Cats & Dogs...and Aristide

Midweek blog time. 

Arch enemies Chancè and Terminator

The house we're staying at has three pets: Lady, Chancè, (pernounce Shonce) and Terminator.  All three belong to Eric.  Lady is originally Eric's pet back from the states.  He used her as a clever ploy to get his girlfriend Cristina down here.  She is very well behaved.  The other two, on the other hand are not.  Chancè was purchased down here on the side of the road by a vendor.  She was just a pup, but I never saw those days.  She's very excitable and has a lot of disciplining to do.  Also, she has many friends in the neighborhood.  They're favorite passtime is spending most of the night delivering "doggie telegrams" across the ravine.  The other night there must've been an emergency because the sequence went: "bark-bark-bark---BARK---BARK---BARK---bark-bark-bark.  (Note: barks are dots and BARKS are dashes).  Terminator, is Chancè's arch nemisis.  They are always fighting with each other, Terminator usually being the instigator.  Whenever she's not fighting with Chancè, she's probably trying to steal a chair away from someone, usually after they've been sitting there for a while.  Apparently Terminator had kittens a couple months ago.  She has since been fixed, although rumors are flying that she's pregnant again.  She does look larger since I first got here, Eric should try to get a refund.



Exiled since 2004, Aristide plans to
return to Haiti in the near future.



On the political front, this week saw continued demonstrations resulting from the OANs election anouncement.  Monday saw several marches on the presidential palace, and in Petionville, where are office is located, there were many gangs roaming the streets.  Several of these gangs were accused of mugging people (paticularly foreigners) in broad daylight.  We were warned against travelling outside, and if we had to, try not to look too 'white'.  Unfortunately, my tan hasn't quite settled in yet.

Also on the docket is President René Préval and the Haitian government have granted a passport to exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  The move paves the way for his return before the final presidential elections.  Aristide still has incredible support, especially amongst the poor.  Should he return, we will undoubtably experience more demonstrations and rioting.  It's been therorized that the move is to benefit Préval, who by allowing an Aristide return (and inevitable subsequent rioting) will need to delay or cancel the elections, thus allowing him to remain in power.  Transparency Internation didn't vote Haiti the world's most corrupt country in 2004 for nothing.  Stay tuned.