How Many Cows

I washed my hair last night, which is a difficult task! I did that because today is special. Today is the day everyone goes down to town to vote.  We all got up early, men shined their shoes and women washed their feet off. Babies were either brought along or left with older siblings. The pickup truck “taxis” came all the way up to La Cumbre (The Summit) to gather the community members.  Everyone got on the taxi matching the political party they were voting for – in our case, we got on the truck for “Arena.”  I saw one other political party taxi at The Summit, but then I saw two other political vehicles on the way down.  In total, it looks like people have the choice between 4 political parties (but I surely don’t know the politics of this country).  On the way down, we got held up by a herd of cattle that were using the same road that we were on.  The cattle could care less about the vehicle so we slowly climbed up the steep road with cows lumbering along beside us.  The driver would occasionally stick his arm out to push a cow who absentmindedly started walking into the truck door as we moved along.  When we got to town an hour later, it looked like complete chaos to me, yet people knew where to go to register. My family walked beyond a gate entrance but I stopped because it was guarded and I am not a citizen. I stood on the outside of the fence with one of the younger boys from La Cumbre until a guard offered for us to enter and sit off to the side.  I was wearing a small “Arena” bracelet my host family had given me. At one point, an official rep from another political party (wearing all red) came over and insisted I remove my bracelet. It didn’t seem fair because he was wearing a bracelet for his political party, but I obliged anyway.  It is crowded and hot and I don’t want to get kicked out where there will be no place to find shade. I am writing from alongside the building where everyone is voting. I’ve been here in Tacuba for a little over 3 hours now.

As you might have guessed, we aren’t working today 🙂 We will resume tomorrow!  I spent over two hours cleaning the lower water tank yesterday. We tested the faucets and they work well. We have a little leak but I think we just need more Teflon tape. We also painted all of the exposed metal roof and pipe to protect it all from rust. We are so close to the end! We will most likely finish tomorrow.
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