Arrival of baby Kristin

1963, August 30  Kristin’s birth

 Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Hospital in Lae. Alvin and Louise Erickson, Box 1327, Glendive Montana, USA

(This was still the old hospital not far from the airport situated on a hill which was mostly for ‘Europeans’. Later on a new hospital called Anzec Hospital was built and they treated both nationals and Europeans. )

Dear mom and dad Erickson,

 Kristen Judith arrived about 9:15 AM on August 28 - 7 lbs. 7 oz. I don’t know the length as they don’t measure them. She has such a pink and white white round face and small blue eyes. And dark brown long hair and long, long fingers, legs and feet. She wasn’t coming into the birth canal straight, so needed some adjustment before we could proceed properly.

She seems to be good natured and drinks well so far though it is a bit early to say. Paula and Tommy are getting along so well with their daddy. He takes them for rides, which they really think is something and buys them ice cream which surpasses everything in Tommy’s book. They weren’t too impressed with’ the baby’ as Paula refers to her.

 Here there is no limit to age in visiting in the hospital, so the kids can come to see me and I am able to wander anywhere I want to go. They have screened cubicles for the babies and no screens in the rest of the hospital. At night we slept under mosquito nets, but just before dark you really are fighting off the mosquitoes. A physical therapist was around getting us going on our exercises early this morning which was nice. I’ll have to keep them up.

 The babies are on a three hour schedule. We had to bring clothes for them to wear in the hospital as the hospital doesn’t furnish anything but the diapers and we have to have our own diapers to take the baby home in. We have to do the babies laundry. Also, we bring powder, baby oil, and soap to be used on the babies, but leave it for the hospital. Washcloths aren’t furnished either for, nor for the baby. I brought soap for me also – surely is strange. The usual hospital stay is seven days, but I’ll be able to go home in five days as I don’t need the demonstrations and the other lessons that they have for new mothers, such as feeding the babies. Everyone nurses their babies – it’s a mortal sin to bottle feed.

 Al has been so wonderful and thorough with everything. It surely is tremendous to have such fine husband to lean upon and he has taken such good care of the kids. Friday. I think Al will take the kids home to Malalo tomorrow and I will go home on Monday or Tuesday.

 It will be wonderful to all get back to normal again I surely do appreciate the diapers. Little Kristi is really good. She wakes up for her feeding and sleeps until they bring her in again. Her hair is quite curly. Now that we have so much film, will have to take lots of pictures. God‘s blessing to you and thank you so much for your prayers.

 Love Al, Ina, Paula, Tom and Kristin

1963 September 14

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

Dear mom, dad, Willa, Martin, and family,

While little Kristi seems to be doing real well. She sure is a blessing. She eats well and sleeps for 4 to 5 hours between feeding. We really hardly know she is around. Her little face is filling out some. She is a little Erickson she looks like Paula did with her button nose and little rosebud mouth. She is really a little queen. Every squeak usually sends the family running to her bad because she is awake so little.

Paula and Tommy love to hold her and she gets a bit mauled, but the goodwill it generates outdoes the damage to poor little Kristi. Tommy bend’s over the little blue car crib and sloppily kisses her whenever he gets the chance. She gets bashed and banged a little but generally the kids are pretty good. I try and not make very many don’ts. There doesn’t seem to be much jealousy yet.

This morning found a whole kitchen full of people looking at my “red“ baby -when I got out of the shower. I had Kristi in a little basket that a friend, Evelyn Beck,  from the  Sawet sawmill lent to us sitting on the kitchen table. I don’t dare leave her in it very often as the kids can tip it so easily. Kristi doesn’t seem as strong as the other kids in so far as she can’t hold her head up or as Tommy did a few days after he was home. She does have good lungs and knows how to register protests.
Will be looking forward to getting the box of supplies for the dispensary. We have to make all our own dressings out of 2”x3 “ gauze. So will appreciate having some dressings.

The walk up the hill didn’t bother me when we came back to Malalo on Monday – six days after Kristi was born. I really have a lot more pep than I thought I would have. I have only one house girl now, so I’m really glad I feel so good. Minimum discomfort from the stitches.

