Jason Pearce

Last night I managed to sync my Palm Pilot to a host family’s computer and was able to upload about 200 black and white photos that I have taken during my first eight weeks of training. They are all rather small and were taken with a low resolution, but at least they give you an idea of what I have been experiencing.

Click here to see my photos.

The first dozen photos or so are of us all in training. The next dozen features shots of my first host family’s home, as well as their 90-pound four-year-old Zowie. You’ll then find more photos of us in training, with some focus on Information Technology. After that, you’ll find several photos of our group going to Baracara Resort. That was a fun trip. You’ll then see photos of me and Tim’s visit to Dean’s home on the Essiquibo coast. Next comes some nasty photos of the loss of my toe nail, and eventually the loss of that toe nail.

I hope you enjoy them. I’ll continue to shoot low resolution b&w photos during training. But once I settle in to my job and have access to a regular computer, I’ll switch to a higher resolution and color format.

Here is an interesting article about Peace Corps safety. It was published by Peace Corps Online, which is distributed monthly via email.

The GAO issued its long awaited report on Peace Corps Safety and Security on July 25. The report said that assaults against Peace Corps volunteers around the world have doubled in the past decade and that Peace Corps’ efforts to safeguard volunteers are not consistent. The report offered a number of recommendations to the Peace Corps to improve security. Director Vasquez with his background in law enforcement seems the ideal man to implement these changes and when he appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee last year during his confirmation hearings he said that he would make safety and security of volunteers one of his top priorities. Read the complete GAO report and Director Vasquez’s response on what he will do to improve volunteer security.