Soccer Keeps the Peace

Guinea gained its independence from France on October 2, 1958.  It took a long time between Independence from France to free elections.  There were decades of socialist dictators. The first democratic presidential election was held in November 2010.  Turnout was high and voting went smoothly.   President Alpha Condé who ran on an anticorruption platform, has been  trying to reform the government and renew mining contracts.  Of course there is always opposition, and there have been attempted coups taking place since in this very short experience of democracy.

The legislative body, The National Assembly of Guinea has not met since 2008 when it was dissolved after a military coup in December of that year..  Elections have been postponed many times.  More recently the elections that were to be held in July 2012 were postponed indefinitely.  In April 2012, President Condé cited the need for transparent and democratic elections.  There is no structure set up for that to happen yet.

President Conde' 

So some people are upset that these elections have not taken place.  Like everyone in the world, freedom is something longed for.

This Thursday, February 7 was a date set for demonstrations to protest the lack of elections as previously promised.  When "peaceful" demonstrations are planned, there is concern that they might not end peacefully.

On the Mercy Ships we were concerned that our day workers would not be able to make it safely to the ship, and we postponed a celebration dinner because of the potential of violence in town.  We also prayed for peace.

As it turned out, the protests were called off because the president of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was in the country.  Football take priority over protests, and the president of FIFA is one of  the most respected men in Africa.  Because he was in Guinea, the protests were called off.  They may happen next week, but for this week, Football was responsible for peace in the city!

FIFA president Seep Blatter is on a four nation tour of Africa during the Africa Cup.  The finals are Sunday 10 February.  He came to visit and tour the Africa Mercy in the early evening.

The man who was the answer to our prayers came with a full security force.

The Deck was cleared of all Mercy Ship Vehicles
 to make room for our guest's visit.
  The tents on the left serve for patient admission,
 Outpatient care and Physical Therapy

There was a police motorcycle leading the convoy, followed by several limo’s and other security vans.  We were watching the events from the top deck, when they all arrived.

Some of the Crew watching from Deck 8

  At one point a van pulled in past our security entrance on the deck, and riot police complete with helmets, face shields and weapons stormed out of the vans and ran to the gangway to surround the FIFA president and his associates as they got out of their vehicles and prepared to go up the gangway.

The Delegations meeting Mercy Ships Leadership on Deck

In Reception on the Africa Mercy

The visit lasted about 20 minutes, but Mr Blatter was very moved by what he saw aboard the Africa Mercy.  He toured the hospital and even visited patients in one of our wards.

the Lab Visit

D ward patient 

D Ward Patient Greets Mr Blatter

We were all reminded in our community meeting that evening, that we are representatives, not of any particular country (we currently have people serving from 34 nations), but representatives of Jesus Christ.  Our presence brings blessing to this country well beyond the patients and families who come for medical help.

It’s good to be reminded why we are here.

So that beautiful game, called football around the world (and soccer in the US) brought peace to this city on Thursday..

There are still many needs for this country to progress in democracy and it is a hard battle.  Progress is made little by little and person by person.

Chuck