Elections for sale

Greetings,

Largely due to the elections, a lot has happened since the last time i posted. Election day happened on Sunday the 28th of November. A number of presidential candidates had called for a temporary postponment of voting given the cholera outbreak, yet their requests were ignored and everyone headed to the polls.

While a certain level of corruption seems unavoidable in Haiti, the elections were proof that the current government looks after itself before it considers the millions of people getting nothing out of the system. The current president (Preval) has given his support (funds) to an absolute crook who is relatively unknown in the political rounds (Jude Celestin). This candidate, with endless money available, the current governments blessing, and load of stuffed ballot boxes, should not win the election. The people saw it coming and it happened right under their eyes. They are pissed.

Just hours after the voting began, some of the front running candidates called for a complete cancellation of the vote after receiving many reports of ballot stuffing and fraud. Following this announcement of fraudulent voting, the current government delcared the elections to 'have been successful'- go figure. This was enough for manifestations and riots to break out across the country throughout this past week. Even in our smaller city of Jacmel mobs took to the streets to burn tires, throw rocks and car parts while marching to the UN and Police stations. Schools were indefinately canceled, and with the election results being announced in 2 days things are not looking much brighter. If this were your country, wouldnt you be in the streets protesting as well?

While everyone else at the base was on lockdown, Sierra, Bryan, David and I left in the mornings to work on our newest construction project. We spent over a week building the kitchen for a foundation for malnourished and orphan children. We had an awesome time doing it and the final product looks sharp- especially the door.

Our 3 security guards decided to all quit on the same day this past week. This was due to a combination of their work and lack of communication with the management. It was a terrible thing to see them go this late in the game after so many months without incidents, robbings or break-ins. People had to stay up that initial night to watch the house until the new guards began their shift in the morning.

With the final construction project completed, i decided to leave Jacmel and return to GrassRoots United here in Port au Prince. I arrived here yesterday morning after an amazing last night with the crew. We were greeted with the news that European Disaster Volunteers had just bought huge house and were throwing a big pool party. Damn is it good to be back in Port au Prince!
Emma and I will be going into some of the bigger slums throughout the week to do parasite treatments for hundreds of schoolchildren.

Im going back to the States on Friday after two incredibly rewarding months here and my third in-country for 2010. I feel at home and every day is a blast, but i do look forward to being in NC with the fam and everyone else and getting on with university.

Ill post one more of these before I leave, until then i will be thinking of the delicious chicken burrito im going to eat at QDoba upon my return. Flocka