Job Discussion Forums

[mistral]

Two are recruiting. AUAF and Kabul University in Mazar where I live. AVOID THEM. Neither can provide you with anything like the security given to NGOs here. Yoiu're expected to find your own accommodation. Rents are going up, especially after recent events. Landlords and their secutity guards thriive on this sort of thing. My NGO cover all my expenses and we get loads of - paid -breaks in Dubai.

AUAF "house" staff in guest houses - cramped rooms, shared kitchen, 3 to one bathroom and back yard - where you're locked down 24/7 with people you wouldn't dream of living with back home. Security has been "outsourced" which means you're been guarded by locally recruited guards who haven't been backgound checked. All the recent shootings have been carried out by people posing as security guards.

At KU in Kabul you have to find your own accommodation. Great fun if you've new to life in the danger zone. You'll need well over $2000 a month for rent, food, security guards (they're never included in the rent) and transport to work. The western supermarkets in Kabul are very very expensive. Here in Mazar life is a bit cheaper but the security situation is the same.

The job: They'll tell you they've had 100s of applicants. They'll gloss everything over. I hear KU call their staff "consultants". You're just a language teacher. I don't know what they pay but a security consultant (served around 10 years in the military) or NGO manager (Economics graduate) like me (ex ELT) earns around $10,000, all expenses paid, 45 days on 14 off, free food and accommodation. Direct hire World Bank and USAID staff in Kabul are on at least that.

You should be registered with the embassy to get security updates and alerts via email or text message. The universities will forget to tell you. And you can't walk or drive anywhere alone.

[shadowfax]

Dear Mistral,

Thanks for the interesting insight into the EFL scene in Afghanistan.

But isn't your warning a bit like telling us not to put our hand in the fire?

[scot47]

Shadowfax is too polite. I will be more blunt.
Only crazy people would consider going tro Afghanistan now.

[mistral]

Yes. Most education projects here are just window dressing for the US / UK governments.

[Stephen Jones]

What amazes me are the absurd salaries being paid to 'aid workers'. Something like 80% of aid for many projects goes in Westerner 'consultant' salaries, bodyguards and accommodation. Be much simpler if everybody just pissed off home.

[redeyes]

Shadowfax, I just pm'd you.
Best,

RE