Minus one day left

Elections are tomorrow, which means that as of yesterday, nobody is allowed to sell or consume alcohol. I was wondering whether Peruvians actually adhered to this law. I got my answer yesterday when a car whizzed by our house with drunk men yelling something incomprehensible, and when my host cousin arrived at our door happily intoxicated.

Because voting is mandatory in Perú, and because you have to vote where your state-issued identity card is registered, there are apparently a lot of people travelling these days to their hometown. In Lima, we learned that there is a big squatter population that is denied these identity cards because the government says they are living illegally. So some of the poorest people are unfortunately disenfranchised.

What will happen? Will Perú have it´s first female president? Will an ex-commandante add another country to the "New Latin American Left"? Will an ex-president regain his post after fleeing the country he left in economic ruin? The only thing you can count on is that we won´t know the results until May because there will surely be a second round where the top two candidates duke it out.

Speaking of elections, I usually get some funny questions. Do you speak English since you´re American, did you fly to Perú, did you have to study Spanish to speak it. And now that it´s election time, I´m getting a new one: are you going to vote? Where are you going to vote? I tell them, no I vote in the United States. And eventually comes the question, oh do people vote there, too? Yup. For president, not until 2008 (and to myself I think, "unfortunately").

Closely following the Peruvian presidential elections, religiously reading the free Newsweeks we get, quickly skimming through the Common Dreams news articles I receive daily and occasionally reading the NY Times online has been making me think...when I get out of Peace Corps, it will be 11 months until the 2008 presidential election. Right now, I think I will travel in South American until Christmas and then live, work and vote in a swing state (pending that the candidates and the race turn out to be important enough). Either Michigan or Florida, if I can figure out a way to make it happen, which shouldn´t be too hard. Originally I wanted to move to NYC to be with family and be in a city I love, but it´s only for a year. The hard part would be paying off my student loans while making a most likely crappy salary. Coming to the realization that I might not be making a decent salary for another year out of Peace Corps, I then made a list of all the destinations in Perú I want to hit up before leaving and the vacation days I have, so I can reasonably estimate how much I should dig into my personal savings to fund my travels. So if anyone is planning on visiting me, now is a good time to let me know where you want to go so I can write it into the 3-year plan, haha.

On a different note, I am written about in the Peace Corps - Perú volunteers magazine. My friend wrote an article on public breast-feeding and how strange it was to her at first. She told a story of how I was trying to bargain down the price of some straw mats. When the women mentioned that she had children to take care of and pointed to a baby breast-feeding behind her, I caved in to the probably too-steep price. So now everyone knows I´m a sucker. (No pun intended!!)