Smoke Signals

[I (Ben) have been working in the Dominican Republic for the past week and my bus trip back to Port-Au-Prince on Saturday (usually a 7-hour trip or so) took 22 hours. My bus arrived in the border town on the DR side, Jimani, around 3pm and most of the town was out in the street burning tires - trying to smoke signals to local politicians, perhaps? We couldn't drive through so we waited, but the border closes at 7pm. A few people left the bus on motorcycles to try and make it through the border, but they didn't make it either. One was held up but only had 30 pesos so he was let go, another couple got caught in some shooting between an angry driver and protesters and they hurried back, terrified. The bus parked in front of a police station and we all slept on the bus. Thankfully, there were restaurants nearby with food and plenty of Presidente.]