Not sure if you all know what's going on over here or not, but there is quite a bit of unrest here. There have been riots happening close by us for about a week now. It started slow with some demonstrations, but has escalated. Even so, we don't feel like we are in danger.
The rioting stems from racism between Javanese Indonesians and Papuan Indonesians. Papuans feel oppressed and are lashing out. Our town of Sentani hasn't seen any violence yet but demonstrations have been staged here. Most of the violence is happening in Waena, Abepura, and Jayapura, towns east of here.
The government has cut off (almost) all of our internet access. We lost 3g a week ago and our internet to our homes was cut off a few days ago. We currently have two computers at school where we are only allowed to access email. So, I've been trying to check it occasionally.
We will be listening to our field leadership here as to how we should proceed. Right now, we've been told not to go into town unless absolutely necessary. Going to town would be a waste of time anyway as most of the stores have closed. Today (Friday) we released school before lunchtime to let parents get their children while town was quiet. We weren't sure if things would get worse in the afternoon. All afternoon school activities were cancelled.
We've been able to communicate with Wyatt and Emma.
We'll try to update as much as we can.
Please be praying for peace in Papua.
Love, Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment