Happy Easter!

1962, April 15

Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA

Dear mom and dad,

Happy Easter. Easter has come so fast. When I don’t have reason to check the calendar real often, the day seem to go by before I know it. Soon Paula will be 2 and Tommy one years old. And we have been in New Guinea for almost 9 months, only 5 years and 5 months to go, --see how fast that time goes.

The aerial to my radio is down so I don’t catch the news. I was surprised to hear that Indonesia had invaded according to our local paper which had some articles. They also had articles of rally’s to get New Guinea natives from here to go fight in western New Guinea. What a world! I had thought that New Guinea was the last place we would see a war and here we are with the war in our own backyard.

Paula is getting pretty good in church now. She sits relatively still and doesn’t make any noise. With Tommy, I have to send him out with one of the girls unless I can get him to sleep. He likes being in a string bag (bilum) so often a girl will walk around with him sleeping in the string bag hanging from her head. Paula is pretty well adjusted now and will let the girls take her for a walk or down to the church without me. Yesterday I heard her calling mommy, mommy so excited, which usually means she’s filled her pants. I came out to where she was looking out over the ocean where the boat was coming in. She said daddy meng, daddy meng. (Meng in Jabem means come). Alvin has been gone for about a week. He went away on a boat, so she thought it was him coming back which would have been by boat, but he wasn’t on that boat yet. She’s been saying daddy, bye-bye, bia (Jabem for boat), Wado (water), Quec. (jabem for sea water or ocean). Tommy “Ketung” which is ‘cries’ in Jabem and calls the cat ‘pussy’ -Jabem is pusip. Anytime she sees a cow pie she says Cow, cow !

**View from the Malalo station that Paula in this story would have seen.**

Anytime Tommy sees an open door or the gate on the veranda open even if it’s just a crack he’s out just like lightning. Paula is always opening or leaving doors open. Last Sunday I glanced out the window and there was Tommy balancing, as happy as a lark, over the edge of the top step. I made a mad dash and made it in time. He is such a cuddly little man. If I’m on the bed with him he will come and lay his head on my lap or shoulder for a few seconds and then he’s off again. He always snuggles up in our necks when we are holding him. He always has smiles for everyone. But he doesn’t sleep all night! He did before we left Gurokor, but no more. I put him to bed late after feeding him about 8 or 9 o’clock. I’ve even tried just letting him cry with no luck. He’s been having what I think is amoeba dysentery with flecks of blood in his stool. Today the blood is gone and he doesn’t seem to have a tummy ache. His stools were pretty good today and so I hope he’s over it. He doesn’t like a diet of cereal and skim milk 4 times a day and I don’t blame him.

Paula folds her hands and says “ Kut,Kut, Kut, Kut -men” whenever she thinks it’s appropriate to pray. She will bring me a glass or a pin and say wowie, wowie with the most serious look on her face. She will take something away from Tommy either that she wants it or thinks he should not have. No no, wowi, wowi.

At the church the custom has been that the Europeans sit in the front. Well, I just decided with 2 kids, no dice, so I sit in the back with all the mothers and babies. They have found a good way with dealing with crying kids. The women just pull up their dresses and sit there nursing their baby and you don’t hear them crying very long. I haven’t the nerve to follow suite, -- fortunately.

This morning I had a very unexpected visitor as I was preparing to wash at the sink. A scorpion about 4 inches long with a forked tail came crawling out of the drain. I started running the water so it won’t go anywhere and I called one of the house girls to find out what it was. She told me to be careful because if it would bite me with it’s tail, it would be very painful. She got a stick of wood and we killed it and washed it back down the drain. I had made one pass at it with an envelope and missed. Fortunately, it missed me. I guess I have a lot to learn about this country.

We love and miss you all. Thank you for your faithful letters. Maybe someday you can visit us and see how nice it is here. May God bless and keep you in his love. School should be almost out for you.

God’s blessing Al Ina, Paula and Tom

1962 April 18

Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Martin and Willa Tonn, 10316 Grand Ave, Minneapolis 20, Minnesota, USA

Dear Willa, Martin and family,

Happy Easter!- though it will be late by the time this get to you. I got a new Easter dress how about that! The lady that lives at the sawmill (Evelyn Beck), which is a 5 hour boat ride down the coast is a professional dressmaker. She doesn’t use a pattern, -just asked what I would like it to look like, and took my measurements and sewed it up -just like that. She used some of the material that I had brought along with me. For Easter this year, Alvin is going to have an English service. It will be a so good to understand the service. They had an English service in Lae the Sunday after we arrived and I haven’t heard one since.

Alvin went to meet Fred Scherle in the mountains (Mumeng) last Tuesday. He should be back on Thursday. Neither my radio nor the phonograph has work since we have been here at Malolo. So it’s been a long 10 days. He had been gone Friday, Saturday and Sunday before he left early Tuesday.

