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Poohs Packin fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Aug 25, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 01:09
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dads friend steve posted:Cool stuff Well, moving into a rural African town from the US is going to be a sort of two way culture shock. At least in W. Africa, respect is a huge deal. Anything you do will have sometimes double the amount of stakeholders you anticipated, and everyone needs a seat at the table. Most people also view time as flexible, as opposed to the US where punctuality is valued. When you combine this with a French work day and week, it can be difficult to hit the ground running. Many volunteers want to dive right into implementing a project, i.e. for-profit soap making with a local mothers of students group. However, without making proper introductions, understanding bureaucratic, administrative, cultural norms, many of these projects fall flat. Additionally, many of these areas have seen aid organizations come and go. It generally takes people about a year to acclimate to cultural realities, and during this time they focus on "softer" projects that involve cultural exchange and getting to know their host community.
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May 17, 2020 01:30
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maxe posted:how is aid delivered I was able to set up a computer lab with 10 machines and run a "head start" class for girls that were poised to enter secondary school. 9 out of 10 of the girls in the class went on to secondary school, and last time I checked the lab was still a resource as of 2 years ago. As far as the broader question of "how is aid delivered". I guess I was surprised by the amount of NGOs present in African countries. There is an enormous amount of aid from the US, France, Germany, Japan, China, and simply navigating the landscape of organizations can be daunting. Its also sometimes difficult to see where money is going, which can make it difficult to develop working relationships with these orgs. Obviously I don't want to put my time into forging a relationship with an org that is just sucking up aid money and not putting in any real work.
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May 17, 2020 01:36
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Poohs Packin fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Aug 25, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 01:54
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Sunswipe posted:My only previous knowledge of the Peace Corps was from a story in a porn mag, where a guy goes to an African village and ends up repeatedly having sex with a tribal princess who possessed massive breasts. Was this the real motivation for you joining, and did you have any such adventures? Well, as I was working for a Girls Education project I was pretty careful to not gently caress local women. In small African towns word travels fast. And as the only white guy around there was usually extra attention on me. Some people do end up with local boyfriends and girlfriends and some even turn into husbands and wives. I had no intention of leaving with a bride, so I kept romance with host country nationals at arms length. I did get laid though. I'll leave it at that.
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May 17, 2020 01:59
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1st_Panzer_Div. posted:I misread AID as AIDS but... was the AIDS epidemic a thing in W. Africa while you were there? AIDS is still a problem in Burkina Faso but no more so than Washington D.C.
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May 17, 2020 02:00
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I done hosed up
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May 17, 2020 02:08
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zenguitarman posted:Interesting hearing about cultural norms and would love to hear more. A friend of mine did the peace corps in Tanzania (I think) but she had a very different experience as a female, like she would have to eat dinner outside while the men ate inside. I think she also said that the village next to hers killed someone for being a witch. Did you witness anything crazy? I'll address the gender stuff first. As a male, it was a lot easier for me to get access to directors, and other people that can get things done. Often, especially for young women, they would have to deal with excessive flirtation to get even statistical information from a government functionary. American Women in Burkina Faso could be said to be a "third gender" (sorry to reinforce any hetero-normative ideas this was only 2009). They are seen by men as different from African women, and possessing more social agency. However, they were also subject to lots of cat-calling and male attention. Our host country staff was very aware of this and were incredibly respectful, but that wasn't always the case "at site". Many women I knew wore fake wedding rings, and on more than one occasion I posed as a female volunteer's husband in order to mitigate verbal harassment. IIRC it was pretty normal for men and women to eat separately. Men told me it was so the women could get "their fair share". This was a more "villageois" attitude and it was more common to see mixed company dining together in cities. A note on being a male working for Girls Education: I would typically try to leverage local stakeholders as often as possible and get them to have a large a hand in projects as possible. I had my own hangups about being a white american male going into mostly female spaces in a foreign country and trying to implement social interventions. I tried very hard to leave my ideas at the door and make myself more of a resource than an organizer.
