These past couple of weeks have been filled with riots and unease. It started two weeks ago with the Kabiufa students. (Kabiufa is the SDA boarding school where we live.) They get fed only two meals a day - sweet potatoes and boiled cabbage at both meals. Before you think this is terrible let me assure you that this is actually the norm for this culture. They probably wouldn't find things much different at home in the village. However, for whatever reasons, the students decided to hold a “strike” about the food situation. Our house is right next door to the cafeteria. One day I heard this loud roar coming from the cafeteria. The students were all yelling and I heard this terrible crashing and banging. I went to the door to have a look and saw students come pouring out of the cafeteria doors. I heard later that there had been a big fight with the students throwing food, tables, dishes, etc at the staff and that there was actually a knife fight with a guard and several students getting hurt. A large delegation of students marched into town to make a complaint to the Department of Education. It took a couple of days before things calmed down. I never was really clear on what the actual complaint was. Kabiufa grows all its own food so in the afternoons the students are required to go work in the gardens. Some of the staff told me the complaint wasn’t so much about the food, as that they didn’t want to have to work in the gardens anymore. Anyway, I haven’t seen any students looking like they are starving yet…
Later that week, four missionaries – a doctor and three women - were walking to the Goroka Market. It was the middle of the day in the middle of down town. You would think it would be safe, right? Wrong! They were attacked by a gang of young men (called Rascals) armed with a gun and machetes. One man swung his machete at the doctor and sliced him across the neck. Thankfully he did not hit the jugular vein or worse yet, decapitate him! Another man attacked one of the women, attempting to cut her bilum (a local bag that all locals carry) off her arm. In the process she got cut up pretty badly. Thankfully the crowds standing by came to the rescue. They chased off the Rascals, caught them, beat them up pretty badly, than hauled them off to the police station.
The final “exciting” event to occur was rioting in town this past week. Many of the stores and little shops here in PNG are run by Asians. A mixture of Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Indonesian. Apparently some accusations were made that they were running their businesses in such a way that was not benefiting the country or its people. I am not sure if there was any truth to the accusations. However, the nationals decided to “get revenge” for this supposed injustice. All over the country, including here in Goroka, there was huge rioting. The mobs broke into many of the stores and literally stripped them bare. The entire town was put in lock down with everything closed. Several people were killed here in Goroka during skirmishes between the mob and the police. Things quieted down midweek but there were rumors that there would be another uprising this weekend. Thankfully we don’t live in town but out in the country. I haven’t heard any more news so I hope it was just a rumor and that our excitement is over for now. Boring can be good!
