Jason Pearce

At the swearing in ceremony of the GUY 10 trainees on August 16, volunteer Justin Long wrote and read a great poem on our behalf. Here it is:

Swearing In August 16, 2002

We began this journey in the busy Miami heat;

None of us knowing exactly who we’d meet.

Some of us nervous, some of us bold;

Most of us glad to be leaving that darn northern cold.

A couple days later, again, we exit the plane;

Guyana sending the first wave of real heat, and the puddle of freshly dropped rain.

As we’re waiting for customs, the sweat starts to pour;

While dragging overstuffed bags, two men walk thru the door.

“I am Claudius Prince” and “Call me Kitty” they say;

“We’re with the Peace Corps, so follow us, we’ll lead the way.”

Soon after, twenty-three Americans pile the bus and drive thru the night;

Talking, gaffing, laughing, watching the people and staring at Georgetown lights.

Arriving at Ocean View, we are treated to a feast;

The juice, the veggies, the hot sauce, and oh yes the Guyanese love their meats.

Upon filling our bellies and meeting volunteers and staff, all of us are in high hopes;

For tomorrow we start training and begin to learn the ropes.

As the scorching sun rises and the palms sway in the breeze;

We meet our fearless facilitators: Ken, Colin, Fiona, Greg, Akeel and Marcia.

Along to meet our technical trainers we finally go;

To work with Hazel, Russell, Pam, and Sir Basdeo.

We made it through the long process to get where we are and now we’re all pleased;

Yet some of us are nervous to meet our host families.

We ask “will they like me?” and “how’s it going to be be?”

But from the moment we meet, they make us feel welcome and free.

We’re learning to cook and to clean like Guyanese;

And attempting to understand and speak a bit of (some of us not so well);

Complimenting our hosts comes the experience of Monar and Angie;

Teaching us traditions of a que-que and Jhandie.

Health educators, teachers and IT profs we’ll hopefully be;

Thanks to our patient tech trainers who work with us ah so wonderfully.

We’ve tried a bit of dancing, swimming, boating and singing;

There’s pictures of the soca, cricket, labba, and the sounds of saltfish and boom-boom buses that keep our ears ringing.

The past two months have seemed to fly by;

With images of _Mocha, Grove, South and Georgetown now engrained in our eye.

The days at St.Cuthberts, Diamond Community Center and GNBC we are left to ponder;

As we now head to our sites here, there and some way over yonder.

The joy we feel to get out and serve these up coming two years;

Overshadows the thought of washing and cooking and other silly fears.

With all we have learned from the Guyanese in their land;

Keeping us healthy and free from Dengue;

Nurse Jean and Sheridan give us the shots and help us on our way.

Then there’s the people who keep Peace Corps running smoothly;

Allison, Rita, Michelle, Sasha and James, our over-achieving admin crew.

Claudius, Machu and Kitty, three peas in a pod

Julie, Julie our volunteer coordinator;

When there’s communication between us and staff, she’s our fabulous mediator.

For all your hard work on behalf of us lowly trainees, we do applaud;

There’s Earl and Terrance, the men in charge;

Finding our sites, giving advice, and letting us know our impact here can be large.

These ten weeks have had their share of blood, sweat and tears;

Yet we’ve learned about an amazing culture, how to make a positive difference, and even some about Banks beers.

We hope to give back with our time, skills, resources and our hands;

So from each and every one of us here in Guy 10;

We say thanks for everything and we look forward to seeing you all soon again!

(We’d like all the staff, trainers, host families, and counterparts to stand. Thank you all so much for your time, effort and support on our behalf.)

Yesterday’s email to friends back in Guyana…

— “Jason.Pearce.net” wrote:
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 12:55:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: “Jason.Pearce.net”
Subject: Miss you already
To: guyana@jasonpearce.com

Peace Corps Friends,

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the support and friendship that you have given me during my difficult ordeal. It was greatly appreciated.

Since returning to North Carolina and moving in with the folks, I’ve spent the last few days catching up on rest and playing Xbox games (hard to do both) to relieve some of the stress that built up over the last few weeks. As you might imagine, both activities have been WONDERFUL.