**Mumeng is 10 miles south of Gurakor or east of Sawat in the mountains.**

The kids have been having what I think was amoeba dysentery. Lots of gas and cramps and numerous loose stools with blood in them. Tommy is still fussy after a week and a half of it. I was able to get chloromycetin down Paula so hers only lasted a week. Tommy ran a fever last night but with a little anti malarial medication we nipped it in the bud. Maybe they’ll be back to normal by the time Alvin gets home. Paula imitates everything I do. If I have bread at the table Paula has bread, if I have ketchup Paula has ketchup, if I burp Paula makes a noise, if I yawn, Paula opens her mouth. If I lay down to feed Tommy Paula is there also. I have the girls carry Tommy in a bilum up and down the hill and now Paula likes to be carried in a bilum too. The only thing she will not do is go swimming. She is so afraid of the water. While we were swimming one day, an undertow knocked her down and she’s through with ‘wado’.

Paula has had heat rash off and on but after hot day we got a cool day so now it’s cleared up. Only occasionally do we really mind the heat since we can go take a shower which is so refreshing. We really have been enjoying Malalo a lot. Paula has started to sleep all night again. Maybe after Tommy gets his teeth he will also sleep through the night. I’ve been real lucky with the dispensary work. I haven’t had to get up at night at all. Edna used to have quite a few night calls. I think they go to the doctor boy that lives on the station because I can’t understand them.

Alvin really seems to enjoy his work here for which I am very glad. The people seem to have accepted us pretty well. Everyone is really quite friendly. Beryl says you’re thinking of going back to work-ugh. Special duty or general duty or office work or what? Who would stay with the kids? Say- I meant to have your tell Emil that I sure could use a house boy and that we’d be looking for him next winter. I’m sure he would not recognize New Guinea anymore with all the buildings and roads and improvements.

We love hearing from you and miss you a lot.

God’s blessing Al Ina, Paula and Tom

How did Easter go for Ina?

1962 April 23 to Estelle
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA
Dear mom and dad,
Today is Monday after Easter. Al is supposed to be walking home from a nearby village which is two hours away and it’s pouring rain so hard. It will be hard walking up the hill and it’s 9 PM. He hasn’t had any supper yet.
We had a lovely highlight by having an English service for Easter. I sure married a good preacher. Our two American teachers from Bula, the girls school which a 2-3 hour walk down the coast and a family with 2 little girls from the sawmill (in Sawet) which is 2 1/2-3 hrs by boat from the other way, were here for Easter dinner. The sawmill people, the Becks stayed the night. We played cards and talked and had a good time.
Al had come home from a 10 day trip last Thursday. Being that Friday was Good Friday, I couldn’t work. So I had to wash his clothes on Saturday. Baked goods don’t keep well, so I left my baking for company until Saturday also. I quickly beat up the round layer cake, baked them and left them to cool while I washed the clothes. On one of my trips back into the house, here was Paula and Tommy each digging into a cake and having the best feast with chocolate cake strewn all over a newly washed floor. Tommy had filled his pants and that was coming out of the top. That was mixed in also. Later, I was scrubbing one of the bedroom floors and here comes Paula covered from head to toe with soot. Tommy’s face was the only thing that got soot on him. So into the bathtub they went.
Then on Sunday I had the table all set before church and prepared an Easter basket of colored eggs , candy and bunny cookies that Mrs. Beck had made. Then I dashed on to take a shower. When I came out the cookies and candy from the centerpiece were chewed a little and smeared all over several chairs and the floor. Meanwhile, Tommy had the cat by the tail pulling for all he was worth and the old cat yowling.
I crumbled the remainder of the cake with ice cream and told my woeful tale and everyone sure laughed.
I took a shower tonight and Paula was watching. Later I discovered her with a little pail of water behind two chairs lined up for a screen and splashing water all over herself. She had removed her pajamas.

**Bucket Shower**

Bucket Showers where the way to take showers in PNG. They were part of the indoor bathroom unlike this outdoor photo of one. This story does not make sense unless you realize what Paula was doing with a bucket.

Tommy waves bye-bye and shakes hands. He says ‘ut’ for up when he wants to get out of the bathtub. He says hi and hello after Paula. He says ‘hot’, hot while crawling around which is Paula‘s favorite word.
This morning we were washing up some diapers and trying to bake some bread as we had company. I had to pack a lunch for Al as he had an all day meeting. The doctor boy did not go down to the dispensary so about 8:30 AM up everyone came to the house to be examined and poor Tom wanted his breakfast. So things really were wild before we got some order out of it. My house girls wanted to go to church as they also have Easter one and Easter two. Two is on Monday. So I let them go and they didn’t come back until 4:30 PM trying to tell me it was a long service.
Say, I think I’m a pretty good farmer. I put a duck on some ‘duck’ eggs and got the cutest little chicken on Good Friday. Today we had 12 little ducks.
God has been so good and we are real well and hope you all are to. We love and miss you. I hope you had a nice Easter vacation.

Love Al, Ina, Paula and Tom.

How did Easter go for Ina?

Malalo is one of the most advanced places in our mission and therefore has quite different problems and challenges than many of our newer stations in the Highlands.

Both the Erickson’s going through tremendous adjustments as well as the New Guineans adjusting to a modern world