Election day!

The sign outside the local polling station, held at the school.

Today I’m grateful for democracy.  Guatemala elected their new president today, and while I sat with friends eating dinner after church, we watched the results come in.  While it’s not a perfect system (here, or in the US), we still have so many freedoms I know I take for granted.  And the thing about democracy is, it doesn’t work perfectly, but it does work.  Since I’ve been here, scandals about corruption regarding the president and vice president erupted.  The vice president was pushed to resign, followed by the resignation of the president several months later.  That never would have happened in a country that didn’t allow for the right to protest against the government.  And in these elections the winner was a surprise political outsider as people reacted against the former frontrunner with too many ties to corrupt politicians.

A restaurant in town on election day, the sign says "come with your finger marked that you voted and for the purchase of a crepe or waffle, get a free drink"

I know very little about Jimmy Morales, Guatemala’s next president.  But, I do know that democracy is working and that gives me hope for Guatemala’s future, and for the future of the US as well.