The Young and the Restless

These are uneasy times in DRC. The second ever democratic elections were held this past Monday (Nov. 28th) and now the country awaits the results........scheduled to be announced this coming Tues., Dec. 6 (supposedly after dark, possibly even around midnight). It feels like we've been in this "season" of elections forever. Around the end of Oct. many organizations in the city began limiting their travels, even around the city. Churches are on edge; if anyone is out after dark it's at a prayer meeting as they pray nightly for peace.

For us, it's a bit of a restless time - trying not to over process the whole election, who will win, what will happen when the winner is announced, etc. as well as needing to stay close to home for security reasons. The title of this blog is "The Young and the Restless".......so we're not so young anymore........but we are restless and it just seemed like a good title.

Everyday the tension seems to build a bit more. Polling stations were supposed to count their ballots the night that they closed and then publicly post the results......so people are slowly formulating their ideas of who won (keep in mind that this is a HUGE country and there were around 63,000 polling stations, so the best guesses have large gaps in votes counted). Every day we notice that there are fewer cars on the road - so far it's "business as usual" downtown, but workers have reported that it's getting harder and harder to find transportation as each day less people are willing to take their vehicles out.

The girls had a 6 days Thanksgiving weekend......normally it would have been 4 days, but last Monday and Tuesday were also announced as "no school" just in case of violence. Now they're back and we are hoping they can at last finish up this week. They will also have next Tues. and Wed. off of school - to see how the city reacts to the results. About 1/3 of the students have left the country, parents being fearful of what will happen.

When discussing how to arrange for 24/7 watchman duty for next week, during the time that the results would be announced, we decided to ask one of our workers if he could stay here, offering him a place to sleep, etc. Even with the tempting bonus salary that we were willing to pay, he politely declined. He explained that he had teen-age daughters and he needed to be home.....just in case. "You can't trust anyone right now", he said. "I have no idea if my neighbors will turn on me because of who I voted for." I appreciate his commitment to family - It's just hard to hear of the anticipated violence that is to come.

So we wait.......each day marking one less before we will at last know how this will turn out. In situations like this, it's not so much a question of "who will win".....it's more a question of "how will everyone react?"