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May 17, 2020 02:27
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Crazy? You bet: Drunken bus drivers veering off the road and cracking an axle in the middle of the desert, so 6 guys pick it up and walk 10 hours back to the town we just left to bring a new axle back and replace it while we almost die from the sun. President Blaise Compaore sending military aid to Libya and then not paying anyone, resulting in military riots: waking up to the distinctive sound of AK-47s being fired, buses being flipped and burned to barricade roads, and a local police station being burned 50M from my house. Getting drunk with an Imam and soldier on local millet cider and then riding around on a motorcycle in the desert. Accidentally crossing into Niger and pissing off some Gendarme who chased our vehicle into a village and demanded ID, or (Wait, those arent the right color uniforms!) Riding in a charter bus for 26 hours to Ghana and arriving at 3AM, falling asleep on the beach and getting malaria.
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May 17, 2020 02:33
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Saliou, one of the most patient and talented teachers I've ever met. Took me from 7th grade level French to near fluent in 2 months and immediately into rudimentary Peuhl Sunday in Yako, Neighbor girls hanging out  Peuhl women in Dori  Shopkeeper's son on the counter in Dori 
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May 17, 2020 05:41
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Chinatown posted:Thats rad OP. My sister lived for 6 months in rural Kenya, and 6 months in Accra, Ghana. Despite living on a very meager allowance (~$300/mo), and doing my best to integrate with people in the community, there was always the assumption that I was privileged in some respect. At the time that bothered me, but I've come to terms that I am indeed a very privileged person. We had to be on the look out for "faux types" which literally means a fake person. Young men especially would try to befriend me and I wanted to be open but it only took a few times hanging out to realize they were after monetary favors and not friendship. Thankfully these people were the minority and most locals appreciated my presence or just didn't care. Wendigee posted:I had a cousin do work in Africa for 3 years... Sadly she's from the brain worms evangelical side of the family and did it as a mission to Jesus and I reckon feel superior to the people she was helping. There are some extremely awesome faith based organizations, like Catholic Relief Services. There are also deeply entrenched generational missionaries and they have some really wild ideas, I would avoid these people at all costs, they are poison.
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May 17, 2020 05:58
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Cool thread! What vaccines did you have to get prior to going? How did you manage money? Like did you have to keep all your cash on you or could you use cards or visit a bank? I can hardly remember what I had to get but I had a laundry list of vaccines (Hep, yellow fever, typhoid?) I also had to take anti malarial meds for the duration of my stay, I took Mephloquine orally every week for 27 loving MONTHS. It was a non-negotiable, and if you caught malaria twice they just terminated your service. Turns out you aren't supposed to do this and I still ended up with Malaria, although I had already closed my service. I traveled from Detroit to Philly, where we did a 2 day orientation and a last "are you sure you want to commit to 27 months?". Then Philly - London - Niamey - Ouagadougou. Our plane had to be grounded in Niamey, Niger on the way over because it lost power on the runway. We had to stay the night and were under strict instruction to not leave the hotel. I remember the whole place smelling like charcoal and seeing a lot of amputees. Niamey is a very, very poor place.
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May 17, 2020 06:13
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Methanar posted:Do the villager resent you or otherwise ever feel as though that aid programs are colonization 2.0 This is a great question. I never felt that sentiment specifically and Peace Corps does a lot to avoid that stigma. I did have a guy tell me he didn't like my skin color while he was drunk. He later apologized and said he thought I was French. The guy just didn't like French people, and I don't really blame him considering their history in the region. I think that Peace Corps is unique in that it is a strictly not for profit entity, must be invited into a community, and focuses on community ownership of projects. I led a fair amount of training for incoming volunteers, and we focused a lot on their feelings about coming into a community as a privileged foreigner. We also followed the Positive Deviance approach which searches for existing solutions within an already appropriate cultural context. Would you like to know more? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_deviance
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May 17, 2020 06:31
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Methanar posted:Also does the average person know anything about their countries history or colonization in the first place Yeah most people are aware, but there is also pretty strict media control. There have been journalists killed, and I generally tried not to initiate conversations around that kind of thing. I was happy to chat about my political opinions if someone else brought it up but I never wanted to be seen as a political agitator. I was there to help get the numbers of girls in school up. Thomas Sankara was a Marxist and its no secret the French government supported a coup against him. He was tolerated as a national hero but his successor's face was still hanging in offices everywhere.
