The Hagen Cultural Show

The Hagen Cultural Show is probably as close as you can get to what we in the States would call a fair. The Cultural Show is a 2 day affair where people from all the surrounding provinces come and show off their traditional dress and dance. They are judged as they parade through the Rugby Oval (stadium) in front of the grand stand and at the conclusion of the event a prize is awarded. The Hagen Cultural Show took place this past Saturday the 15th. We decided to go because I wanted some new pictures of the cultural dress and I wanted to look at the artifacts that I was pretty sure would be there. We had a Land Cruiser load of people who wanted to go so we got together and headed out to the festivities. We had with us Dr.'s Becky Wallace and Stephanie Doenges along with Dr Tom and Lois Staton our family and a PNG friend Johnathon.

We all had a good time. We saw some painting each others faces and finishing their preparations. In fact, some were doing face painting on non-participants!!! So our Dr.'s Becky and Steph joined in the fun and got their faces painted! Becky had a blue butterfly and Steph a Hibiscus flower.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day great for taking pictures. PNG is a truly beautiful place with majestic mountains, gorgeous clouds and on clear nights brilliant stars! The people of PNG are just as colorful as the country and on this day the colors were dazzling!