Presidential Elections

Election day is finally here. I got up in the morning and relaxed with the family for a bit before accompanying them to the polls. The process here is really simple. You go to an election site, where there are officials who check off your name and then give you a slip of paper. You then mark your selection and give it back to the officials. To confirm that you have voted, you sign next to your name and then dip your middle finger in a bottle of purple ink. I thought it was really cool because both Jordan and I got to accompany Luis and Violeta to where they voted, and we even got to go inside and watch each of them vote. To top it all off, the officials told us to dip our fingers in the purple ink, as if we had voted. I guess I can now say that I “voted” for the 2011 presidential elections in Peru.

For lunch today, we had escabeche, a cold dish consisting of pickled vegetables and chicken. I thought it was pretty good, and loved that it was also a bit spicy. Margarita also prepared pickled chili peppers, which I had alongside the escabeche. For only the second time in Peru (last night being the first), I found the food to be spicy in my opinion. I feel that my host family is starting to make foods a little spicier, not only for me but because the entire family enjoys spicy food.

At night we watched coverage of the elections. I had thought that Keiko Fujimori was going to win, but as of the preliminary results disclosed today, it looks like Ollanta Humala is going to win. In general, Peruvians don’t like either of the candidates, but my family seems to prefer Keiko. It sure will be interesting to see what goes on in the next couple of weeks after the election. However, I will not be in Peru when the next president takes office, since that happens on July 28. Nevertheless, I look forward to what is bound to happen in the coming weeks.