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May 17, 2020 06:37
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Muscle Wizard posted:please tell us more about how u slayed in africa You honestly don't want to hear about dusty drunken hippie sex
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May 17, 2020 06:39
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I'm choosing to leave that stuff out because A. Its not very interesting aside from (lol had sex) and B. I'm married to a wonderful and beautiful person who would have their feelings hurt if they found out I was typing out details of past sexual encounters.
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May 17, 2020 06:56
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The country is "50% Muslim, 50% Christian, and 100% animist", The further north you go the more Muslim it gets, the further south the more Christian. Drinking is common and legal. I've seen more than one Muslim man walk into a bar, neatly fold his prayer cap, place it in his pocket, do a shot of Pastis and leave. scenes from a street in Yako:   
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May 17, 2020 07:14
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Methanar posted:I would. Well there needs to be a significant amount of groundwork before a volunteer is invited. In the case of Girls Education, it was national policy that more girls should be attending school, which was in line with The UN Millennium Challenge goals. Educators and regional directors identified a need for support, and Peace Corps helps by providing them with qualified workers to help out. Obviously, you are going to run into some cultural issues. Personally, I never felt it was within my job description to convince someone that their daughter should attend school. I was more interested in the intersection of people who valued their daughters education, daughters who were apt and willing to pursue education, and barriers preventing that from happening. I also wanted to support girls who were already on track to pursue secondary school and make sure they stayed on track.
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May 17, 2020 08:22
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DropsySufferer posted:What if your a goon who will won’t integrate. Has all food air dropped. And ships in a generator and solar for playing games and netflix. Well there are policies that Peace Corps has in place that say you should generally live off of your allowance and stay in your site, but some people don't do this. I certainly accessed my savings via ATM while there (which set off all kinds of alerts with my bank, despite telling them of planned travel), but only did this during time off. There were certainly volunteers who would bail from village, and rent rooms in the capital a bit more often than was advisable. Its hard to do that for any extended period of time because you'll likely be noticed by the expat community, which was fairly tightly knit. I know volunteers who bought motorcycles though, rented secret houses in regional capitals, spent vast amounts on booze and weed and OTC valium. A lot of these were really smart, well integrated volunteers who just didn't want to give up certain creature comforts.
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May 17, 2020 08:41
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ante posted:How does the peace corp work, in terms of volunteering? Ill answer this last one before taking a break for the evening. You generally have to have a degree (at least a bachelors) relevant to the assignment you're working on, and its very competative. If you are going to be a teacher, you need a teacher's certificate. I had a Psych degree and experience working with at-risk youth in the states. When I applied, you applied generally and then checked off where you were willing to go. I left the map open and said, "send me anywhere" because I felt it would expedite the process. The application took about a year and involved lots of reference checks, essay writing, phone interviews, and waiting. You get an allowance per month based on local wages, so that you're in line with what other low to mid level functionaries are making. Your housing is provided and you get training. You also get a readjustment allowance of a couple grand. I wouldn't consider any of it "payment". Nobody really makes money while they are there. I hope that answers your question, I'd be happy to elaborate later if you like.
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May 17, 2020 08:49
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Jeza posted:I can't even tell how old OP was from the pictures. He's got one of those age 20-35 faces, no offense OP. Alright I'll answer one more before bed. Fine two: 1. Age range is significant. The oldest volunteer in country was in her 70s. There were some couples in their 50s that had served in their 20s previously. The average volunteer was mid 20s. 2. I had recently graduated with my bachelors and I planned on using peace corps as a means to network and get a bit more clarity (I did). I didn't know what I wanted to do (still dont). I was sure that I didn't want to enter the workforce as a youth worker in Detroit. But, I was definitely passionate about working with youth at the time, and became even more passionate while on the ground. I certainly had selfish reasons for joining (wanting to travel, etc.), and am grateful. I found that most volunteers that were coming from a more altruistic "I'm gonna help save the world" perspective had a very hard time with the realities of service.
