When Gov. Ned McWherter of Tennessee flew to a small, earthquake-stricken village in Ecuador last month to visit Tennessee National Guard troops assisting in disaster relief, he brought paper and pencils for the town’s schoolchildren.
The Governor’s stopover in Archidona, located in a region of Ecuador that has been cut off from the rest of the country since a series of earthquakes and mudslides this spring, was made during a trip to three Latin American countries.
According to a spokesman, Mr. McWherter made the educational good-will gesture because school supplies were desperately needed in the area.
