The Elections

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

I’m not sure how many people are reading this blog regularly, but some must be wondering where I’ve been for the last few days. I was traveling around the end of last week. This week, the power has been out for most of the week and on Tuesday the Internet cable went down, so I have been unable to get a connection for several days. It’s all part of life in Nicaragua.

My dad is coming to visit next week. He’s going to preach at the local church and I’m going to take him around the countryside for a couple days. It means a lot to me that my dad is coming down. He will be my first and probably only visitor and he’s not a big fan of third world living, so I understand that this trip for him is an act of love.

The elections are approaching. On November 5th Nicaraguans will go to the polls to elect a new president. In a strange turn of events, it looks as if the former President and leader of the Sandinista Party —the communist revolutionary government from the 1980’s that gave Ronald Reagan a fit—is leading in the polls. However, Daniel Ortega’s promises this time around seem far from his former communist policies in the 1980’s. From some of my research talking to Pentecostals from around Nicaragua (mostly UPCers) there is strong support for Ortega in the evangelical and Pentecostal churches. To many in the US this seems an odd reality —and I personally don’t care much for the guy— but from the perspective of those who live in abject poverty a politician promising zero unemployment against four other contenders who have little presence in the campaign or represent the extremely wealthy of the country, Ortega seems the likely choice. Ortega has also repaired his breach with the Catholic Church and is promising to outlaw “therapeutic” abortions —whatever that means.

I’ve been talking with the election monitors from The Carter Center in Atlanta, who are here to make sure everything is fair, and it looks as if I might be able to be apart of the volunteer poll monitors. It’s not often that one gets the opportunity to watch up close an election as contentious and possibly destabilizing as this one.

Oh and if anyone wants to email me they can do so at marcustrammell@hotmail.com. If you send me an email I will do my best to respond quickly.