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Crusty Nutsack
Apr 21, 2005

SUCK LASER, COPPERS


The_Continental posted:

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.

How do they select host families? What kind of criteria do they have to meet? Do they get a stipend for housing you? Do they have to go through training to be a host family? Are they told stuff like "their stomachs are not used to the food here so beware"?

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The Klowner
Apr 20, 2019

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Ever been to any other African nations?

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

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.

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

The Clowner posted:

Ever been to any other African nations?

I visited Ghana twice while in Burkina Faso. Its a bit more developed, and anglophone. It was a nice place to go and soak up some sun, drink beer and go swimming. We had a lot of fun in Ghana.

deadeyez
Jan 31, 2015

Avatar by Hempuli
Fun Shoe
OP you are an extremely good person

punk rebel ecks
Dec 11, 2010

A shitty post? This calls for a dance of deduction.

The_Continental posted:

I visited Ghana twice while in Burkina Faso. Its a bit more developed, and anglophone. It was a nice place to go and soak up some sun, drink beer and go swimming. We had a lot of fun in Ghana.

I actually want to visit both Ghana and Burkina Faso. Are they good places to visit in terms of sightseeing and a Hunter Thompson-esque adventure?

For reference I recently got back from Kenya and Uganda and had fun.

Pretty good
Apr 16, 2007



What brand of cigarettes did you get out there? How common was smoking among the locals?

Killer thread, keep goin

Methanar
Sep 26, 2013

by the sex ghost
How hard is covid going to hit both rural and the more developed parts of africa

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

punk rebel ecks posted:

I actually want to visit both Ghana and Burkina Faso. Are they good places to visit in terms of sightseeing and a Hunter Thompson-esque adventure?

For reference I recently got back from Kenya and Uganda and had fun.

Depends on the sort of traveler you are. But yeah Ghana is quite tourist friendly, especially along the coast. Cape Three Points, Dixcove, and Busua are all beautiful beaches and accessible through Takoradi. The further inland you go the more "en brousse" things are going to become, and the less English you'll find.

Burkina is going to be tough, it breaks my heart to say that there has been recent conflict in the area. There have been Islamists kidnapping some locals, and casual travel is likely going to be difficult or unsafe for quite a while. Mali went through something similar recently, they had islamists knocking down world heritage sites, beating people for having musical ringtones, and just generally being loving assholes that hate fun. The French military came through and killed a bunch of them and they chilled out but it seems they've set their sites on Burkina now. Again, this breaks my loving heart.

As far as a Hunter S. Thompson style romp, I'd be careful about drug use in either of these places. At least in Burkina, anyone who has access to drugs is likely going to be involved in some other, uglier poo poo. The police there don't really differentiate between casual marijuana use and hard drugs.

The Klowner
Apr 20, 2019

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Did you see any poachers

Crusty Nutsack
Apr 21, 2005

SUCK LASER, COPPERS


The_Continental posted:

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.

Do a lot of people stay in touch with their host families once they move on? Are there like, really cool host families that are the best ones and everyone knows it? I don't really know why I'm so interested in the host family thing lol

What kind of schedule were you guys on? Did you have "work hours" like a regular job, or was it looser by nature? How much free time did you get, and what did you like to do for fun?

punk rebel ecks
Dec 11, 2010

A shitty post? This calls for a dance of deduction.

The_Continental posted:

Depends on the sort of traveler you are. But yeah Ghana is quite tourist friendly, especially along the coast. Cape Three Points, Dixcove, and Busua are all beautiful beaches and accessible through Takoradi. The further inland you go the more "en brousse" things are going to become, and the less English you'll find.

Burkina is going to be tough, it breaks my heart to say that there has been recent conflict in the area. There have been Islamists kidnapping some locals, and casual travel is likely going to be difficult or unsafe for quite a while. Mali went through something similar recently, they had islamists knocking down world heritage sites, beating people for having musical ringtones, and just generally being loving assholes that hate fun. The French military came through and killed a bunch of them and they chilled out but it seems they've set their sites on Burkina now. Again, this breaks my loving heart.

As far as a Hunter S. Thompson style romp, I'd be careful about drug use in either of these places. At least in Burkina, anyone who has access to drugs is likely going to be involved in some other, uglier poo poo. The police there don't really differentiate between casual marijuana use and hard drugs.

Thanks for the response!

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

Pretty good posted:

What brand of cigarettes did you get out there? How common was smoking among the locals?

Killer thread, keep goin

I can't even remember the brand I smoked, but they were awful. You could get them for 50CFA (10c) apiece (loosies). I got a pack of Dunhills in the capital once and they were super old and stale. Smoking is incredibly common among men. The attitude around women smoking is that if she smokes shes probably a hooker.

Methanar posted:

How hard is covid going to hit both rural and the more developed parts of africa

Probably really loving hard. Any global catastrophe is going to affect the global south hard. But we won't get good data from it because of poor reporting and a lack of testing.

