Independence Day in PNG is quite amazing. Everyone was celebrating which province they were from, yet also celebrating being from one nation. We saw a shirt that said, "Land of a thousand tribes, united as one nation, one country, one people, Papua New Guinea."
The guys got up before the sun to climb a hill and chop down some trees in order to have the poles to make our Student Life stall at the celebration. The one girl only got 3 hours sleep because she was cooking the food we were going to sell.
Dan had to call about 4 or 5 taxis before finding a driver that was working today. We went by the office first to pick up all the books to sell at our stall, then ventured out into the crowd at the university.
My goodness there was a lot of people, a lot of stalls, a lot of cultural dancers, and a lot of smoke from small campfires lit to cook food sold. I was glad our food was pre-cooked and packaged because we sold it right next to the books. We also gave away free children's evangelistic tracts (which the kids loved) and resulted in bringing adults over to our booth.
Dan was made cashier, and I quickly stepped back from the front lines after I found myself just wanting to give things away. There was only a couple of chairs in our stall, but I got one because I'm "old." (Hey, when you find a perk, go for it!)
What a place to people-watch! I even saw a green parrot happily riding along on a young boy's shoulder...just as if he were a pirate or something. Our students would be working at our stall, disappear for awhile, and return with their faces painted to the point that I had to do double-takes to make sure I knew who they were.
AND...we made a profit and have some cash to spent on our Student Life end-of-year event!
Wow, what an event!! I like the photo of the crowd - gives a good sense of the scale you're taking about. =)
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