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May 17, 2020 11:21
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LabyaMynora posted:Sociopathic displays of performative empathy. To be fair, any time I brought out a camera in Burkina, children would JUMP in front of it and start throwing up peace signs. Additionally, I have like zero pictures of myself before or after Peace Corps. I think its only natural for people to want to show and tell others about their experience, that doesn't make them a sociopath. Im Ready for DEATH posted:That tinder link is like the people posing with lions and tigers in Tiger King, except with black people. It's kind of hosed up. Oh well, what can ya do? This is also misleading. If I look through the pictures I have with children (some of which I've posted in ITT), I see photos of myself with my neighbors. These were people that visited me daily, and that I had a relationship with. Nothing was staged or performative. Obviously, I do take some issue with "eat, pray, love" self described yogis attempting to paint themselves as humanitarians or citizens of the world after they did a 2 week mission trip to Uganda, that's pretty gross. However, I also take issue with websites that post photos of complete strangers from a dating site based on some weird ascetic morality, where good deeds are only pure if done in complete seclusion and without recognition. edit: Kid who is REALLY excited to see us 
Poohs Packin fucked around with this message at 00:42 on May 18, 2020 |
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May 18, 2020 00:37
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I'm not really here to discuss the morality of tinder, or any other dating app. I'll say this bit and move on to some more substantive questions: It's the same as posting a picture of yourself in the gym, with a fish, with your dog, with your car, with the computer you just built, doing a beer bong, or at a baseball game. They are just the aspects of people's lives they choose to put out there while looking for a date, romance, a quickie, whatever. Anyone can look at that and say "THEY DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE THING THEY ARE TRYING TO LOOK LIKE THEY CARE ABOUT". To which I say maybe, or maybe not. At the end of the day I don't really care about Tinder.
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May 18, 2020 00:53
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Scooter_McCabe posted:There was the charity high jump event... Replace the toilet with a hole in the ground and you've got a pretty accurate summary of my first year.
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May 18, 2020 00:54
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sticksy posted:
Lol, WHAT you're saying I'm NOT qualified to head up the State Department?! But to answer that earnestly, I'd make sure volunteers had real jobs. Some of the assignments can be a bit nebulous and that makes them difficult. Volunteers need more structure when they first arrive at site and simply assigning them a local "homologue" isn't always the answer. Site development needs to be incredibly thorough so that volunteers can maximize their time. Peace Corps is not a development organization, and its not an exchange organization. It tends to ride the line between the two and sometimes its just neither. I don't have any regrets. But I do wish I would've stayed a third year. My service was interrupted twice due to political unrest which made it hard for me to hit serious momentum on several projects. I could've done a lot in a third year. Methanar posted:How many people return from the missions more racist and embittered than they left rather than enriched None in my experience. mobby_6kl posted:Well done OP, cool thread. I think access to basic healthcare is a big one, especially pre and post natal care and safe birthing practices, condom use, and exclusive breastfeeding. Infant mortality is still high and the biggest killer of kids under 4 is diarrhea. Cultural views on western medicine also need to change. Traditional healers are still used extensively and some really basic maladies end up becoming serious or fatal because they aren't treated effectively.
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May 18, 2020 01:31
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Atopian posted:As a connoisseur of meltdowns, flameouts, and fuckups in a variety of countries and situations, I am interested in first- or second-hand tales of volunteering failures. Okay, I actually gave this a lot of thought because I could go REALLY REALLY dark with this. I'm choosing not to at the moment. There was a volunteer who arrived in country about a year after I did. I can only describe him as a "cranky old man". He was about 60 years old, and clearly in poor health. We will call him Bob.When volunteers first arrive, they tend to sleep in a shared dorm type setting. They go through some basic medical interviews and then begin orientation, and eventually start training. Training took place in the city of Ouahigouya, a 3 hour bus ride north of Ouaga. I was out of my site at this time and would visit the medical ward in our central office daily to say hello to any sick volunteers, ask if they needed anything, and offer support. I knocked on the door of the medical ward, and hear a gruff voice say "Who's there?" "Oh hey its just The Continental, seeing how you're doing", I entered the room. Bob stands up, looking harried. I was surprised to see him as training had just begun and he should've been up north. "BOB LASTNAME FDNY!", Bob crossed his arms. I offered if I could get him anything but it was clear he didn't want to be bothered or make friends. He mentioned several times during the course of our very brief conversation that he was "A second generation New York firefighter". This was 2010, and this just seemed like a really weird thing to say, and the definition of image management. I took a hint and left him alone. I learned a few days later that he had left the country and wouldn't be serving. When I found out about his departure, I was naturally curious. I asked one of our directors what had happened: As it turns out, Bob had made it to the training site. But Bob's bunk-mates reported that he had been waking in the night to drink liquor. This baffled the medical officers as nobody was allowed to leave the training site, and there wasn't any place to purchase bottles of liquor nearby. As it turned out, Bob had purchased duty free liquor ON THE PLANE. Our country director later told me she had heard the bottles clinking when he arrived. When Bob realized that his duty free booze was running out and that he wasn't allowed to leave the training site, he reported feeling very ill and was brought back to Ouaga to do a couple days in the med unit. Bob had been sneaking out of the med unit and purchasing alcohol, which they discovered hidden all over the bedroom side of the small medical apartment. Bob was declared to be medically unfit to serve due to severe alcoholism and placed back on a plane to NY. How he made it through the cracks I'll never know.