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011
What was the language situation like. Sounds like the lingua franca was French; how much would you hear the pre-colonial languages?

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

Crusty Nutsack posted:

Do a lot of people stay in touch with their host families once they move on? Are there like, really cool host families that are the best ones and everyone knows it? I don't really know why I'm so interested in the host family thing lol

What kind of schedule were you guys on? Did you have "work hours" like a regular job, or was it looser by nature? How much free time did you get, and what did you like to do for fun?

I have a really good response to the first part of this but I'm going to leave it for a bit because its emotional for me. I need to take a break from the thread for an hour or two, because I'm starting to hit on some moving stuff I haven't thought about in a while.

sb hermit
Dec 13, 2016





The_Continental posted:

I have a really good response to the first part of this but I'm going to leave it for a bit because its emotional for me. I need to take a break from the thread for an hour or two, because I'm starting to hit on some moving stuff I haven't thought about in a while.

Thank you for answering these questions, they have been very insightful and inspiring.

No poll with goku option. Voted 5 regardless.

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

Speaking of moving stuff, do you think it was the food or the water that messed up your BMs? I'm guessing that supplying you with months of bottled water is impractical - what precautions did you take for this?

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Wait, you had a zero tolerance Moto policy in Burkina? Volunteers in Benin, right next door, are given helmets and told to go hog wild :psyduck:

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

Slaan posted:

Wait, you had a zero tolerance Moto policy in Burkina? Volunteers in Benin, right next door, are given helmets and told to go hog wild :psyduck:

It was 100% a zero tolerance policy while I was there. I had heard about some other countries being more lenient, especially for agriculture volunteers who were in really rural placements, but was unaware of a laissez-faire attitude in Benin. That is wild.

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

Arrhythmia posted:

What was the language situation like. Sounds like the lingua franca was French; how much would you hear the pre-colonial languages?

French was spoken in all the major cities and within regional capitals and larger villages. As the lingua franca it was used for any sort of governmental functions and/or business transactions. There are something like 60-70 local languages in Burkina Faso, with the big three being Moore, Jula, and Fulani. The Mossi people are the sort of dominant ethnic group around the capital, occupying a region known as the Mossi plateau. Further north, near the Malian border, I heard mostly Fulani. I would hear local languages every day and even learned enough of a few of them to be able to greet people and shop in markets. I know some volunteers that became fluent in the local language. As I've stated before, my service was interrupted twice so it wasn't as easy to immerse myself in the local language. It wasn't as much of a necessity for me as it was for other volunteers in very rural posts. I should also mention that there is a language disparity between men and women. Especially in very rural villages or "en brousse", its more rare to find women that speak French. Obviously, this really only serves to reinforce the power imbalances in an already very patriarchal society.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

How many other foreign volunteers were there at your site? Were you self-conscious at all about being (potentially) the only white dude for miles around?

It's probably just what it's like be a minority but it was very weird not only feeling out of place, but knowing that literally everyone in line of sight can tell you're out of place at first glance.

Ex-Priest Tobin
May 25, 2014

by Reene
1. How attractive are the women there on average on a scale of 1 to 10?

2. As a white male travelling there how likely would I be to get lucky?

3. What is the one food I should eat while I'm over there?

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Poohs Packin
Jan 13, 2019

Ex-Priest Tobin posted:

1. How attractive are the women there on average on a scale of 1 to 10?

2. As a white male travelling there how likely would I be to get lucky?

3. What is the one food I should eat while I'm over there?

If you're planning a sex tour of Africa, please stop. Also, a former girls education volunteer probably isn't the person to ask about that kind of thing. No disrespect.

Rice with peanut sauce or "Riz Sauce Arachide" is something I still crave on occasion. Jollof Rice in Ghana is also delicious.

sticksy
May 26, 2004
Nap Ghost

Ex-Priest Tobin posted:

1. How attractive are the women there on average on a scale of 1 to 10?

2. As a white male travelling there how likely would I be to get lucky?

3. What is the one food I should eat while I'm over there?

goons.txt

:ughh:

Hammerite
Mar 9, 2007

And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.
Jade Ear Joe

Ex-Priest Tobin posted:

1. How attractive are the women there on average on a scale of 1 to 10?

2. As a white male travelling there how likely would I be to get lucky?

3. What is the one food I should eat while I'm over there?

This post is Poe's Law as gently caress.

OP did you catch my question about the outcomes you saw for individuals?

Hammerite posted:

Did you follow the educational progress of any of the girls particularly closely? Were there any girls whom you are particularly proud of helping? Any whom you weren't able to help as much as you wanted to? Any stories about individuals that particularly stand out to you, is what I'm asking.

I feel like a lot of the questions asked and answered so far have related to the personal experiences you had, which is not to say that they haven't been very interesting, but I would be interested to know more about how rewarding (or not) you found the work itself and how that relates to individuals you feel you helped (or didn't).

