Lucky us to be here and to learn firsthand about Guatemalan politics and watch the election process. While this is only their 7th democratic election, most citizens considered it a personal duty to vote and 75% of eligible voters came to the polls. Monday was even declared a holiday to allow plenty of travel time and recuperation from the election. The whole week prior, propaganda was pasted all over the streets, political parties organized parades in every town, and news coverage talked of little else. The results were not surprising, everyone already expected the military general, the lawyer, and the professor to be forerunners. Each man had a fascinating background story and ran on vague platforms. Since no candidate obtained 50% of the votes necessary to be declared winner, the country will hold a runoff election in November to select between the top two candidates.
Pollo Campero sighting at the fair!!
On Tuesday, we braved the Xela Fair. Think of it as the largest county fair you know of, then make it 100x bigger! There were several hundred vendors lined up in a maze of colorful tents. Some tents were absolutely ginormous and housed respectable restaurants complete with tablecloths, glassware, and beautiful bars. Other vendors sold snacks, crafts, jewelry, clothes, toys, electronics, and many different carnival games. Next to this massive collection of tents were the numerous rides for all ages. It was greatly entertaining to watch the screams and laughers, and yes, sometimes the people falling off… What made this fair extraordinary was that it also hosted an enormous indoor exhibition of cars, technology, food tastings, and even more games for you to try your luck. It really seemed like the entire country came to the Xela Fair.
While the fair was super fun for most people, Jeff and I sadly noticed the large number of very young children working at the fair. We saw girls as young as 5 years old selling candy, or grilled corn, or crafts. They all worked diligently without supervision or help from an older family member. We´ve seen quite a bit of poverty since arriving in this country, but these girls really brought to life the sad stories in Rigoberta Menchu´s autobiography.
Oh no, this blog is getting quite long and I haven´t even talked about the insane festivities of Independence Day. I think it´s wise to save that for another post. Also, the NookColor lost my original blogpost. This is the second occurrence. I am very upset and am now cheating on the Nook.
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