Municipal Elections

I imagine, with the US presidential elections tomorrow, there has been little else to think about, or listen to, on the news. After all, who knows what the long term consequences will be of re-electing Obama, or putting Romney into office. But this weekend, another pressing political matter took precedent for me: the municipal elections of Villa el Carmen, and every other municipality in the country.

To provide some background, while the Nicaraguan presidential elections take place every five years, the local municipal elections are every four years. In 2008, municipal elections were so wrought with fraud that violent protests broke out all over the country. Essentially through bullying and aggression, the Sandinista party forced their way into the local governments, after winning the presidency two years earlier in 2006. For good reason, I had reason to be more nervous this year, than during last year’s presidential election. After all, the effects of the local government resonate a lot more to the people of my time than national policies. So this year I was prepared for the worst.

The voting process passed without incident. Although there was a lot more foot traffic past my house, the day was super tranquilo. It wasn’t until after the ballots closed that I started to become a little….apprehensive is the word. I live right in the center of town, across from the Mayors office, and a block away from the Health enter, where they manually count each individual paper ballot. So gradually more and more people started to amass outside my house, getting more and more riled up as hour of announcing the results approached. My town is heavily Sandinista, and there was never really a doubt in my mind that they would lose; the liberal opposition is too divided and has too few followers. Plus, with the Sandinistas counting the votes behind closed doors…well you know what I’m saying. However, I started to think what would happen if, for whatever reason the Sandinistas lost. It would be mayhem. Mayhem that I wouldn’t want to be around for for too long. So, rather than sit around, just hoping for a peaceful result, I prepared myself for the worst, putting together an “on-the-go” bag, in the worst case scenario of having to temporarily flee from the enter of town. It looked like this, and included the following items:

-         Wallet with Dollars and Cordoba’s       - Passport

-         External Hard Drive                              - Pen and Paper

-         Knife                                                    - Leatherman

-         Headlight                                              - Combo Lock

-         Gumby                                     - Portable Hammock

-         Waterproof Bags                                  - Journals

-         Carabineers                                          - Nalgene Bottle

-         Deck of cards                                       - Non – Perishable Food (Thanks Aunt Jen!)

-         Machete – Just in case              - camera

-         Ligher and Matches

In putting all this together, which took no more than 5 minutes, it really made me think about just what of my possessions was important, and what was superfluous. Turns out although I have a ton of material stuff, what is really important can all be put into my Eastpack backpack. Luckily, I didn’t have to hop my back wall, sneak into the night, and start hoofing it towards Managua, a cool 45 kilometers away. As expected, el Frente Sandinista swept the election, and instead of riots, we had a loud, joyous victory party. So it all turned out alright, now I have friends in high places. The new mayor and vice mayor are the current superintendent and principal of my schools, respectively. Hopefully, soliciting funding and help for projects such as a world map and another university fair will be a little easier this year!

Also a fun fact about voting in Nicaragua: The sale of alcohol is prohibited the day before and of the election. They say it’s to prevent riots or something, but we all know the real reason: Friends don’t let friends vote drunk.

Also, as some of you may know, amongst males, November is also known as No-Shave-November and/or Beardvember. Men are encouraged to grow out there beards and prepare for the cold of winter. More recently however, a charity has sprung up, called Mo-vember, where participators let their mustaches grow free, to help spread awareness about and raise money for prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. While I’ll be participating in spirit (of course I’m growing out a stache), my college roommate and good friend, Nate Gilman is participating for real, using this as an opportunity to raise money. If you’re interested in supporting not only a great mustache, but a good cause, you can donate here: http://us.movember.com/mospace/2874833