UPNG Graduation trip - Day 3: "Graduation" (Friday)

What a day we had today.  It was graduation day and our new missionaries were graduating from the University of Papua new Guinea.

Beautlyn, Tanya, & Elidah (with the feather headdress)

The girls wanted to get to campus by 6:30 am, so we planned that Elton would pick me up first at 5 before picking up the girls.. so I set my alarm to ring at 4 am, but later I discovered that it was an hour off and I actually got up at 3.  It was too late then to go back to bed. So, I started the day tired, but had more time to spend with God and to get my head straight for the day.

Tanya & mum in the back, Beautlyn & auntie in middle

We picked up Beautlyn & Tanya & drove to the campus, and they looked beautiful!

It was great fun to walk around and see people, especially former Student Life students (from our ministry on campus) who were graduation.

Elidah marching with the other graduates

The graduates, being led by some traditional dancers, all marched down the hill to the graduation area.

We (Elton, Tanya's mom, & Beautlyn's auntie) found a tree that overlooked the graduation tents and camped under it.  We forgot to bring any chairs, so we had to stand or take turns sitting on a piece of concrete that happened to be there.  Even though we were under a tree, it was still quite hot.  But it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we had the parents dinner last night so that I had friends to stand with.  

Here is a short video showing where we were, what we could see, and the thousands of people that were there.  As you see at the end, we could see them giving the degrees to the graduates, but we couldn't hear or recognize who each graduate was.

At the end of the day (4 pm), I was wiped out!  My feet were killing me from standing/walking for 5+ hours (I chose to wear dress shoes and my feet don't generally like shoes), but I'm really glad to have been able to go and to celebrate with Tanya, Beautlyn, and Elidah!