Finally, a routine of some kind has developed in my life. I get up, go to school, teach, work, leave school, and then spend my limited income on food in the afternoons and evenings. The weekends are generally spent exploring Xela or other places in Guatemala.

However, this weekend is a little different than most. Guatemala is having elections tomorrow, Sunday. I'm not exactly sure how many years they have in between elections, but most of the teachers have never been around for elections before. Ever since we came here, there have been candidates campaigning in the streets, the parks, signs are up everywhere, they hold rallies...all the usual political things. But they had to quit campaigning right before the election. So traffic on Thursday was terrible because everyone was having one last parade to spread their name. And when I say parade I mean a 100+ car parade that stretches many, many city blocks and moves very very very slowly, if it moves at all. For this reason, it has taken a LOT longer to get anywhere by car/taxi/bus this past week. All the streets are blocked by standstill parades. This weekend is also a dry weekend. There is a mandatory dry period the few days prior to elections that prohibit any establishment from selling or serving alcohol. The Military are the ones who police this, so we were warned to stay mostly inside, doing nothing this weekend, and to be sure to FLEE from any place where alcohol is present because the military would come around and take EVERYONE into custody...even if you weren't drinking alcohol. It's actually very exciting to be able to be here during elections. Part of the culture and country that we get to experience...from a distance of course.

Felix missed us, thankfully. He was all the talk for the entire past week, not because of the rain (which we're used to getting at least once every day) but because the mudslides and damaged roads the rains from hurricanes almost always bring. And once the roads are damaged, they FOREVER to repair, and travel is extremely limited within the country. One day he was predicted to go north of us. The next day he was predicted to hit us directly on. Then two hours later he dissipated just to the south/east of us. All of the teachers at my school have decided to pursue careers in meteorology after leaving IAS, where you get paid to say "I don't know" and where being right 30% of the time is worthy of promotion and more money. Kind of like baseball.

September 15, next Saturday, is independence day for all of Central America. So we only have a four day week coming up, gracias a Dios. It should be another awesome cultural experience because apparently Xela is home to the biggest independence day party/festival. Everyone from Central America will be traveling here next weekend.

Until then...