There is much for me to consider regarding my early close of service. Do I appeal? Do I reapply in hopes of getting assigned somewhere else? Or do I just give up on the Peace Corps and go back to the working world?

As you might imagine, I’ve got lots on my mind. I also spend a lot of time thinking about you, and what your next two years will be like. I don’t want to make any hasty actions, so taking a little bit of time to cool off will likely be wise. I will, however, keep you all informed in regards to what actions I might take with the Peace Corps.

I did leave a message on Tuesday with the Peace Corps’ Office of Placement saying that I would like to be assigned a new site since Guyana was unable to provide me a counterpart. This doesn’t mean that I have decided to reapply. I’m just getting that option started, since we all know how slow things work in DC. Regardless, I’ll keep you posted. I’d also like to hear about anything that you guys might be doing, for I’m still concerned.

I do miss you guys and look forward to hearing about your ongoing adventures. You can easily hear from me by visiting the Monologue section of my website at anytime. Here is the address:

LOCATION: http://jason.pearce.net/monologue/

I’ll send the username and password via a separate email.

I’ll also invite you all to join my personal (and now private) listserve at jasonpearce@yahoogroups.com. I use this and my Monologue to communicate with my friends and family; and since you are now a part of both, I’d like to have you join.

I hope all is well with you. Thanks again for all of the support you have offered me. It was/is greatly appreciated.

Your Pearce Corps Friend,
Jason.Pearce.net

Earlier this week, one of my buddies told me that two of his friends had also had offline problems with their online blogs (”web Log” to “weblog” to “we blog” to “blog”); or in my case, my Monologue. He said that one of them lost his job and the other had to meet with the human resources department. Seems I’m not alone.

In fact, I found a great Newsweek article called “Living in the Blog-osphere.” It addresses many of the issues that I’m facing with the Peace Corps: intellectual-property complications, privacy implications, global accessibility of personal thoughts and opinions, and the intruding of real life on the Blog-osphere.

Here are the excerpts from the story that I thought were most relevant. If you like to read it in its entirety, click here.

Living in the Blog-osphere
By Steven Levy of Newsweek

Welcome to the world of a half million (and counting) Weblogs, where anyone can instantly publish his passions and favorite Weblinks. And the fun’s just begun.

Indeed, with a new ” ” joining the crowd every 40 seconds, Weblogs are officially the explosion du jour on the Net. Most estimates peg the current number at a half a million Weblogs, depending on how you define the term, but ?my suspicion is that there are even more,” says Cameron Marlow, an MIT graduate student who’s studying the phenomenon.

“It’s a way for anybody with anything to say, to say it,” says Rebecca Blood, author of “The Weblog Handbook.” Often a blog is a way to keep families and friends informed. “In the future, everyone will be famous to 15 people on the Web,” says David Weinberger, author of “Small Pieces Loosely Joined,” an incisive book about the Net.

The blogging boom is more of a realization of unfulfilled promise than a new idea. In the early days of the Web, commentators gushed at the prospect of a billion people’s broadcasting their respective essences on personal Web pages. But Web sites can be difficult to construct, and the tools never became easy enough for the technically challenged to let feelings fly.

But as of 1999, Weblogs were measured by the dozen. The breakthrough came with a small software company called released Blogger on the Web, free. By early 2000, thousands were using the new software. Setting up a Weblog was a no-brainer, a simple walk-through that ended with your blog, live, on the Web. In minutes you could have a site that potentially packed the same wallop as a six-figure, months-in-the-making consultant-created extravaganza.

When high-speed wireless connections become pervasive, we may see bloggers supplementing their daily dispatches with audio and video. The mind boggles at the intellectual-property complications (who owns images snatched from the world at large?). Not to mention the privacy implications.

Privacy worries, in fact, are a lurking presence behind the Weblog explosion. Blogging is an intimate process; the format seduces participants into sharing personal thoughts and opinions. But, of course, when you blog, your words reach not just your trusted cluster, but anyone with a Web browser. With search engines and Internet archives, a bright beam can illuminate the deepest corners of the Net and intimate thoughts suddenly come to the attention of unwanted readers. Real life, sometimes intrudes on the Blog-osphere. One day there may not be a difference.