On elections and electricity

As you probably know the United States presidential elections are coming up, what you may not know is that Managua’s mayoral elections are next month as well.  

I don’t claim to very politically minded but I’ve really been trying this election.   I might not have watched any of the debates but I did see SNL Weekend Thursday update last week.  I wonder what candidate they support. I also have spent some time looking at the propositions that are up in California.  Good thing, because now I know that my vote could count towards farmers putting their animals in larger cages before the slaughter them.  I still don’t know if I will actually be able to vote because my absentee ballot has yet to arrive, but at least I’ll know how I’m supposed to feel when the results start coming in.

Nicaraguan politics, on the other hand, are a completely different ball game.  Technically there are two candidates running, Alexis Arguello and Eduardo Montealegre.  Both of them have a star studded past, Montealegre was the runner up for Nicaraguan presidency in 2006 and Alexis is three-time boxing world champion.  Alexis is running on the Sandinista ticket and thus is backed by the current president, Ortega, and Socialist leaders worldwide.  Montealegre is running the opposition so his slogan, used on billboards, is Todos contra Ortega (All against Ortega). 

Last week I asked two Nicaraguan friends who would win and they both said Alexis.  They also clarified that his win wouldn’t be because he had more votes but just because of the corrupt power of his political party.  So it will be interesting to see how that plays out, I suspect it will involve lots of firecrackers and red and black flags.

Enough of politics, the weather has been loco lately.  Thursday and Friday it rained constantly and with constant rain comes power outages, nationally and more specifically in our house.  On Friday I think everyone lost power for at least a little bit but then ours never came back on.  Finally Saturday morning it did, and then Sunday an electrician spent the day at our house trying to make that not happen again.  I guess with a lot of rain our wires would get wet and stop working and then they needed sun to dry out.  Is that a normal problem?

A new maid, Claudia, started working last week at our house and she is amazing.  Chilo, who worked for Jeremy and Cristina when they lived here, recommended her to us.   She has only been here three days and already our house is cleaner than it ever was before. She only works for us part time and for her other job she is a cook, so we are reaping the benefits of that as well.  We now get hot lunches the days she is here, usually some form of beans and rice and fresh juice.

I could write about the library but that will be next time.

Love, Joy

PS I’m moving home in two months (or so the calendar says, things could change)