How about...
My story is thus. When I was 18, I left my college, full of vim, vigour and a desire to do good. So, I signed up with an organisation to do development work overseas. The plan was, they would fly me out to Denmark, I would then train there for six months, before being flown out to Africa for six months, before I headed off to University. However, I couldn't afford the fees. No problem they say, you can just work it off before you start the course. Which I do, maintaining their website. After I've worked up the cash, I started the course. Things didn't exactly go well right from the start though- when I arrived at the airport they forgot I was arriving, I waited for about three hours before getting a taxi and charging it to the organisation I was with. Good one there.

Over the first month or so, I noticed things were VERY odd. First of all, a person who wasn't conforming to their way of thinking was dragged to a meeting at 11 o'clock at night, to basically be shouted into it. Then there was the time all of us on the course were having a private meeting which was barged into, and broken up, unceremoniously. Our crime? Not getting into the spirit of things. This, plus a whole lot of other things (their library had such wonderful books as something about the history of North Korea... from the perspective of Kim Jong Il) prompted me to do a bit of googling about this organisation. As it turned out, I'd only gone and signed myself up with a bloody cult. Allegations included such lovely things as brainwashing, money laundering, tax evasion, and gun running.

My question is this. When have you ever truly had an "oh shit" moment.

Suffice it to say, I decided to quit. As a post-script, they ended up paying for my flight home, and their leader has since been charged with and is on trial for tax evasion. The organisation by the way is called either Tvind, Humana People to People, UFF, Planetaid... all sorts of things. Take my advice- steer clear, and use your money to get
( jim_bob can herd cats., Fri 9 Sep 2005, 3:19, Reply)