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May 18, 2020 02:14
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The_Continental posted:There are also deeply entrenched generational missionaries and they have some really wild ideas, I would avoid these people at all costs, they are poison. Well, some Evangelical Christians do a lot more than just 2 to 4 week mission trips. Some actually move for decades, or for life. Their entire existence in the country is predicated on them having a holy purpose, and therefore being superior to the local heathens they are there to save. Naturally, its god's will for these people to procreate so they have children who become African nationals. Of course, these children are home schooled and cloistered from any non-Christian ideas. Many of the have African servants and drivers. I met one of these guys once. His parents were Canadian. He gave me such gems as "I would never go back to Canada because they let F****** (gays) get married" "I feel like a N**** (hard r) in Africa". He was very white. Most of my work was done outside of secondary schools. I focused mostly on extracurricular programming and with girls who were primary school age. However, the teaching style is very much French influenced, with a focus on memorization and drilling facts. Facilities vary greatly, but most schools are set up as several buildings of classrooms around a central courtyard used for physical activities and assemblies.
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May 18, 2020 02:37
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Methanar posted:For a mission of 'educate more girls'. How do you measure success. Is there a quota that you're expected to meet in terms of enrollment, graduation rate? I'd like to address the use of the word "mission", which is typically reserved for religious organizations. I don't mean to split hairs but you've used it several times and I don't want to be confused for or associated with "missionaries". Volunteers within the Peace Corps are not held to any sort of quota. They do quarterly reporting which is turned in to the director of their sector (agriculture, business development, secondary ed, medical, etc.). Its up to the associate director to manage their volunteers as they see fit. Each site is unique and requires a different approach so a purely rational model of reporting is difficult to apply. Ultimately, its up to the national department of education and the schools themselves to increase attendance rates. Bringing in Peace Corps volunteers is merely part of their national strategy.
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May 18, 2020 03:02
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Hefty Leftist posted:how does it feel being an imperialist serving US neo-colonialism in Africa Couldn't tell you. Do you think Noam Chomsky gets invited to parties?
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May 18, 2020 03:47
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Hefty Leftist posted:how does it feel being an imperialist serving US neo-colonialism in Africa I'll actually field that because its a legit question and despite possibly being posed in bad faith, I feel I'm fairly well equipped to reply: When I was developing training materials for newly arrived volunteers I would get asked a lot of questions like this. The aid industry is rife with moral pitfalls, and deserve to be addressed. However, if we dwell on these gigantic forces we will fail to see the forest for the trees. We have the tools, knowledge, ability to solve problems. Even better, there are people who want us to help them solve these problems. We can look at the history of colonization, slavery, Bretton-Woods accords, conditionality of loans, neo-liberalism, deregulation, etc. These are all important topics and shape Africa. Any action that takes place as a foreigner within Africa takes place within that historical context. We cannot change that. However, the discussion of those forces tends to remain confined to the realm of academics. Academics are often criticized for being all theory and no praxis. I tend to agree. Its very easy to lean back in your chair and call someone a "neo-colonialist" from the halls of an academic institution. One can subscribe to all of these ideas, see the problem as insurmountable, and become paralyzed by their own "wokeness" or they can get out in the field and solve real problems that are affecting poor people on a day to day basis. A homeless paranoid schizophrenic doesn't want to hear about the failure of the American Healthcare system. They want some meds and a warm bed. At the end of the day, If I'm helping a group of new mothers develop porridge recipes for malnourished children using locally sourced sustainable ingredients, its a good thing. Babies won't die because of that action. When I run a computer club for girls and help them develop real world proficiencies they wouldn't have had otherwise, that's a good thing. When you see a group of young girls begin to develop a sense of self worth, in a world that has devalued them, all the poo poo about being a colonizer goes out the window. As I see it, West Africans are going to get American culture through cigarette ads, pro wresting, action movies, and popular media one way or another. Its incredibly reductive to claim volunteers are "just part of the system".
