, 3 weeks on medical hold because gently caress the PCMO, and then about 3 months from moving to site to finishing construction. We have to live with host families for 3 months minimum.
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Dec 13, 2013 05:51
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Do you guys not have to live with host families when you get to your sites? In the Dominican Republic it's been 3 months (after finishing 10 weeks of training), but they just upped it to FOUR months for the new group. Apparently Washington wanted them to make it 6+ but they bargained them down. It's for security reasons, I'm told, as the robbery/theft situation here is said to be worse than most other countries. I know some countries have mandatory host families for all 27 months. That would suck (but I'm married, so maybe it'd be better for single volunteers). Also: let no spider live, under any circumstances, in your house or next to it. I have a machete exclusively for that purpose (and the cockroaches). Let the lizards have the bugs. I also unload probably a full can of bug poison into my house every two weeks.
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Dec 16, 2013 03:43
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Thesaurus posted:Do you guys not have to live with host families when you get to your sites? In the Dominican Republic it's been 3 months (after finishing 10 weeks of training), but they just upped it to FOUR months for the new group. Apparently Washington wanted them to make it 6+ but they bargained them down. It's for security reasons, I'm told, as the robbery/theft situation here is said to be worse than most other countries. we're living with a host family our full two years. At least we're supposed to. Living with a host family has its ups and downs. For my wife and I, I can definitely say the lack of privacy has been a huge downer. El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Sep 3, 2017 |
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Dec 16, 2013 03:50
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Cambodia is full-length host families, too. It definitely has its benefits and its drawbacks. Most of the married couples I knew of were able to get their own place, or PC found them a house with a family where they'd get like, a whole smaller house to themselves, but on the same plot of land and only 20 yards apart and they'd eat dinner together and all that. Aside from the married folk, I only knew one volunteer who didn't have to live with a host family, and that was because it became very clear that they didn't want him there and were just using him for the living allowance. He eventually moved in to the Buddhist wat down the road and lived with the monks in his own tiny cell, which was pretty neat. I think he still ate dinner with a different host family every night though.
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Dec 16, 2013 04:07
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drat. I could not live in those places. I had a host family during the two months pre-swear in training. I hated them so much. I am an introvert who values his privacy a lot. I need time to unwind every day from the various small conflicts living in a different culture, and when I was sharing a house with my host family it was not possible to get that kind of time. I would have had to ET if they made us stay in a house with another family. But since then, we are required to have our own houses, including a private latrine, shower area and at least one room other than the bedroom. They do require us to live near at least 3 other families, though, or in a walled compound with another. But our houses are ours. 
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Dec 16, 2013 08:43
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As a PCV in China I got a family-sized modern apartment just for me.
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Dec 16, 2013 11:09
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I despised my host family at site. So many reasons to hate them! 7 year old girl they basically treat like a slave (she looks Haitian, so all the more reason to hate her!) and yell at all the time while showering love on their little boys. Constantly trying to impress us by telling us how powerful and influential they are as they construct a nouveau-riche banana republic style mansion, yet we live in a shack and they can't be bothered to fix all of the broken poo poo everywhere in their house. Part of the unfinished roof is open to the rain due to lack of planning and house gets filled with water when it rains. But that's ok, we can just have the Haitian slave child mop the floors for hours! Host dad tried to take me to a strip club (jokingly?) while I was in the car with his wife and him, and his children, asking us how he would order prostitutes in the United States... such terrible people. Any the food was poo poo, too, and served on a very irregular schedule. 9pm? Guess it's time to start boiling water for boiled bananas! Breakfast? No. Any supplies in house? No. Left the house for the day leaving behind the volunteers and the 7 year old slave girl without any food or information? Sure! We'll cook for your kids, you pieces of poo poo. /end host family rant Moved out early with a "married couple exception" that our APCD kind of made up for us. Our host families during training were pretty cool, though.
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Dec 17, 2013 03:04
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Yeah, I get the feeling one of the problems with host families is 'Big Man-itis.' The only people who would know that Peace Corps is looking for a host family are the well-connected rich people, who are also probably the only ones who have a house that meets PC standards. So we get placed in with people who are used to getting their way in everything with no consequences. Nobody tells them that having a 7-year-old not-slave is bad. Nobody says that parading around The American as a status symbol is bad. Etc. And since volunteers live with them, they can't really tell the families to cut that poo poo out because, being Big Men, they can turn the local government/police/organizations against the volunteers from spite. Its a lose-lose situation, tbh. Even having my own house, I have problems with my compound family. They often come into my house and ask for money, or food, or items, or 'borrow' things like my camera for small periods of time. Not to mention beat their kid (who is probably autistic) every couple hours.
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Dec 17, 2013 12:32
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Merry Christmas to all you Peace Corps Goons around the world.
