Tuesday 3 July 2012

Polling day in Jiwaka

The long awaited election finally arrived in Jiwaka!  I say finally because it was originally scheduled for sometime in May.  Then last Friday.  Then for Sunday.  And then Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Well, today was finally THE day.

Things were relatively quiet at the hospital.  Only one mother in labor.  Just a handful of patients were brave enough to come to the outpatient department.  Good thing, because all of our staff were standing in line to cast their vote!


Since there wasn't much to do, I stopped by the polling place to take a couple of pictures.  This is what an election looks like in PNG. 
 























By the way, there were 57 candidates running for governor of our new province.  Fifty seven.  How in the world do you choose?

Thankfully it was peaceful day.  But many of us are wondering... is this is the calm before the storm?  Last night the emergency room was already full of election-related violence--chop chops and stabbings and spear wounds.  The post-election weeks in PNG are notorious for being a volatile time, especially as ballots are counted and results announced.  Please continue to pray for peace and for God's kingdom to come in this country.







Today also happens to be July 4th.  We American missionaries celebrated our nation's birthday with a cookout--hobo dinners and footlong hot dogs, and real sparklers for dessert.  Almost as good as fireworks.  Happy Independence day, USA!!!  Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part... our party was rained out.  Yep, that's right.  After several weeks of little rain, our close to dry water tanks are filling up.  Praise God for the showers of blessings!






















"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
~ Matthew 6:10


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the update! Wondered about the election . Grateful for the rain!

    ReplyDelete