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May 18, 2020 04:32
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The Clowner posted:op please tell me a funny story involving you having a learning experience about cultural differences. Between French and English you have words called "faux amis" or false cognates. Jolie, doesnt mean Jolly, it means pretty, for example. The word for "excited" can also mean "sexually aroused". I was trying to express gratitude for the opportunity to work with the headmaster of a primary school and essentially told him I couldn't wait to meet the students, and was really horny. West Africans tend to think it rude to correct someone or to tell them no, and much prefer to go through an intermediary. As a result, I thought everything was going really well with my new site until a week later my language instructor was like "What on Earth did you say to Mr. Kabore?" We had a laugh about it.
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May 18, 2020 04:43
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Probably about as varied as public toilets in tbe US or Europe. Some places, like my home, had a closed concrete area with no roof to provide privacy and ventilation. It was very clean and I kept a teapot and handwashing station nearby to clean myself and then hands. Bus stops were usually horrible. I knew a guy who served in Mongolia whos poo would turn to a frozen "poo poo stalacmite" that ge would have to knock down with a shovel. My god goons, do I have poop stories.
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May 18, 2020 07:24
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20 Blunts posted:My girlfriend got sent to a West African country by peace corps despite having actual experience teaching in a foreign language in Central Asia beforehand. Dunno how they didn't have better place or her. drat that sucks. They are extremely clear about the no moto rides rule though. They drill it in to you from the time you arrive that its a one strike and you're out rule. Basically, they did a statistical analysis of volunteer deaths and motorcycle accidents was the number one cause by a long shot. You can get away with pretty much anything in Peace Corps, the three exceptions are 1. not wearing a bike helmet 2. not taking your malaria meds, and 3. riding a motorcycle. The reason is that you are way more likely to die. I knew people who not only rode motorcycles, but actually purchased them while they were volunteers. They of course waited until well after training. They watch you like a hawk during training. As far as her placement, I've heard of stuff like that happening. I think a lot of it has to do with the need of the organization at the time. I also suspect they don't really want people going to places where they have heaps of previous experience because it could make them less apt during training, or distract them from service as they try to reconnect with their previous organization, friends, or colleagues.
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May 18, 2020 09:38
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20 Blunts posted:Just sounded like incredible chickenshit leader stuff to me. Apparently the lady in charge of the country was newly appointed, trying to make an example of misbehaving volunteers. The American tradition of high rising turds. I mean, isn't it mixed messaging, instructions unclear, to put somebody up with a host family, but then say they can't accept rides from said host family? Common sense says this clearly wasn't some brazen motorcycle ride laughing in the face of a zero tolerance policy. In fact, my girlfriend had had some issues really connecting with her family, saw the ride offer as making progress. I've always wondered how experienced the host family was with volunteer hosting, like maybe they were trying to set her up to get sent home? There is no mixed messaging when it comes to riding on motos with Peace Corps. They say it before you even board the plane: Ride a moto, get sent home. That kind of stuff isn't even up to individual country directors, it's Peace Corps wide. The idea of blaming a new country director, as someone who's been in country for less than 3 months, is absurd. The conspiracy theory about the host family is also fairly absurd. I think you and your girlfriend should probably try to come to terms with the fact that she hosed up and broke a clearly stated rule which resulted in her firing. Its a tough pill to swallow but all of this conjecture about it being anyone's fault but her own is a bit cringe-worthy to be completely honest. Its also possible she just didn't want to be there in the first place. Its an incredibly stressful time while your body adjusts to new food and climate, the mind to a new language and social mores. Many people are emotional train-wrecks during training and self-sabotage isn't unheard of. I have my own qualms with the moto rule and do believe it can have detrimental effects on integration. I've also seen a young girl killed on one after getting blindsided by a Mercedes, and two friends need to have their entire faces reconstructed. One had to be airlifted. Both the friends were former volunteers who had finished service and remained in country as private employees of other NGOs. So, while the rule sucks, its there for a drat good reason.