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Dec 25, 2013 05:14
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Ayup! Raise a glass of whatever your local brew is to all your fellow Goons and
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Dec 25, 2013 05:22
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Slaan posted:Ayup! Raise a glass of whatever your local brew is to all your fellow Goons and My soum doesn't sell any alcohol on the 25th of every month. Woe is me.
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Dec 25, 2013 08:42
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Slaan posted:Kaselehlie maingko! Raise a coconut shell of whatever your local sakau is to all your fellow Goons and Fixed it so it's relevant to my site.
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Dec 26, 2013 03:01
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Slaan posted:Salud! Raise a pailita/calabaza of chaparo to all your fellow Goons and
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Dec 26, 2013 14:13
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I just graduated with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies for some reason, I'm slightly older with a little bit of an IT background before school, and I am thinking of applying to the Peace Corps. I would be willing to do anything other than teach english. Is that possible? What are the experience requirements for the various fields?
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Jan 5, 2014 00:19
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huhu posted:2 Month PST, 3 weeks on medical hold because gently caress the PCMO, and then about 3 months from moving to site to finishing construction. We have to live with host families for 3 months minimum. This is incredibly late, I just saw your post from last year. So you ended up in Panama? Which part? I was in Colon province. My little brother just joined and is going to leave for Peru in June. I'm already daydreaming about my trip to visit him. ThePriceJustWentUp posted:I just graduated with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies for some reason, I'm slightly older with a little bit of an IT background before school, and I am thinking of applying to the Peace Corps. I would be willing to do anything other than teach english. Is that possible? What are the experience requirements for the various fields? I was in Sustainable Agriculture, and a lot of my friends in the program had never had any prior agricultural experience. So there is that. A lot of other people in Business Development also had little prior experience. In my experience you can either choose what you teach or a vague area (Asia, Africa) where you would prefer to be placed, but not both. heliotroph fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 04:40
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Edit is not quote.
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Jan 5, 2014 04:43
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Pretty much yes. You can choose a vague region and get stuck with something, or choose a vague job category and get stuck somewhere. Just tell the recruiters you don't want to do TEFL but don't care where you are placed. They will probably be okay with that. Though you should probably tell them that "you aren't good with teenagers" or something to back it up. Positives like "I ran a small club with fundraising (business development)" or "I have a home garden (ag.)" will also help. For Peace studies I would say you should go for Business Development or General Environment/Agriculture.
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Jan 5, 2014 09:44
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Also realize that whatever sector Peace Corps might place you in there's a decent chance you'll be spending a good amount of time teaching English regardless. It really depends on what the HCA (Host Community Agency, basically who you work with) in your community wants from you. I don't know a single Health volunteer here who doesn't spend a fair amount of time teaching English just because they are asked to.
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Jan 5, 2014 17:36
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heliotroph posted:This is incredibly late, I just saw your post from last year. So you ended up in Panama? Which part? I was in Colon province. Ended up in Cocle. Out of site now because I was supposed to meet my friend in Penonome and bring him back to my site but he got robbed and now has to go get all new cards and such. 
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Jan 5, 2014 19:20
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Posting this from PC/Peru. I'm a health volunteer (with a B.A. in Political Science!) and tomorrow starts my English class for eight weeks due to the rainy season -- schools are out of session, the holidays are over, and our post in Lima more or less expects it from us as a "secondary" project. You can also include different themes/concepts in your class that relate to your primary goals, e.g. hand-washing. Thankfully, I don't have to reinvent the wheel here because our English teaching committee has done a wonderful job and uploaded dozens of lesson plans, songs, and activities to a shared Dropbox account. I really appreciate this because I have 70 students 4 days a week in 3 different classes (2 for elementary MW and TuTh, 1 for high school).
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Jan 5, 2014 22:28
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huhu posted:Ended up in Cocle. Out of site now because I was supposed to meet my friend in Penonome and bring him back to my site but he got robbed and now has to go get all new cards and such. Nice! I only went down to visit friends in Cocle on the way to Chitre once, and I also was pickpocketed. :v Which I thought was pretty rich considering all the time I spent in Colon City. You must know some of my friends that stayed on and became part of the staff there - small internet! If you are inland you are probably fairly close to my former site. You probably had all your questions answered by now but if you have any left I can shoot you an e-mail to talk, I only have a school one so I don't want to post it on here. I haven't been back to visit yet but I'd like to some day - I miss all the weird animals and customs. When I get drunk I still try to gritar for my friends in the US but it just isn't the same without a bottle of Seco and some tipico. a distorted reality posted:Posting this from PC/Peru. I'm a health volunteer (with a B.A. in Political Science!) and tomorrow starts my English class for eight weeks due to the rainy season -- schools are out of session, the holidays are over, and our post in Lima more or less expects it from us as a "secondary" project. You can also include different themes/concepts in your class that relate to your primary goals, e.g. hand-washing. Thankfully, I don't have to reinvent the wheel here because our English teaching committee has done a wonderful job and uploaded dozens of lesson plans, songs, and activities to a shared Dropbox account. I really appreciate this because I have 70 students 4 days a week in 3 different classes (2 for elementary MW and TuTh, 1 for high school). Hey, would you be at all willing/interested in answering some questions for my brother? He's heading there in June and probably has a ton, I'm sure.
