Cameroon and Ethiopa

[joe30]

@Thames Pirate

There's not a single African country safer than Thailand. More stable, perhaps - those tyrannical dictators sure keep an iron grip on power. If that's your idea of 'stable' then yeah sure, whatever.

'Keeping your pants on' is a hardship, as is using a condom. It comes across very clearly that you're a woman with those two phrases.

Many of 'the people' in Africa are so poverty stricken they would happily kill you for $5.

Unlimited internet is not a neccessity, but very few things in life are strictly 'neccessities'. It's still a hardship not to have it. Reading books and hiking is boring, and at any case can be done anywhere. You're trying to make the ordinary and the mundane into a positive, and I'm not buying it.

If I want to go sailing or horse riding, I'll join a club that supports it, there's no need for me to work at an IS in Africa to do it. This so-called extremely valuable 'IB experience' can be had in a great many countries, and in any case is definitely not worth putting up with the hardship of Africa to get. Most schools have opportunities for high performers to move into leadership roles, this isn't specific to Africa.

I maintain the only people who teach in Africa at the current compensation levels (outside of LIS Angola and AS Lagos) are those who are a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Or the insane.

[nathan61]

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[Thames Pirate]

I suppose he is entitled to his opinion. The rest of the readership can see that there are a lot of reasons people would want to go to Africa.

[joe30]

The vast majority of the readership would never consider Africa as a place to go given current market compensation.

Safety, social life, sex, clean water and working internet are important aspects of life. You can't just gloss over them but say 'hey, you can go hiking' as some sort of counter.

[vandsmith]

nathan61 wrote:
> Joe30 says:
>
> "Keeping your pants on' is a hardship, as is using a condom. It comes
> across very clearly that you're a woman with those two phrases."
>
> Come on, are we in high school? I use other online forums for specific
> interests, and they are all way more productive than the ISR forum. This
> kind of useless garbage that you spout makes us international teachers look
> like a bunch of petty losers.

what other forums? can you name any? i haven't had luck finding any.

v.

[OzGrad]

Confucius once said 'people like different things' :)

[global_nomad]

This is a great debate and I do enjoy Joe's take on things. I've heard similar debates on other places as well including Venezuela (up until recently), Indonesia, and even Russia. One person't heaven is another person's hell.

[senator]

Man, I regret making this post.

[PsyGuy]

I dont see anything changing. If you arent making good coin in Capetown or Jburg there isnt an attraction or allure to me in going to Africa, its just me, and for a lot of the reasons @joe30 has discussed, hes also right. Those issues exist and while there is a group of ITs and expats who see beyond those factors for other considerations of their own, i dont share those considerations. I want my internet to work, I want to drink the water, eat the local food, and while I can deal with a certain degree of a petty crime (TIA, isnt SG) the current security and stability exceed my comfort thresholds, and for me to see past those issues would require increased motivation that either needs to improve my social life or my financial expectations. Love the diving but I can save the Safari for holiday without having to live the day to day.