Paula and Tommy carry in wood and set the table. Paula does all kinds of other errands so willingly and watches Kristi if I leave her for a second while bathing her.

Friday.

Just got your letter this morning. Last night Kristi slept from 11 to 4 which gave me a pretty good nights sleep.

1963 September 17.

Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Malalo Mission station to Beryl and Bruce 2314 So 7th St. Minneapolis 6, Minnesota, USA

Dear Beryl, Bruce and Danny,

I am sorry to be late wishing Danny a happy birthday, but I do hope he had a nice day and that he was home from the hospital. I am so anxious for you to keep me informed of his progress, and what they are doing to him. When you have him home, and when he hast to go back. How much does he weigh, and the new things that he can do.
One of my nurses has been on vacation now for a week and will be gone for another week so things have been a bit busy. It seems my house girls get less done now than they did before Kristi came. We washed diapers every day as the washing machine doesn’t work. The soap ate all the ? the washer so we have to get it relined, or something and hope to have it back before long.

Al and the kids and Phyllis went to church at a nearby village and so they were gone all day. (note: Most likely to the Busamang village). Kristi and I had a peaceful Sunday. She’s less than three weeks old so I thought it unwise to take her among too many people yet. I was glad I had not gone as she had a tummy ache and cried most of the morning.

Al will be gone again for two weeks so I’ll get lots of cleaning, sewing and mending done. He bought a beautiful piece of material for a dress for me so thoughtful. We surely love and miss you. God‘s blessings to you. We are glad to hear about the seminary merger.

Love, Al, Ina and the kids.

1963 September 17 a copy

Dear Claudia and the Phillip Circle,

Your wonderful box arrived this weekend, we surely are all thrilled with it. I showed the bags to the nurses right away, and they were so pleased. It surely will aid them, and helping their people.

A German lady is working with the women of the congregation trying to form the equivalent of a ladies aid in the states. We hope to work through this organization to get our delivery room going. And that they will look after our nurses when they are going from village to village.

Kristi is wearing her new blue booties today. Last night we tried out the sparklers. There were quite a few school boys and girls around. They were frightened at first as they expected a loud noise with them. Paula and Tommy really enjoyed them. I really wish you could’ve seen Tommy’s face when he discovered the Jell-O in the box. After every meal, he always looks so expectantly “Hab done Jell-O now.”

Little Kristen Judith arrived at the hospital at Lae on August 28. She made sure that I would arrive at the hospital in time by presenting her brow first. Actually, I arrived at the hospital four days early with ruptured membranes. Friday is the only day that the Victor would be gone for sure, and don’t you suppose that was the night that I ruptured membranes. The head was so high so I had to curtail my movements a bit. As God would have it, the boat did come back unexpectedly, and we were able to go into Lae that night and arrived about 9:30 AM.

We have a guesthouse and Lae that the mission provides for people passing through and those who have to come in for medical attention. Al and the children stayed there while I was in the hospital. One of our house girls went with us, and helped Al take care of the children and stayed with them when Al would come to the hospital. There was not restrictions on the children coming to visit me so in the afternoon Al brought them up. They were so excited about riding in a car and having ice cream that they didn’t care if they left me in the hospital or not. Tommy said, “tank you, welcome, goodbye,”and was off to ride in the car.

Guest house with several building with bedrooms and the dining room building. Downtown Lae

The mountain people were finally able to get their airstrip finished. It surely has taken a long time. A trial trip was made a couple of weeks ago, and now a government inspector must go in and approve it before they can get regular flights in. And the people really have had to work to get it. I surely do hope that it will prove it’s worth an economical development. They do such lovely vegetables and there is a market for all that they can grow in lay. So if the cost of transportation isn’t too high, they ought to make it out OK.

They had been working on a road to the same area for 16 years, carving it out of rock and mud. Many, many of the Buang people have lost their lives on it. They have 7 miles that are possible but the rest of it looks pretty hopeless to me. There is just sheer rock and if they carve into other areas, it just keeps sliding as soon as a big rain comes. With the road building equipment that some of the companies have in the states, it would only take a couple of months I think to get a pretty good road through there, but with pick and ax, it does take a while.

