Al and I are happy to announce the arrival….
1963 March 28
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA
Dear mom, dad, Martin, Willa, Mickey, Laney, Jenny, and Julie,
Well we have had some rain at last. As everything does in this country, our louvers rusted open, so we can’t clean our windows. One night a heavy rain and wind came up and our lights went out. We lit kerosene lamps, but we couldn’t keep them lit, so we hung a blanket in front of the windows, which did not work. Finally we had to continue our activities, a coffee party for some of our native friends, with a flashlight in the middle of the room where the rain could not reach us. It will be quite a big job to take all of the glass out of the louvers and strip them -the window frames down to put in new louvers made of aluminum, but I guess that is what is going to have to be done.
Al and I are happy to announce the arrival of Ina Rae Metegemeng, our ships captain’s new little baby girl. That was to get you prepared for the fact that we are planning an addition to the Erickson household come early fall. We just have to keep up with those Tonn’s and they are so busy racing ahead that it is hard to keep up.
Now I will tell you about our captains little girl. I have been watching his wife with an eagle eye as she was swollen bigger than a watermelon with edema. I sent her to Lae to have them check her urine and blood pressure and they sent her back with nary a word except give her iron, which I was already doing. So I kept her on diuretics and watched her almost every day as she grew and grew and grew. It was unusual for a New Guinean to be so big or have edema. While this morning we were planning to go to Sawet 1 to visit the sawmill and get some things straightened out when Metegemeng2 came up and said that his wife was in labor. The time was 4:30 AM. Out came the calcium gluconate, the corimine, vitamin K, ampules, gloves, drapes, newspaper, and iodine and I went down to his house with my trusty kerosene lamp. I sent Al to rouse one of the native nurses that has been sleeping in our house girls house for just such an occasion. Well her contractions were good, but were 10 minutes apart. So I got her already which consisted of assembling my instruments and putting newspaper under her, instructing the native nurse to shave her and listen to the heart tones frequently, and came up to get a little more sleep, breakfast and my family taken care of. Al decided to go to Sawet without me and don’t you know a half hour after he left , a bouncing baby girl arrived just as I came panting down the hill again. But I did get there in time to deliver the placenta. The native nurse that I had left with, had left so one of her neighbors was with her. In spite of all my fears she had no trouble, no tears and no postpartum hemorrhage as of the latest yet.
Metegemengs wife about a year later with her little girl in front of Kristin born August 1963. Her son Micheal was Tommy and Paula’s constant playmate
Our veranda railing is about 8 feet from the ground and we carelessly left a ladder leaning against it that came within a foot and a half from the top. I heard some of the girls saying you will fall Tommy. So I investigated and found my son laying down on the railing of Veranda. There is a 2 x 4 that runs around the top of the railing. How he managed to get up the last 18 inches, without falling I’ll never know. He was most indignant when I took him down and put the ladder away. He must have a guardian angel.
The Malalo house veranda
Paula announced tonight that daddy had gone to Ameica as she calls America where her grandpa and grandma are. Tom will hide and then say ‘where are you mom?’ until someone finds him. He’s usually has just covered up his face. If anyone should ask you, I do have plenty of baby clothes, I’m going to make some diapers out of some white flannel I have. But I really do have enough. But I want some that aren’t gray to take it home from the hospital. But if someone would like to send one of those swings that you hang in the doorway with the spring on it, I wouldn’t send it back.
We found that we were about $250 under our budget. We are allowed so much for food, travel, and for hired help and if we don’t spend it all, it is used for another station that had to cover their allowed amount. We are paid about $500 that we use for our personal money for clothes, film, candy, insurance, etc. Then about $900 a year is sent back to the states for travel expenses and the cost of living for the year we are on furlough, we get all of our medical and dental needs taken care of by the mission. New Guinea is the only field run on the communal system. Others get a flat salary and then have to buy their own cars, food and furniture, I’m not sure about the house. That would not work in New Guinea where are you have three different nationalities of missionaries. The pay scale would be so different, the Americans missionaries getting so much more than the German and Australians. So the money is more or less pooled and then all receive about the same amount. Well anyway, what I was trying to tell you is that I really splurged and we had bacon and marshmallows. It really was a treat as we hadn’t had any since we’ve been in New Guinea. It is funny the things you crave when they are little hard to come by.
Our bathroom water is working again. The tank that Al had put in had sprung a leak and the water was running out faster than it was going in. It might have been damaged in one of our earthquakes. I did discover my kitchen drain is broken also. So we will really have use for a plumber. Claude? 3
Paula can’t ride the trike very well. Tommy just pulls her around all of the time. Occasionally Tommy gets on too. He has been using some rollerskates that Paula got from Al’s sister for Christmas. He can walk across the floor on them by himself, but can’t keep up with them if they start to skate.
We love and miss you all, and are praying for you and your concerns.
Al, Ina and the kids
I started feeling life soon after three months and it already seems to be quite active. Both of the others were active also and haven’t slowed down since.
Footnote;
1 Sawet was south of Malalo and had a sawmill that belonged to the congregation. It was about a 3 hour boat ride. When the Erickson’s arrived at Malalo, Peter? Beck was running the sawmill 1962. Later the Graham Littles ran it.
