Job Discussion Forums

guty · Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 365 Location: on holiday

I was shocked to read about an ex-collegue of mine who is currently being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I worked with Tim in Saudi and considered him as a good friend. We have kept in touch over the years, he was an adventurer which is no doubt why he went to work at The American University of Afghanistan, but in August, after only a few weeks in Kabul, Tim and an American EFL teacher, were taken from their vehicle.

An extremely disturbing video has just appeared in the news media and I hope the situation can be resolved peacefully.

I dont know of any previous examples of EFL teachers in this horrific situation, but the danger is real.

I wish Tim and Kevin the best possible.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/11/kevin-king-timothy-john-weeks-taliban-kidnapping-afghanistan

Kowloon · Joined: 11 Jan 2016 Posts: 133

MOD EDIT

Dreadful news about your friend. Hope that he can somehow get through this safely.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Terrible - and not reported much in the Mainstream Media.

danshengou · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:47 pm Post subject:

As unfortunate as this situation is, it was a definite risk going in. Was your friend just attracted to risk? Or had some special attachment to Afghanistan? Otherwise, it's just a J.O.B., and there are a lot better ones I can think of than this place.

Hod · Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home

Agree 100%. Putting your family under such huge stress, worrying about you every day, will never be worth it. Also, Afghanistan needs far more basic help right now than English teachers. Sorry about your friend.

OhBudPowellWhereArtThou · Joined: 02 Jun 2015 Posts: 1168 Location: Since 2003

They have my sympathies. I feel a certain amount of outrage over it, but when one jumps into fire, he will get burned.

danshengou · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:01 am Post subject:

Any word on these unfortunate of unfortunate souls?

danshengou · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:09 pm Post subject:

By the way, it looks as though AUAF is recruiting EFL teachers for Kabul again. At the bottom, the advert daftly states as one of the job requirements:

'ability to work with possible security risk'.

So don't say you haven't been warned Smile

And it's 25 contact hours a week too!

Last I heard I think the pay was a rather unattractive $3200 a month after taxes. Yet, no doubt they WILL find teachers willing to martyr themselves for that amount.