Al is planning to attend a big baptismal service up there, leaving tomorrow and staying for two or three weeks. I hope that he will be able to fly, but I don’t think it has been approved – the airstrip that is. He’ll have to look at all of the schools again and help the pastors with their problems helping to iron out rifts….

Building the Wagua airport by hand ! Tractor that was purchased for this project.

Building road in the Buangs

Buang Area of Malalo Circuit written by Alvin Erickson in 2024:

If any of my family were ever to go to Papua New Guinea, one of the areas they might want to visit is what we call the Buang area. If one starts down the coast from Lae, New Guinea to the south one first crosses the Markham River which enters the ocean just west and a little south of LAE. At that point the coastline goes from east to west now to the south so it’s goes straight south probably 12 miles. About 5 miles south of the Markham River if one looks west they will see mountains. Behind those mountains is the upper reaches, the headwaters of the Snake River. This is where some of the Buang people live in the headwaters and also further downstream.  The Snake River at this point is going away from the coast and in a southwestern direction.   There are actually four different ways to reach this area.   I am going to describe them briefly. One of the ways I used to go was to start at the coast and walk being inland about two or 3 miles to village Bumatu.   Then further inland following a stream.   If you look at a picture taken from Malalo station looking northward past Busamang, way up the coast you can see a knoll or small mountain right near the coast.  The path I am now describing was south of that knoll maybe a mile or two.  It was on the Malalo side of that knoll, not the Lae side.  This path took me eventually to the south side of the stream where there was big tree that had fallen across the stream. At that point I could use this tree as a bridge and find myself on the north side of the stream. Of course when I did this I had New Guinean guys or women with me. When I went walking in these mountains I always tried to have people with me because you never know what might happen a snake bite or being attacked by a wild pig. Fortunately we didn’t have large animals to fear such as a panther or a lion or a wolf. Once I was able to get over this stream and I don’t know the name of it, I was then confronting a path that went up the mountain,  a four thousand foot mountain. This mountain had its own challenges. First of all climbing a mountain of 4000 feet takes some time and some energy, much because of the coastal humidity. Secondly and I only found this happening in this one area, when one reached about 2000 feet up and, of course, we are going basically from sea level, one started to get into area where there were many blood sucking leeches. At that point it made good sense to keep hiking quickly so leeches could not grab on to one’s shoes, climb up the shoe and then the crawl and then go inside of the sock down towards the foot again. So what happened is if one stopped to look usually down inside the sock was a leech having a good meal on one’s blood. For this reason I usually carried a pack of cigarettes which I would light up one and then put the burning end on the leech so it would let go of my leg and I could get rid of it. Since the New Guineans did not have shoes and socks they were even more susceptible to being bitten by these leeches. So at this part of the mountain no one was standing around. We were all on the move in somewhere on the path we found ourselves out of the leech area.  By this time however I was getting tired. I would ask the New Guinean guys how far was to the top of the mountain. They would always say what’s oh it’s just a little ways yet. That little ways might mean still one more hour or more of walking but they weren’t about to tell the full truth. I guess they thought teasing the missionary along was better than having him get discouraged. Finally though we would reach the top of the mountain and descend about 1800 feet to the village of Wagau.   I remember two things about Wagau. One was that they had a small Ford tractor there with a long belt attached to a saw so they could actually cut up some trees to make boards for themselves. The previous missionary, Fred Scherle, had help them get this tractor. I’m not sure how they got it in there as the road in had not been finished.  I can imagine it was very tricky.  Of course having a tractor like that meant someone had to know how to keep it running. Someone had to know how to put oil in it and change the oil. People had to obtain gasoline from somewhere to run the motor. All I know is that it worked for a while anyway. The second thing I remember about Wagau was that it was in a little flatter area there was there were mountains on one side and a long hill on the other side.  But the area in between was relatively flat so I helped him level out an airplane landing strip. Since there was no bulldozer or equipment for moving dirt, the only way dirt could be moved was to put a gunnysack between two poles, throw the dirt on the gunnysack and have two people carry it through up area that needed more dirt so this took a lot of people and a long time to level out the ground enough so an airplane could land. It took a few years before this landing strip was ready to be used. Years later I did fly in there on a mission plane when I was visiting that area. When I landed and got off the plane the people were all excited and I was too. I was so excited I forgot to get my suitcase off the plane and it took off. So on that trip I don’t think I had my extra clothes or toothbrush or razor. But visiting in the Buang area this was not a huge problem because these people were not sophisticated and probably didn’t notice that I had no change of clothes.