1963, March 29
Dear mom and dad Erickson,
Greetings from New Guinea or ‘bec bec’ as Tommy solemnly greets everyone as he walks very piously to church on Sunday morning- looking neither right or left and not smiling at anyone. That is how you say good morning in Jabem.
Betty1 sent some rollerskates for Christmas which Tommy really loves. Paula is fine if someone holds her or if she goes on one skate, but Tom takes off walking across the floor with them both off. He can’t keep up with them if they start to skate though.
When I’m baking, I always have three hands on the mixing spoon. We have a long handled wooden spoon for mixing. One day I was making some donuts and ran out of flour. I store a drum of it in Al’s workshop. So I left the batter sitting on the table and went to get it. When I came back Paula had gotten out the muffin tins and was very busy putting the batter with two spoons into the muffin tins just like I often do. Of course they weren’t greased.
Our veranda railing is about 8 feet from the ground. It has a 2x4 on top of the railing. One day we carelessly left a ladder leaning against it as it was about a foot and a half from the top of the railing. One day I heard some of the school girls saying, you had better get down before you fall Tommy. And I went tearing out to see what he was up to. Here he was, laying on the railing of the veranda as calmly as if he were in bed. How he had managed to get that last 18 inches up from the ladder without falling I don’t know. But he was most indignant when I took him down and removed the ladder. I’m telling you that child must have a guardian angel. If we get him raised to manhood without him first breaking his neck it surely won’t be his fault.
Paula and Tommy enjoy each other so much that we thought it would be a good idea if there were a few more to keep them company. They don’t have any other white children to play with so we are planning on having another baby in the early fall. I’m sure Greg and Vicki2 will really be jealous if uncle Sonny3 has three babies at his house and they don’t have any as Greg said when Tommy was coming.
Between malaria, the hot weather, and my usual antics the first few months haven’t been too easy. But with all of that behind, we are eagerly waiting the arrival of a third child. Especially if it turns out as well as Paula and Tommy. I think both of the kids will really adore a baby as they love all of the new babies around here.
Our dry season is pretty well over, and we have been getting some rain, but not as much as usual. We have had a few cool days that help relieve some of the intensive heat. In May, Phyllis, the kids and I are planning a trip into the Buang area with Al. The Buangs are high up in the mountains. The people have built a very nice house with two rooms for the Bingsu (as they call Al ).
He says there is running water pipe almost to the house with bamboo and the weather is very nice and cool. We can fly most of the way so we would have only about five hours to walk instead of the two days as Al has had to do. They have lovely gardens up there -being able to raise corn, beans, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. We will take sugar, powdered milk, salt, pepper, cans of meat, dishes, soap, dish towels, and other sleeping gear and clothes with us. If it all goes well, we will stay about two weeks. Most of the people have never seen white children so I do imagine that Paula and Tommy will make quite a sensation.
Buangs
Buangs recently. Looks like same area as Ina and Tom photo seen below. Wara, Buang
Photo from facebook site: Papua New Guinea Land of the Unexpected. Image credits: Ishmael Nombe
Ina holding Debra, Tom and Jandeng in the Buangs. Our trip there in 1966.
At last our people are getting going on a new dispensary. The bush building they had before had no way of keeping pests out so I had flies landing on sores when I was trying to sew up injuries. The cockroaches are eating the boxes and labels off the medicines. The white ants are eating up the building. We will have cement floor and a framed building with screened windows in one of the rooms and cupboards with doors so that we can keep out the pests. I’m hoping to get some oxygen soon, so we really will be having a first rate dispensary. We now have two nurses and two aids so they can take care of all the routine cases and I only have to help with the emergencies. We have a clinic for prospective mothers, and one for babies, and then one of the nurses and one of the nurses aids will be going into villages. They will go to a different one each week to take care of the old people and others too sick to take to the dispensary. We charge two cents a visit now so we can pay our nurses and get enough food for them. If they don’t have the money they are supposed to supply their own food. We are trying to teach them to pay their workers. Our good doctor boy ran away because the people weren’t keeping him supplied with food.
One thing I know -Al would really appreciate is a subscription to the Glendive paper. Mother sent the one from Alexandria and it is so nice to keep in touch with what is happening at home.
Thank you for your many letters and prayers. I appreciate your comments on your Bible studies. We get the woman’s magazine and so I try to do the Bible study too even if I am two months behind. So keep the comments coming.
We love and miss you all. Paula and Tommy would really appreciate to come to grandpa and grandmas to spoil them. Paula wonders about grandma Erickson. I always tell her that you are in America, so yesterday when I asked her where daddy went she said ‘daddy go Amica’. It must have been a quick trip as he was back again at night.
Our love and best wishes to you all.
Al, Ina and the kids
Footnotes:
1 Betty is Alvin’s sister who lives in California. The Erickson family would stay with her family either on the way to Papua New Guinea or on the way back.
2 Greg and Vicki are the children of Helen. Helen is Alvin’s sister who lived in Glendive MT, the Erickson’s hometown where Alvin Jr and his sisters grew up.
3 ‘Sonny’ is the name Alvin’s family called him.