Alkabob
May 31, 2011
I would like to speak to the manager about the socialists, please
Okay so when I did purchasing for a car company we would appraise used cars. Some of them we would have to wholesale, structural damage, over 150k miles, just to old and at our auctions we would have people from all over the world buying this stuff up. The explanation I got was that there are not a lot of auto mechanic shops in certain parts of the world. Africa being one of them, so these cars would be sold over there and run until they basically blew up and get left at the side of the road. Did you see any abandoned vehicles like that along the major roads, towns or villages? Someone told me a thriving second hand non-mechanical car part trade popped up as well. Like if you need hub caps there is a guy that only sells hub caps and so on. Any truth to this or was I being fed some porky pies?

20 Blunts
Jan 21, 2017

The_Continental posted:

It was 100% a zero tolerance policy while I was there. I had heard about some other countries being more lenient, especially for agriculture volunteers who were in really rural placements, but was unaware of a laissez-faire attitude in Benin. That is wild.

See man? Before my girl got kicked out she got to visit one the prospective stations she'd actually be posted at, about 7 hours away from her training cohort. Just her and the actual on-duty volunteers for a weekend, and they rode motorcycles out to swimming holes and kicked up the back country the whole time.

Burt Sexual
Jan 26, 2006

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Switchblade Switcharoo
Extending sticky.

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011
How much of a national identity is there in Burkina Faso?

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011
What was your happiest day in Burkina Faso?

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011
You've said that your service was "interrupted" a few times. Could you expand on that?

swbm
May 4, 2020

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
near fluent in 2 months wow op very impressive and true

Anne Whateley
Feb 11, 2007
:unsmith: i like nice words
He already had a basis and you couldn't be more fully immersed. Being day-to-day fluent seems reasonable. I mean you're not 100% fluent like able to discourse about calculus or the function of looms, or using the literary tense, but getting by, sure.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
What were the languages like?


In many developing countries, local languages can be a pidgin that wouldn't be that hard to pick up. Some mixture of the actual historic local language and Spanish/English usually, but maybe French/English in OP's case.


Dunno if that's actually the case, just presenting that as a reasonable possibility

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011
I mean, for real dude, do you think he found some dude who took a shitload of pictures of the Sahel, fabricated the narrative of being a peace corp volunteer, while being familiar with insanely specific policies of the peace corps? Or do you think that Maybe the fully immersed dude who already knew some French might have picked it up faster than a goon doing ten minutes of Duolingo a day?

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011

ante posted:

What were the languages like?


In many developing countries, local languages can be a pidgin that wouldn't be that hard to pick up. Some mixture of the actual historic local language and Spanish/English usually, but maybe French/English in OP's case.


Dunno if that's actually the case, just presenting that as a reasonable possibility


The_Continental posted:

French was spoken in all the major cities and within regional capitals and larger villages. As the lingua franca it was used for any sort of governmental functions and/or business transactions. There are something like 60-70 local languages in Burkina Faso, with the big three being Moore, Jula, and Fulani. The Mossi people are the sort of dominant ethnic group around the capital, occupying a region known as the Mossi plateau. Further north, near the Malian border, I heard mostly Fulani. I would hear local languages every day and even learned enough of a few of them to be able to greet people and shop in markets. I know some volunteers that became fluent in the local language. As I've stated before, my service was interrupted twice so it wasn't as easy to immerse myself in the local language. It wasn't as much of a necessity for me as it was for other volunteers in very rural posts. I should also mention that there is a language disparity between men and women. Especially in very rural villages or "en brousse", its more rare to find women that speak French. Obviously, this really only serves to reinforce the power imbalances in an already very patriarchal society.

BigBadSteve
Apr 29, 2009

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.

If she displays a habitual attitude of superiority to anyone at all, other than an understandable reaction to excessive boring atheist rants from you (only if that's applicable, if not I'm sorry for suggesting it), then I suggest you remind her that Jesus ate and hung out with some of the worst sinners, and indeed sacrificed himself for them without ego, so as a Christian she should follow his example.

OP, I'm just catching up on your fascinating thread, so don't bother replying if you've already answered this:

The_Continental posted:

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.

What sort of wild ideas?

Do it ironically
Jul 13, 2010

by Pragmatica
OP what are your thoughts on voluntourism and white saviour complex? Not trying to troll genuinely curious, do you think you got more out of this experience than the people you were trying to help, do you think overall the programs you did actually provided benefit in the long run?

Punkinhead
Apr 2, 2015

swbm posted:

near fluent in 2 months wow op very impressive and true

Not that crazy depending on how much French he already knew, as it was established he could speak basic French before :v:

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20 Blunts
Jan 21, 2017
send peace corps to these s a forums next, imo

help me, a goon, build toilet

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