Author name: jbusby

NSA leaker headed to Ecuador?

Whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden, the 29 year old IT whiz who worked as a contractor to the NSA for Booz Allen Hamilton, is waiting his fate in a transit lounge in a Moscow airport after fleeing from Hawaii and then Hong Kong. He may end up in Ecuador if his request for political asylum goes through. How did this happen? And, is it likely? …

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An Open Letter by Loren Finnell

We’ve had an incredible response from RPCVs to our site re-launch. We’re slowly getting stories in, and we hope to share some with you. Loren Finnell shared this story of meeting his wife Pilar in Ecuador and their adventures together ever since. Loren Finnell as many of you may know, is the President, CEO, and Founder of The Resource Foundation. He served in Ecuador from 1964-1966. In 1987, he founded The Resource Foundation to leverage the resources and experience of donors worldwide and NGOs in Latin America and the Caribbean to increase the self-reliance and living standards of the disadvantaged.  In honor of his life’s work, The National Peace Corps Association selected Dr. Finnell to receive the 2006 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service at a ceremony in the Senate Caucus Room on Capitol Hill. Friends of Ecuador was thrilled to support his nomination. Click here for a more extended bio.

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Ecuadorian Music Featured at DC Smithsonian Folklife Festival, July 3-7, 2013

Disappearing Ecuadorian Musical Tradition and Language Revitalized on ‘¡Así Kotama! The Flutes of Otavalo, Ecuador’; 7/2 via Folkways

Smithsonian Folklife Festival to host group for first-ever U.S. performances July 3–7 in Washington, D.C.

Evening Concerts:
July 5th, 6:00 pm – Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
July 6th, 6:00 pm – Smithsonian Folklife Festival Voices of the World Stage

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News from Peace Corps Ecuador

Peace Corps Ecuador Update – 9/27/2012
Parmer Heacox – Country Director

In its 50st year Peace Corps Ecuador currently hosts 160 Volunteers in the following project areas:  Community Health/HIV-AIDS Prevention, Youth and Family Development, Natural Resources, and TEFL.  In all of these project areas Volunteers may  also elect to concentrate in leadership development, food security, community banking/financial management and small enterprise development.  Additionally, Volunteers draw on each other and all project areas  because as all RPCVs know, we may find ourselves working in secondary activities we never imagined.  We encourage our Volunteers to participate in Technical Exchanges to learn from other Volunteers in the field and more and more, Volunteers are tapping into resources and information on line.  Peace Corps has changed tremendously since its beginning but we still hold close to people to people relationships as our strategy for development and change. …

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Llapingachos Recipe

RECETAS ECUATORIANAS

Llapingachos (en espanol)

2 libras de papas

½ libra de queso fresco

2 huevos

2 cucharadas de mantequilla

Preparacion: Pele las papas y cocinelas en agua hirviendo con sal.  Cuando esten bien suaves, escurralas y haga un pure.  Agregue la mantequilla y queso (desmenuzado), mezcle bien.  Agregue los huevos y amase para que si incorpore todo.  Haga unas tortitas pequenas y dejelas reposar 15 minutos.  Frialas en poca grasa, poniendo por cucharadas cada vez que el sarten esta seco.  Puede usar manteca de cerdo diluida o aceite.  Dejelas tostar, quedan mas sabrosas.  Se acompana con salsa de mani o cebollas. …

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A New Model for Peace Corps – Malaria Prevention in Senegal

Chris Hedrick, Peace Corps Country Director in Senegal, is a friend of mine. He has been pioneering some really innovative programming and a new Peace Corps model in an effort to vanquish malaria in the West African country where he served and is now Peace Corps director.

In an on-line essay for Philanthropy NYU, Chris describes the old Peace Corps development model:

The typical image of the solitary Peace Corps volunteer focused on local community development is an icon of “Peace Corps Classic,” as Sargent Shriver, the agency’s first director, constructed it in the 1960s.  Peace Corps evolved, but much remained unchanged over the decades. Volunteers served in relative isolation, with little outside communication and collaboration. They were deeply integrated into the host community, with language and cultural fluency. Their development impact was largely evaluated anecdotally. …

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June 28-29 Annual Gathering of the National Peace Corps Association

This used to be an annual tradition and was recently reinvigorated.

NPCA invites you all to Boston, Massachusetts on the weekend of June 28-29, 2013 for an event that will encourage you to continue “bringing the world back home” while visiting with friends and having fun.

Since this is for the Peace Corps community, key elements of this event will be highly interactive and incorporate career networking and knowledge-sharing.  By bringing our collective experiences together can support each other and help to solve important development challenges.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using hashtag #PCCBOS13. For more information and to register, go here

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PCV Project Seeks Support: less than $400 needed

1_thPCV Sarah Reichle is seeking support for a “Recycling Competition and World Map at a Local High School.” As of May 27, 2013, she needed less than $400 to reach her goal. Donations can be made through the Peace Corps Partnerships website. Read on for more details about the project. June 7 Update: The project appears to have been fully funded, thanks in part to our appeal. The link above may no longer be active but read on about the project and we hope to have more news about it in the future!

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2013 VAC Calendars

Once again, we supported the Peace Corps volunteer community in Ecuador with their annual calendar sales. This year we were able to sell nearly $700 of calendars on our site to support worthy grassroots projects in Ecuador and help the volunteers sell out of all their calendars! We will provide you with an update on what projects those sales supported, and when the 2014 calendar is available later this year, we plan on making them available again through our site. We have seen some of the photos volunteers are putting together for the 2014 calendar, and it once again promises to be beautiful. If you missed this year’s selection of photos, check our Flickr stream for the full set of pictures.

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RPCV Wisconsin Appeal for NCPA Technology Grant

In May 2013, Friends of Ecuador received this request from RPCVs of Wisconsin-Madison to assistt a $7,000 matching technology grant for our parent organization the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). Friends of Ecuador happily obliged with a $300 contribution. Feel free to top our contribution with ones of your own. We have been long-time believers in enhanced web-based capabilities for NPCA, and as this new website attests, Friends of Ecuador is really invested in improving its own web presence! …

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