So I have told you two ways to get into the Buang area either by walking up the mountain from the coast or going in by plane. There were two other ways. The first time we went in there.  There was Ina and I with our little kids so we somehow got from Lae up to Mumeng.  Then the American missionary, Jack Reents, drove us with his Land Rover into the Buang area on a dirt road that followed the Snake River coming from the headwaters and inland. This was probably 1962 or 63 and the road into the Buang only went so far. At that point as the Malalo missionary there were three congregations in the Buang area.   Going towards the coast to where Pastor Onesimus lived at Biankon.  : He was the pastor of the upper reaches headwater villages including Wagau that I just mentioned. This congregation included the most villages. If one went west and a little bit south from beyond: following the river down  up on the mountains to the south were villages milepost one and milepost two all the villages in this congregation were on the south side of the river and most of them were up on the mountains. If you stood at milepost one and looked  the valley to the north and west you saw some very steep mountains where no one lived and there were waterfalls on some of those mountains there was usually grass and not a lot of trees. Bruce Hooley and his wife Joyce lived in Mapos village. They were with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) which is part of why Wycliffe Bible translators. They were translating the Mapos language into the Scriptures. Their house was made of New Guinea materials. There were dangers on this mountain. When it rained little streams cascaded down the mountainside. A young boy had tried to cross one of these streams and had been carried away by it and was killed. There were also caves in this mountain. I went into one of these caves with some New Guineans but we can only go so far because a stream was gushing almost vertically in down inside the cave and this stopped us from going further. The third congregation was called Manga. It also was on the south side of the Snake River and the villages were way up on the mountainside. When I went there the first time I still remember being very cold. Even though we were probably about 20 miles from the coast, the chilly wind caught me I needed to bring warmer clothes. In the ravine between Mapos and Manga there was a place where ancient people had drawn pictures on a stone wall that could still be seen. After we were at Malalo for about a year or more the missionary I replaced Fred Scherle had been moved to Mumeng. He then took over the Manga congregation from me and I was happy about that because I had plenty of area to cover as it was, three totally different mountain areas and like 50 or 60 miles of coastline with 15 villages.

Going back to the first trip we made in their with the whole family, we got our things out of the Land Rover and walked to beyond: which was probably another 6 miles or more. At beyond: the people had built a hut for the missionary and probably for the Australian kiap (government officer) as well. It was at Biankon close to Pastor Oneimus larger hut which was more like a house.  All was close to the Snake River. A little plumbing situation had been set up with bamboos bringing water down from side of the mountain to what place where it was coming out and one could go out and get a drink or wash one’s hands. There was also an outhouse for the missionary. The toilets had been dug but it requires a person to either sit down or pee into 4 gallon kerosene drum.  Its top had been removed but they had something covering it.  The bottom also had been removed so all deposit went through down into a deep hole.  I remember going in there the first time and when I remove the cover about 50 mosquitoes came flying up out of that kerosene can.  Not a good start for my toilet visit. 

So now I have here with you three ways to get into the Buang area. There was fourth way. The last trip I took into this Buang area I slept at Biankon:  I then walked to Moniau village going north. Some New Guineans went with me and we kept going up and down around until we came out at the road that led from Lae to Mumeng and onto Wau. This was a long hike. When I got out to this road there was a small village there. I waited for one of the trucks that some New Guineans had by which they transported people living along  that road to Lae to the market and to buy things. I think I waited several hours but finally got a truck to stop and take me into Lae. From Lae,  I could catch our boat the Victor and go back to Malalo. So this area I’m calling the Buang area was not easy to get to from our Malalo station but as I have stated, there were actually four ways to access this area.  It was a totally different mountain valley than the Hote area over the mountains just west of Malalo.

