Today is the last day of employment for Earl Brown, the Peace Corps country director in Guyana. Guyana Peace Corps volunteers rejoice.
Earl Brown served as the Peace Corps Guyana dictator for two and a half years.
Last week, my personal listserve sent out an automatic e-mail that I programmed more than two years ago saying that if all went well, I would be returning from the Peace Corps in mid-August. Oops. Guess I forgot to remove that message.
It is, however, remarkable at how much has taken place in the past two years. I’ve lived in three states (NC, CT, IN); visited a few new countries (Japan, Thailand); saved someone’s life; built several dozen web sites; bought an Audi; bought my first home (a condo); returned to work for my fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha); a made many new friends. Much of this wouldn’t have happened if I remained in the Peace Corps.
I’m not saying that I’m glad my Peace Corps service lasted only three months. I’m just saying that my list would have been drastically different.
My three months in the Peace Corps, however, remains a very sustainable three months. Everything that I posted on my site two years ago still remains. It not only remains, but two of the top 10 most-visited pages of my site are regarding the Peace Corps: my close of service and the list of other volunteers who had personal web sites telling their Peace Corps stories. In fact, these two pages (out of 165) account for 7.5 percent of my site’s traffic.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, we were trained to make sure that our work and service could be sustained after we left. Organizations we served were not to become dependent on the Peace Corps to provide free labor year after year. Our projects and work was supposed to continue long after we left. I left two years ago and people are still interested in my story.
Remember Earl Brown? You know, the Peace Corps country director in Guyana who sent me home for maintaining this personal website? He still has it in for me; poor guy.
The GUY10 group’s, the 23 volunteers I started my tour with two years ago, close of service is in August. Some have already returned to the US and a few will stay past August, but most will be coming home.
According to my sources, Earl is allegedly refusing to permit the remaining volunteers from including my name on a farewell t-shirt that we’re creating to remember our experience and friendship. A t-shirt the volunteers and I are paying for and creating for our own personal enjoyment.
The simple presence of my name is allegedly so upsetting that he’ll discipline whomever chooses to print it on the shirts against his will.
It’s sad when someone could get sent home for having a personal website or sending a personal email to friends and family. But it’s even more sad that a t-shirt that simply includes my name along with a list of 22 others could bring a similar fate.
Thankfully, Earl’s service as country dictator will also end in August, or soon after. Perhaps the remaining volunteers will then be able to better focus their energy on helping the Guyanese and less time worrying about how the Peace Corps might be looking for an excuse to send them home.
Keep my name of the shirts guys. No need to have a t-shirt become an ET-shirt (Early Termination - Shirt).
More Peace Corps irony.
Twice this week I received requests from Peace Corps volunteers asking for help in building Peace Corps related websites (either for volunteers or the communities they are serving).
Though I’m flattered, it seems people are forgetting that I got kicked out of the Peace Corps for building websites (e.g. this very site you are reading right now).
But will I help? Most likely, I will. These sites will either assist a local community or provide greater support to Peace Corps volunteers.
After all, I joined the Peace Corps to help others with Information Technology. Sadly, I’m confined to help remotely from the comfort of my air-conditioned home instead of doing so in Guyana under the confines of a bug net.
I know that sounds like a backward thing to say, but that’s how the Peace Corps runs things in Guyana.
On a similar topic, I recently received an Internet phone call from one of my good friends in Guyana. We gaffed (Guyanese for “spoke”) for maybe a half-hour sharing old stories. Naturally, we also discussed a few rumors.
Though I have no idea if it is true and don’t really care, I’m told that the Peace Corps office is listing my website as a resource in some literature they send to incoming volunteers.
That’s right. The Peace Corps is allegedly telling prospective volunteers that my website is a good place for them to visit if they want to learn more about the Peace Corps in Guyana. Yep. This very site. The site that the Peace Corps kicked me out for developing.
Oh the hypocrisy.