Cushish Ishcay Pachaq Ganchis!

Ok so the next day I’m lounging around the kitchen with my bread and sister, Maria, asks if I’m going out this morning. I say no and she says, “The swearing-in ceremony for the mayor is this morning.” Oh, so yes…um, definitely. Sad times that I completely missed that memo. So the whole thing was really interesting. We showed up an hour late and mass was going on. Traditionally, the new alcalde goes to mass but this guy is evangelical so there was none of that. There was also no dancing or drinking after the swearing-in because of the evangelical nature of the new government official. The town was not excited about this. I was… :) So, after mass, the ceremony had a Inca / Chavín culture representative in a hat with about 40 eagle or hawk feathers on it and traditionally dressed (in ancient traditional dress). He said some things in Quechua, of which I understood the date and the welcome to all the different people, so not much. Then each small community gave the mayor a token representing their community and each of the regiodores got to say something. These are kind of like vice mayors, I suppose. They are in charge of different aspects of the government like resources, education, etc. Then the mayor talked about his priorities and goals for the upcoming four year term. Alright, ready for this?
1. Confronting extreme poverty and the hygiene and health problems that arise from this extreme condition.
2. Health and the promotion of health practices, working with the health center and working on the construction of the new health center.
3. Education in the schools and education about environmental issues.
4. Completing works that have been neglected (there is a half done community meeting center in the middle of town and several mud puddles / lakes around town that I believe are unfinished construction projects…)
5. Environmental issues such as the contamination that is being caused by the really large mine nearby.
What? Are the first three goals directly related to my entire purpose here? Um, yes? Does this guy seem to be concerned about health and the environment too ? (The government here traditionally doesn’t have any legislation to speak of protecting the environment.) Oh my goodness.