Geographically, the headwaters of the Snake River I’ve been talking about were only a few miles from the ocean. But rather than go east to the ocean the river flowed mainly west and somewhat southward and finally curved around probably 50 miles inland  and turned north. At some juncture it flowed into the Markham River which flowed eastward emptying into the ocean just west and a little south of Lae. So it’s beginning and it’s end were probably no more than 10 miles apart. I have described to you the northernmost area of the Malalo circuit, the Buang area which had two languages and two congregations when we left Malalo. I believe there is a road now constructed all the way into the headwater area.  However, because the whole area of Malalo Circuit got about 200 inches of rain a year, this road often is impassable.  There are pictures of different vehicles getting stuck on this road. Of course/ it is not paved. So if some family members ever decide to go to Papua New Guinea an interesting area to visit would be the Buang area figuring out the best way to get there okay.  Probably getting a vehicle and driving to Mumeng from Lae and then driving in.  One might be able to hire some PNG people’s vehicle or just ride along with some local people. 

Also the Kaiwa people and area were south of Malalo. One village Komiatom was on the Francisco River inland, Wapali and Bobdupi where in the mountains on the path from Salamaua to Wau and Buansing and Buikela or Salem were Kaiwa villages on the coast.

Jack Reents with family and his parents, The Hooly’s who were at Mapos and Pastor Onesimus lived at Biankon holding the red bible and at the center of second photo with the tie.

1963 September 18 a copy

Dear Inez, (Ina’s aunt)

Thank you so much for sending a card to Little Kristi. We are surely grateful for such a lovely healthy little girl. She weighed only 7 lbs. 7 oz., but I thought that was big enough for me. I did much fooling around, by beginning with contractions, five weeks early. I’d start labor and stop again and then start and stop finally went into Lae as Al was gone and I thought I’d not like to get caught here without a boat. I spent a week in Lae, then Al came back from the Highlands. I kept having contractions, and nothing happened, so I went home again. Then two weeks later, my membranes ruptured, and then the contractions stopped. I went to Lae again and sat in the hospital for four days. The baby didn’t come down, so I was worried that the cord would come down, but thank God it did not. Finally, the doctor did a pelvic examination and found that the babies forehead was coming first, that head was bent backwards. He was able to work the head around some so that I went into labor and brought the babies head down and then he could turn it some more, and a few hours later I produced a healthy little girl. As soon as they had her wrapped up, they let me hold her and I wouldn’t let her go until they were ready to change my clothes. I just had a small tear so I didn’t have much trouble with the stitches afterwards. Both Kristi and and I have gotten along very well. I’ve had more ambition after this one then I had after either of the other two. I guess because I was so grateful that she was all right.

I’m sure sorry that Ellen had to have such a rough time. I’m relieved that it is all over though that to come is equally as hard emotionally. I hope she gets to feeling real well soon. It is a relief to know that your insurance will cover. I’m sure with being hospitalized so long that the bill would be in the thousands of dollars.

We are hoping to dedicate our new church in November. They have been building it so long that people are tired of it and it’s hard to keep them at it. They are now working on the benches and my are they ever elaborate. Much like the ones we have at Bethany. We have such a good native carpenter. He really does a good job. When they finish the church, we’re hoping to get him to do a few things for us.

Wednesday. Last night we had a boy come up that had fallen on a knife and cut his throat. Fortunately, it wasn’t deep enough to go into his trachea and didn’t cut any large blood vessels. I was able to close the wound with a couple of stitches. It really was hard to stitch as the tear wasn’t near any strong muscles to push against when I was trying to push the needle through.

Al is in the mountains (Buangs) again for two weeks. We think that they will be home on Monday. He is attending a big baptism and confirmation again. When we are there in May, they had such a big baptism, they must be prolific. They had a huge class of compliments. I think all of the young people in the area go to confirmation because they are so little for them to do.

