SEPTEMBER 10, 2007

There is never a dull moment in Guatemala! We dodged a bullet with Hurricane Felix, we prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. We have had a lot of heavy rainfall everyday since I've been here, which has been 8 days now. Today is the first day we haven't had a downfall by early afternoon. Hopefully, the climate is returning to normal for what is the rainy season.

Despite the heavy rainfall the Presidential elections went ahead as scheduled on September 9th. The press has referred to this election year as the "bloodiest" in modern memory with 50 murders associated to the candidates. By that, I mean, family, friends and campaign workers of the candidates, and in some cases, the candidates themselves. The election itself went more or less without incident and the skies over Atitlan were blue and sunny until mid afternoon.

Again, this election saw hundreds of patient voters waiting at the polls for their turn to cast their ballots. I was sorry that I hadn't volunteered with the Organization of American States to act as an International Observer as I had in the previous election, but had a very interesting opportunity anyway. I was invited to join the Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala, Kenneth Cook (l) and my friend Carlisle Johnson (r), local radio journalist as they went to various polling stations around Lake Atitlan. I have included some pictures of the day we spent observing the electoral process in the communities that are near and dear to me, including our project area, Santiago Atitlan.