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May 18, 2020 23:11
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SERPUS posted:How long in country were you before you starting leaving solid poops regularly? I think it took my body about 3-4 months to adjust. I became acutely aware of how hydrated I was. If you don't hydrate you get the shits really bad. They would distribute ORS packets to us and I kept those around for after bike rides or long days in the sun. I had one of the worst shits of my life while with my host family, during the initial 3 months training. poop story I was sleeping in a courtyard under a mosquito net, maybe 30 feet away from the latrine. I woke up and could feel that my abdomen was super bloated, the skin around my stomach was tight like a snare drum. I tried to get up but as soon as I started to bend I could feel my bowels move. I ended up rolling, while keeping my body completely rigid and horizontal, over to the latrine. Then, by some incredible luck, I managed to get myself into a plank position near the outer wall of the latrine, and then walk my hands up the wall to get myself upright while not bending at the waist. I waddled into the latrine, expecting the roaches to scatter. They did not. They stared back at me staring at the concrete hole in the ground. I knew that to slide my shorts down I would have to bend, and bending meant making GBS threads. I positioned myself and assessed the trajectory of the forthcoming torrent. I quickly squatted and pulled my shorts down in one motion. Imagine ripping the cap off a chocolate milk bottle, while simultaneously crushing it between your hands. I hit the back wall of the latrine. Hardly any of it got into the hole. I cleaned up as best I could and fell asleep near the outside of the latrine. I woke up and my host sister had already cleaned most of it. I was incredibly embarrassed. More photos:           
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May 18, 2020 23:48
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PinheadSlim posted:Just to be clear, didn't you say you rode on a motorcycle while drunk somewhere on the first page of this thread? I did mention that. It was a stupid move but makes for a good story. I was well in to my service, and one of the most remote volunteers in the country and the chance of running into anyone related to the Peace Corps was incredibly low. I wanted to blow of some steam, so I took a stupid chance and got away with it. I was really just trying to address the absurdity of blaming larger systemic issues for a conscious choice to break a clearly stated rule.
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May 18, 2020 23:54
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Spoggerific posted:What was having malaria like? How about the antimalarials? I've heard people say the side effects are worse than the disease before, but I dunno how true it is. Malaria is a loving nightmare, literally. My experience with the anti-malarials was varied but nowhere near as bad as the disease itself. The weirdest thing about Malaria was the overwhelming feeling of existential dread that set in before I had any physical symptoms.
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May 18, 2020 23:57
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My apologies! All the old looking ruins are actually much younger than you'd think. Most of them were constructed in the 80s. They are all located in a town called Bani and were built by a Muslim leader named Muhammed Al-Hajj. He is basically a cult leader preaching is own brand of Islam. The smallest mosques do not face Mecca, but rather the large Mosque. This is pretty unique and somewhat controversial among traditional Muslims. I did a quick google search and found this write up about the place, its a pretty good read: https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/the-seven-mosques-of-bani/
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May 19, 2020 02:53
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ante posted:What was the deal with the hosts? Did you ship in and stay with them for a few months, and then get your own place? Volunteers stay with a host family during their training, which lasts 3 months. Following training, they are sworn in as volunteers and begin their service "at site". The community provides a home for them to stay in that is comparable to other living in the area. Some families take a few volunteers, but they only bring in a new training class every 12 months or so, and they may not use the same training villages depending on which sector they are training. For example, they would want a much more rural setting for agriculture volunteers, vs something closer to a regional hub for education or business development volunteers. so families will have at least 9 months free of white boys spraying poo poo on the walls of their home latrine.
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May 19, 2020 02:59
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 17:03 |
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Yeah they typically select families that are well respected in the community. My host father, Mr Kindo Ousseini, was the president of the APE (associacion de parent's des eleves) or parents of students organization. Naturally, he valued education. They need to be able to provide a secure area to sleep, have an approved latrine, and go through some orientation. They do receive some money to cover the costs of feeding a volunteer, but its not a large amount. They also work closely with local staff during the training period to help the volunteer adjust to village life. They will have a Peace Corps staff member who is either from the training village, or very familiar with it. This person can act as an intermediary if there are any issues with housing, food, sanitation, cultural adjustment, etc.
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May 19, 2020 03:18
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