The Buangs (at Wagau), they had just finished an airstrip. I think that they have been working on it for about a year. It has all been by hand, pick and shovel. They have had to raise one side and lower another side to flatten enough land. They moved the dirt by carrying the dirt with flour sacks – not to backbreaking. Now they will be able to get their produce out to market, so I hope the cost of transportation doesn’t eat all of their profits up. They have been able to produce quite a bit of coffee, and that sells very well. So maybe there is hope that these people can develop yet. The church is really struggling in this area. Before the church was there, it was the center of their lives. Now however, with business in many fields the thinking is that you can’t have both-that you either belong to the church or you belong to the business world- not both. The big job for Al is to show them how they can be Christian business men. Just because they are Christians doesn’t mean that they have to remain poor. Al hopes to help them get some permanent schools going. As of yet they have only one student that has qualified to go to the higher education and that was a pastors son that is serving in the area, but is from a different village. So I guess we better do something about their education.

Paula and Tommy enjoy their new little sister. Tommy comes in with his dirty hands and face from playing and wants to kiss the baby. Poor Kristi gets slobbered on, but she doesn’t seem to be much worse for where. She has been a pretty good baby. I haven’t had to walk the floor half as much with her as I did with the other two. One day while I was having a shower and I had Kristi sitting or rather lying in her basket on the kitchen table. When I came out of the bathroom, here was the whole room full of people looking at the baby. They hadn’t knocked or anything they just all came trooping in.

May God continue love give you strength encourage to face each day. We surely are praying for you all. Love Ina.

1963 September 27 a copy

Dear Carol, (Ina’s Fairview classmate)

Thank you for your prompt current. Congratulations. We surely do enjoy hearing from you. The first four copies of the anthropology magazine just arrived. I have only had a little time to read some of the articles in the first one, but I enjoyed them very much. It surely was thoughtful of you to send them to me. It will be nice to be able to share them with others after we are through with them.

I was glad to hear that you and Dave have your disagreements. You know if you agree on everything one of you isn’t necessary, that wouldn’t be a very healthy union. Seriously I think you’re right about less psychology and a little more faith. Sometimes too much analyzing isn’t good.

My “confinement “at the hospital after I had Kristin, was really an education, especially after Fairview. You have to furnish so many items, yourself, and the equipment is just the bare essentials. I was really surprised when nobody bothered to check heart tones, blood pressures, or the like, after delivery, no one checked pads, fundus, or voiding. We weren’t supposed to be out of bed for about 12 hours after delivery, but there weren’t any utensils so when we had to go, we just had to get up and go to the bathroom. I was really surprised when I got back from the delivery room and here they brought my baby to nurse and every three hours there after. I can’t say I’m worse off for lack of care. I had one rectal, but I when I first went into labor, then later on, a pelvic, when I didn’t produce, but that was the extent of it. It isn’t really necessary as the doctor lives about three minutes away, and I was in the delivery room soon after I started labor. They only set up like we do for a precept delivery. Just an underpad and the doctor had gown, gloves, and mask, but didn’t have any stirrups and then for the delivery, they turned me on my side, of all the dumb things. My one leg was waving. I told him I wasn’t going to turn over, but they just grabbed me and over I went, I didn’t have any choice.

I don’t have to train my own nurses. The mission has a school at Madang and one at Finschhafen. But we have to keep close track of them when we get them as they tend to forget procedures and need help in prescribing medicine. They only have three years. They do have training in midwifery.

October 1 How nice to get another letter from you this weekend. Sounds like you did have a wonderful trip. You kids sound a little like Al and I. We couldn’t seem to agree on anything, but after a trip home with him, seeing him in his own setting, and his family’s reaction to him, and to me, I decided that he was the one for me and I haven’t regretted it. I think he grows more wonderful the longer we are married.

Believe me it is a challenge. Try not to get too involved that I don’t have time for my children and husband and Phyllis. I try so hard never to say “I’m busy “ when the kids want something. If I really can’t do it, then I try to explain, and Paula understands, but Tommy doesn’t. I really think though that in the long run they will gain more than they lose for having been “missionary kids “. We pray that God will give us wisdom, and rising them, they are so precious.

Thursday. This has really been a day, among other things I just lost my housegirls, so I’m going to be a bit busy. I swear that I won’t have any anymore. They steal us blind, no matter who it is. That wasn’t the reason for them leaving, but it did aggravate it.

God does continue to bless us and certainly is sustaining power. May guide us and keep you in his name I know.