Jason Pearce

Friday was a bit disappointing, for my World Wildlife Fund counterpart did not show up to the Peace Corps Counterpart Conference. The purpose of the conference was to have the 23 volunteers meet their counterparts, to learn more about what they will be doing and where they will be living, and to create an action plan for our site visits this upcoming week.

Of the 23 volunteers, I was one of three who did not have a counterpart arrive. So the three of us still have little idea of what we will be doing for the next two years.

The good news is that my counterparts from the WWF were not able to attend the conference for they have been out of town for most of this week. This news gives me the hope that a) they frequently travel throughout Guyana and b) I’ll get to go with them.

On Monday, I plan to find their office and hope to learn more about their expectations of me. I’ll be sure to let you know more about what I might be doing as soon as I find out myself.

I did take the time to search for some more information about the WWF and its presence in Guyana. I managed to find a website for the Guianas, which includes French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana. Here is the link and a brief description of what they do:

WWF-Guianas, part of the global WWF family, is working to protect the forests, freshwaters and coasts of the Guianas (French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana).

The Guianas have a rich diversity of coastal mangroves, globally significant marine turtle nesting beaches, fresh and saltwater swamps, grassy savannas, and pristine low and highland rainforests with extremely high levels of species found nowhere else in the world.

Although WWF has supported conservation activities in the Guianas since the mid-1960s, with the launching of WWF-Guianas Program in 1998, WWF adopted a regional approach to conservation in the Guianas. WWF-Guianas is coordinated from a regional office in Paramaribo, Suriname with technical staff based in Cayenne, French Guiana and Georgetown, Guyana.

WWF - Taking Action for a Living Planet

WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

Since it was founded in 1961, WWF has become one of the world’s largest and most effective independent organizations dedicated to the conservation of nature. It has reached this status through a constant record of conservation achievements.

WWF now operates in around 100 countries, supported by nearly five million people worldwide. Its initials and famous Panda logo have become a powerful rallying point for everyone who cares about the future of the planet and wants to help shape it in a positive way.

Forty years ago, WWF’s work consisted mainly of protecting animals and plants threatened with extinction. Not just because they are beautiful and rare, but because they are part of a complex chain in which the disappearance of even a single species can have far-reaching consequences.

Since then, the scope of the work has broadened. Today, the organization also tackles the many forms of pollution that are harming the soil, atmosphere, freshwater and oceans, which ultimately sustain life. It also looks for new and sustainable ways of using the planet’s natural resources. WWF is taking action to protect the environment for people and for nature.

Yesterday, we were all told where we will be stationed for the next two years and a few basics about what we will be doing. It is such a relief to finally know.

I will be stationed in Georgetown and will be working for the World Wildlife Fund. That’s really about all I know. I know little to nothing about the organization, I do not know what I will be doing there, and I don’t even know where in Georgetown it is located. But this information will come it time, much of it tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we get to meet our counterparts — the local person who will be working with us on a daily basis. And next week, I’ll be spending all of my time in Georgetown working with my counterpart, learning his/her expectations, and setting goals for the next two years. I’ll then be able to offer you a lot more information about what I will be doing.

In the meantime, you might consider visiting these links — I’m sure I will once I have the time: United States World Wildlife Fund, WWF International, and the WWF Global Network.

I have so much more to say but little time to do so, for I have only about 15 minutes per week of Internet time to give you updates. I also haven’t checked my email in a few weeks, so I’m sorry if you have not heard a response from me. I enjoy hearing from friends and family and will be sure to respond once I’m able.

This week I received a great care package from David Pittman, a second-cousin (e.g. my dad’s cousin). It was a great surprise, for it contained some of the following goodies, all of which would be great to receive from anyone else at any time (hint, hint, nudge, nudge):

• Solar Powered Mosquito Repellant
• Lonely Planet travel guide for Brazil
• A few magazines about computers and gadgets
• A copy of the Wall Street Journal
• And several photographs of family and friends

So thanks David for all of the great goodies. They were all well received and appreciated.

Should you decide to send me a care package of your own, please consider the following. For starters, sending packages via USPS air mail is the fastest and cheapest method that I’ve discovered so far. Second, the US Embassy opens and searches all of my mail prior to giving it to me. This naturally increases the amount of time it takes for me to receive my mail. But when a package or mail does reach me, I’ve found that it is always worth the wait.

Thanks David. Hope all is well in Charlotte.

It was nice having all 23 of us back together for training this past week. We all had much to share with each other for we just switched host families on Sunday, July 14, and were visiting other volunteers the previous week. In general, many of us had a great volunteer visit but were having some anxiety for switching to new host families and neighborhoods.

On Tuesday, July 16, the six information technology volunteers spent their morning at Central High School in Georgetown. This was our second visit and last to work on the computers in their computer lab. They had six Pentium machines, some of which had only 540 MB hard drives. The lab had no network or Internet access, so much of our efforts were spent cleaning up software, reinstalling the OS, and swapping out some RAM between machines. We also brought two 286s back to life by pulling spare parts from various other machines that were stacked up as junk in the far corner. It was some great hands-on hardware experience. I feel quite comfortable taking apart a computer and putting it back together now.

The latter part of the week we had agriculture lessons. Much of it was for large-scale farming purposes, so I didn’t find much of the information useful. But it was good for me to get a few blisters working out in a field.

It is rumored that we all learn what we will be doing and where we will be stationed on Wednesday. I can’t tell you how relieved most of us will feel once we finally learn what we will be doing and exactly where we will be living.

Lastly, I wanted to share a few of my favorite photos. The first one is a photo of us visiting Baracara Resort on the Essiquibo river. The second photo is me taking a shower. This photo is indicative of how dirty most Guyanese get each day and how they bathe. Just kidding. I got this muddy playing ultimate Frisbee one Sunday afternoon. And the third photo is me relaxing in a hammock after a hard day of training. It’s tough being a volunteer.

On Sunday, I said goodbye to Gale, Anthony, and Zowie as I packed up my stuff and moved to my new host family in Grove. We all had to switch host families so that those who have been living in the country get to experience city life, and vice versa.

While my new host family is great and has hosted eight other volunteers, I’m still adjusting to the change. For starters, I now have a hell of a commute to make it into Georgetown each morning for training. I have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the main road so that I can catch a mini-bus.

The mini-bus rides are horrible. The seats are two small, they cram too many people into them (up to 23 at one point, though they have seats for only 15 people), and just about every other uncomfortable amenity you can think of. Plus, they drive on all sides of the road and off.

My new host family’s home is about the same size as my last one. Only this time, there are six members of their family and the host is packed with two sets of furniture. So I’m feeling a bit cramped.

We also don’t have running water, so I have to “shower” out of a bucket, fill the toilet after flushing, and carry water up stairs.

But as expected, the people are great and do all they can to make me feel welcomed and comfortable. I’ll write more about my experiences in Grove later.

I also want to let you know about a fellow volunteer’s website. Hans Anderson is an education volunteer in training but has a computer science degree. I believe that he has forgotten more about information technology than I have ever learned. Without question, he will be a great resource for us.

Well, Hans has his own server and website that I hope you will visit. It is likely that I’ll also start using his server to post photos, but we’ll see. I hope you enjoy his site: http://www.thebestthing.org/.