Peruvian elections

      On Sunday we experienced our first Peruvian election. It is very interesting because it is a mandated law that every person in this country vote, whether they are educated about the candidates or not. If a peruvian does not vote they are given a monetary fine. Three days before the election, the whole country stops selling alcohol to insure that most of the country is sober for election. It is also prohibited to have any large gatherings on election day, so therefore there were no church services on Sunday.

  
    We are continuing to settle in here and it is feeling much more like home. I think the best part about being here is that we are going to be staying (at least for a long while)! I don't know if I mentioned before, but our apartment came fully furnished, which was a tremendous blessing in getting settled quickly. It has also helped because we have not had to buy much furniture. We did buy a bookshelf, since everywhere we go we seem to have a ton of books, and I will say that was quite the experience. Here in Cusco there is no store like Walmart or anything even close to that. There are different roads where you buy different items. For example, there is a certain road where the lighting and light bulbs are sold, there is a certain road where mattresses are sold, and there is one particular road where all the furniture is sold. These are like warehouses with TONS of wooden furniture. So, you pick out your item, pay for it, and then they put your item (even a bookshelf) on the top of a small taxi, called a tico, and you take it home. This is done with mattresses, beds, and tables also. It is a very quick and convenient way to get your furniture home as long as it does not fall off the taxi!

The "moving truck" that brought our new bookshelf home. 

Typical look of the furniture stores. There is furniture from floor to ceiling