Jason Pearce

I received a phone call today from the mother of a Peace Corps volunteer who’s son is facing an early termination. She wasn’t really calling for help or for advice; she just needed to voice her frustrations with someone who has gone through a similar experience.

Though I don’t receive many calls like this one, my unfortunate early termination from the Peace Corps remains a consistant topic. Each month, I likely field one phone call and a half-dozen emails from individuals who are interested in the Peace Corps or are facing early termination.

Why do I receive so much attention nearly two years after my close of service? It’s due to my website, of course.

I like to think people are interested in my story. Actually, most are interested in learning more about early termination, close of service, administrative separation, and a whole host of other not-so-pleasant Peace Corps topics. Thanks to my well-documented experience, my website has become the top Google search result for many of these Peace Corps key words and phrases:

• Peace Corps administrative separation
• Peace Corps appeal
• Peace Corps close of service
• Peace Corps COS
• Peace Corps early termination
• Peace Corps Extension of Training
• Peace Corps freedom of expression
• Peace Corps Guyana country director
• Peace Corps Guyana Earl Brown
• Peace Corps Guyana website
• Peace Corps Letters from Friends and Family
• Peace Corps Letters to DC
• Peace Corps non-administrative separation
• Peace Corps Re-enrollment
• Peace Corps Speech and National Security
• Peace Corps Transfers

My site is the number-one hit in Google for all of these search requests — and these are just the ones I could think of.

I didn’t set out to get this much attention by any means. As a volunteer, I just wanted to provide an easy way for friends and family to learn about my experiences as a volunteer. Instead, this small section of my site has developed a greater purpose in helping others learn more about becoming an ET (early termination) volunteer.

Parts two and three of the Peace Corps series on saftey have been published. I’ve read several so far, they are pretty powerful.

PART TWO

Missing without a trace
Peace Corps answers few questions in disappearance

Roadside robbery leaves victim angry
Volunteer fears community she was helping to rebuild

Life of intrigue leads of murder of volunteer
Woman drawn into dangerous lifestyle during service

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Crimes against volunteers in Bolivia
• Photo gallery

PART THREE

Danger in the highlands
Volunteers on edge in scenic African country

Searching for success despite risks
Two local volunteers see impact of efforts during missions in Africa

Volunteer believes lack of support cost her right eye
Beth Heyward says her pleas to go home for medical treatment were ignored

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Photo gallery

Part 1 of a series of Peace Corps stories on safety appeared in today’s Dayton Daily News. Though I was interviewed for this series, I do not expect to have my story or comments included. This seven-part series explores how Peace Corps volunteers face injury and death in foreign lands. As many of you know, my Peace Corps story of early termination deals much more so with freedom of speech than safety and security.

Regardless if I’m quoted in an upcoming story or not, there is a lot of good content here. I hope that some of you choose to follow this issue. Here are links to Sunday’s articles.

PART ONE

Mission of Sacrifice
Peace Corps volunteers face injury, death in foreign lands

Ohio leaders recall defining moments in Corps
Tony Hall: ‘You’ve got to go in . . . with your eyes open’

Volunteer decides to return home
Englewood native left Africa after bouts with illness

Not every crime victim counts in tracking system
Three rapes and two assaults count as one ‘incident’ to Corps

Corps unwilling to release information on crime
‘Daily News’ fights legal battle against agency to access records

EDITORIAL

Peace Corps’ policies don’t honor promise
The Peace Corps’ good intentions and its public image as an army of ambassadors doing good around the world shouldn’t exempt the agency from accountability

PEACE CORPS RESPONSE

A letter from the Peace Corps
We have concerns about ‘inaccuracies and misleading information’

EDITOR’S COMMENTARY

Perils faced by volunteers need to be reported
Peace Corps has proven to be more dangerous and disturbing than is generally perceived. By Jeff Bruce

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Key findings of ‘Daily News’ Peace Corps investigation
• Chronology of the Peace Corps
• See where the volunteers serve worldwide
• Breakdown of assault incidents against Peace Corps volunteers
• Who we are: Learn about the series’ writers, photographer
• Peace Corps Death in Service database
• Photo gallery

MESSAGE BOARD

• Post your opinion on Peace Corps fatalities

Several months ago, a reporter from the Dayton Daily News interviewed me over the phone regarding Peace Corps safety and security. I’m not sure that my unfortunate Peace Corps experience was of much use for their story or not It looks like I might be included in this story after all since I received this email from the reporter. We’ll see.

From: Meiling Hopgood
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 14:30:33 -0400

As many of you may know, the Dayton Daily News will publish its series on safety and security issues and Peace Corps starting Sunday, Oct. 26-Nov. 1.

You can read the series entirely at daytondailynews.com. Thank you for sharing your stories and frank thoughts with us.

Mei-Ling Hopgood

Had a blast in NYC this weekend. Though the city was still recovering from Thursday’s blackout, I took a risk and stood outside the South Norwalk train station after work on Friday hoping to catch a train into the city. One hour later, I saw my first train. Lucky for me, it was heading my way.

Two hours later I made it to Grand Central Station (it usually takes only one hour). There I met up with Guyana Peace Corps volunteers Jan Bracket, Tammy Cole, and Jessica Shannon for a weekend reunion. Jan and Jess are still serving; Tammy has been back in the US (Texas) for about nine months. To top off the reunion, we also spoke with Emily Sutherland on the phone, who was unable to make it for she was still in DC taking care of Peace Corps things.

It was so great to see these three. I expected to spend the entire weekend catching up on Guyana stories. Little did I know we’d be re-living many of them.

Though much of the power had been restored, a good deal of the city was still crippled. Friday evening, the subway was still not running. Many restaurants were closed. And worst of all, the hotel had NO hot water. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that the hot water tanks cranked back up. Sure, we were staying in a four-star hotel and we weren’t bathing out of buckets, but it was still a big, cold ordeal none the less.

On Saturday, the four of us walked to Times Square to look for theater tickets for that evening. We ended up scoring four tickets to Billy Joel’s “Moving Out.” Jumping ahead, the girls really liked the dancing and I thought the band did a good job.

Saturday afternoon we headed down to the site of the World Trade Center. For the most part, it looked like a huge construction site. But there were plenty of memorials and an area to learn about what is going to be built in its place.

On Sunday, we headed to the MET to see some art. We spent about three hours there before I had to head home, Jess had to meet a friend, and Tammy and Jan went to meet up with one of their host Guyana host moms who happened to also be in the city.

It was great catching up with the three of them, hear new stories about current volunteers, and remember the three months that 21 of us had together when we met in Guyana one year ago.