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Jan 6, 2014 09:30
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heliotroph posted:Hey, would you be at all willing/interested in answering some questions for my brother? He's heading there in June and probably has a ton, I'm sure. Definitely! He can drop me a line at mchufford [at] gmail [dot] com. If he's coming in June he's either a small business or youth volunteer.
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Jan 9, 2014 03:18
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People in my town in the Dominican Republic are always asking if I can teach them English or when I am going to start an English class... I always tell them "No/Never." You should teach English if you want to or if it's your primary assignment. Apply this rule applies to everything you do, actually. A lot of volunteers I know seem to do it because they get pressured into it. Find out what's needed and you can handle doing, and then don't worry about doing everything else.
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Jan 10, 2014 22:07
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You can usually scare the locals off of english within one or two classes, in my experience.
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Jan 11, 2014 08:45
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Thesaurus posted:People in my town in the Dominican Republic are always asking if I can teach them English or when I am going to start an English class... I always tell them "No/Never." Granted I am a TEFL volunteer, so things are a little different for me, but I disagree with this. I understand if you're too busy to teach every day of the week, but teaching a class of basic English an hour or two a week requires so little preparation. Even when I first got here, and had no real teaching experience of any kind, I could throw together a 45-minute English class with about twenty minutes of work. I'm not a health volunteer, but I have had several requests to put on basic sanitation, sexual health, and smoking/drinking seminars, and I happily said yes. We're in these countries to serve our communities, and if they ask me for something that's out of my sector I'm going to do my best to oblige. Hell, PBWorks has hundreds of pre-made lessons for every sector so you don't have to do hardly any preparation.
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Jan 11, 2014 08:59
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RagnarokAngel posted:You can usually scare the locals off of english within one or two classes, in my experience. Yep. I've been doing saturday english classes for adults/professionals in my town and the first class of each 'semester' usually has 10-15 people. But after the first two classes I only end up with three or four guys. These are the guys that actually want to learn and are easy to teach; I found a lot of friends and work partners by doing this. Its one two-hour class each week with like 30 mins of prep time. Good bang for the buck.
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Jan 11, 2014 10:40
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General question to you guys. I just had my family bring down all my electronics stuff which is based on Arduino which is like a prototyping tool for making any type of thing that runs on circuit boards and such. I'm trying to figure out what projects/things I could work on/make that relate to my field, environmental health, or any PC projects in general. If you guys have any thoughts let me know. If not I'm just going to end up making a game or something with my free time in site. heliotroph posted:Nice! I only went down to visit friends in Cocle on the way to Chitre once, and I also was pickpocketed. :v Which I thought was pretty rich considering all the time I spent in Colon City. You must know some of my friends that stayed on and became part of the staff there - small internet! If you are inland you are probably fairly close to my former site. You probably had all your questions answered by now but if you have any left I can shoot you an e-mail to talk, I only have a school one so I don't want to post it on here. I haven't been back to visit yet but I'd like to some day - I miss all the weird animals and customs. When I get drunk I still try to gritar for my friends in the US but it just isn't the same without a bottle of Seco and some tipico. 
huhu fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jan 13, 2014 |
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Jan 13, 2014 00:33
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huhu posted:Pretty much all my questions are answered. Six months in country (Seven months in country in six days, gently caress) and just about everything has been answered. Or hasn't, and I've just given up. However, I was pondering today why the hell so many companies don't translate stuff to Spanish here. The Melo says "Pet & Garden" underneath its title. On a sadder note, did you see the Facebook group about BV?
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Jan 14, 2014 07:27
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So, go see a specialist of my own to get them fill out a report this Friday. Hoping it won't be a problem. I have to take maintenance medication for a renal condition, but (I think) it's not severe. Anyone wanna psych me out about this? Or assure me that they have diabetes and it's not a problem to have take a pill every morning that you could bring with you?
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Jan 27, 2014 05:34
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N. Senada posted:So, go see a specialist of my own to get them fill out a report this Friday. One of my buddies popped so many pills every day you would have thought his life was one giant electronic music festival. I don't take any medication for anything, but from what I understand it's not so much a problem of "does this person need to take a lot of pills" it's "does this person have a medical condition that, in a worst case scenario, could not be solved in the country?".
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Jan 27, 2014 08:27
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Yeah. Its mostly a check that "will you die within 3 hours if your condition acts up?" more than anything. If you have chronic medical issues like diabetes, bi-polar, asthma or something like that they will just put you in posts nearer the bigger cities of your country so that they can get you to a hospital and/or medevac you quickly if needed.
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Jan 27, 2014 08:33
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