The first round of the Peruvian elections closed today. There will be a second round in a few months, where the top two candidates out of the 36 available from this election will compete in a runoff. Although some in Peace Corps were initially worried about outbursts of political violence, in Junin, life was very business-as-usual. While talking with some of my family members and co-workers about the elections, I heard many of the same problems and concerns expressed by them that I would here from my friends and relatives in the United States. They were also suprised to hear some of the frustrations Americans have with the government in the United States, which they tended to view as largely more efficient and on top of things. You get fined if you don't vote in Peru, so they were very surprised to hear that turnout for our last election was only about 60%.
Peace Corps recommends avoiding discussing politics at all costs, but I quickly discovered that was impossible to avoid while being a representative of the United States government in a foreign country. Peace Corps does ita best to place volunteers in sites where they won't run into any kind of trouble related to politics, but there is always a risk.
