Ina was busy writing letters in February of 1963
1963 February 7 (a copy) car crib
Dear Gleaners,
You’re very welcome gift arrives soon after Christmas. Al and I want to thank you so much for your gifts and prayers. Our dispensary is in sad shape as far as equipment is concerned. We told the people that unless they build a permanent building to replace the bush building that has been housing the oldest dispensary we would do nothing about it. Now however they have at last made a start by leveling a site where a cement floor can be laid.
We were happy to have your gift to start equipping it. The first item will be a scale for weighing, prospective mothers and following the children in a well, baby clinic.
This ‘bush house” is the old dispensary. In the fore ground is the new construction underway for the new dispensary. 1963 at Malalo
I don’t know if you know or not how much we use that car crib you gave us after Paula was born. To her that was her bed. Where ever we went, if she had her crib she’d settle down with no trouble. On the boat she had to make sure her bed went with every transfer.1 Not until we got well settled in New Guinea did she consent to having Tommy use it for a while.
a 1960’s car crib
Paula and Tommy are quite at home here, being more comfortable barefoot, and in a pair of shorts than dresses, shirts, and shoes. Paula much prefers her string bag to carry her dollies around and then a dolly buggy. They both will eat dry taro, and chew on sugarcane before they would indulge in any of our food.
Paula at Malalo with a bilum. circa 1962. Photo developed in Ja of 1963
I’ve been working on “Jesus loves me “and other songs as all Paula sings now is the native songs she picks up from the kids. Both of the kids love books, Tommy, especially is always after me to look through the catalog and picking out all of the tucks and twactors. At first, anything on wheels was a twactor. We have a little vehicle that can climb our mountain road despite the 50° angle it goes at times. We called this a tract grip and Tommy calls it a twactor. No matter what they might be doing when they hear that thing start they aren’t about to be left and they pile in.
Work here seems to be at almost a standstill. A new year has come to New Guinea. Jobs and buying things are a prime importance. The churches rapidly losing its influence. Our challenge is to find a way to make it important and a part of this new life.
Al feels his work should be concentrated on young people. The boys and girls are being educated, who will be tomorrow’s leaders. As in most countries, developing leaders is no easy task. Seems when someone gets into the position where they could become an effective leader. They get the big head, as New Guineans call it and will listen to no one. And then, of course, they are no longer effective leaders. It is very difficult to build confidence in any New Guinean. Their own people just don’t seem to trust New Guinea leadership. It really is strange.
The UN had a group going through this part New Guinea to see how the government was running things as it is a protectorate of Australia, which was awarded to Australia after the last war. There was a discriminatory effect which forbid any native to indulgent alcohol beverage. This has been repealed, and they are allowed to drink. This has brought problems that it has created other countries. Instead of buying food at the market, they buy drink. Consequently, the people at markets are unable to sell their food and the families of the workers suffer malnutrition. We are hoping when the newness of it all wears off, if they will go back to their normal way of doing things. It doesn’t seem to affect all the people…..
The letter is cut off
Footnote:
1 It seems so crazy but this is a characteristic I still have – double and triple checking that I have everything packed whenever I travel or plan an event. I was only 16 months old when on the ship Ina refers to. Was this a nature born characteristic or did it develop out of the fact that my life at a very young age was constantly uprooted and I had to make sure I had something steady? – or both -but was strengthened because of life circumstances. I have had many revelations about myself in these letters. Very few people have this level of documentation about their childhood. I will try to note my insights as they may reveal possible things about yourself. ~Paula
Ina Erickson in the center at her Nursing Graduation from Fairview Nursing school in Minnesota. Circa 1959
1963 February (a copy)
Dear Viola and Bob, (Fairview classmate)
We surely enjoyed hearing from you. I’ve lost track of so many of the girls if you know anything about other classmates, I’d really like to hear about them. We really have scattered since our graduation. I look back at our days at Fairview with amusement to what used to seem so big at the time, troubles, problems, and happy times. We surely did have some good times there.
Ina Erickson during nurses training
Coming from a Fairview environment it is quite a blow to take over medical work here where I don’t even have a blood pressure cuff. It is quite an adjustment seeing babies delivered in a dark, dirty corner of a house on the floor and a dirty burlap bag underneath instead of the bright clean delivery table and delivery room. The ladies have no anesthesia and still there’s never the noise that there was in the delivery room at home. The babies are caught by midwife with her bare hands and a rag, sometimes clean and sometimes not. They don’t cut the cord until the placenta comes and then cut it long and don’t tie it. The baby is washed with warm water, and then lays beside the mother nursing. When it is actually hungry some of the women assisting find who ever happens to be nursing will nurse the baby until the mother is well enough and has milk to give her it herself.
It is amazing how rare complications are here. Though the ladies rarely are shaved or washed, and have gaping tears, there are rarely infections. I’ve only had one or two retained placentas, malposition is rare, and hemorrhage is quite uncommon. I did have one that nearly died before anyone told me. A man came up and said the woman couldn’t see very well, and that she had been bleeding all night.
Until we have some way of taking care of them, I’m thinking that it is better to let them continue to deliver their own babies. I’ve tried to teach some of them to wash their hands and to have clean newspapers under the lady and have a clean towel to put the baby in. Also to massage the fundus after delivery. Encouraging them to sit in pans of warm water with a little salt in it for the big tears.
The families tend to be quite large, and at least they have had a lot of kids, but each has lost at least one or two. Pneumonia and malaria takes a high toll with diarrhea coming in close behind. With anti-malaria and penicillin, it is quite unnecessary, but they have to walk so far to get medical attention. Most villages have what we call doctor boy. They are native boys that have had three years of hospital training and can do simple, diagnosing and treatments, such as give penicillin, anti-malaria or sulfa pills. What they can’t handle they send to me and what I can’t handle I sent to the hospital in Lae which is three hours by boat across the gulf. (Huon Gulf)
The mission has furnished us with a big boat for medical emergencies. To make it pay, we take paying passengers into Lae every weekend with their garden produce. They sell it in the native market to the people who live in Lae and don’t have gardens. This enables us to get meat, fresh vegetables, and mail nearly every week.
Some villages had huts where pills were dispersed by 'Doctor boys', a derogative term. Some training provided to them so important pills dispersed to village ~Alvin Erickson
We just bought a secondhand tape recorder we found that we could purchase tapes of lectures, sermons, and concerts for just the price of the reel of tape. We are looking forward to getting them a lot as we feel so dried out as far as any cultural or spiritual enrichment is concerned. We go over the liturgy in our devotions every Sunday just so we don’t lose contact with it. The service still doesn’t mean anything to me. I hope someday that will improve.
Ends here
Alvin’s sister Betty’s family
1963 February 8 (a copy)
Dear John, Betty, Arlene, Carol, Steve, and Mark, \ ( Alvin’s sister Betty’s family)
We really are happy that all of you like your new house. We’re looking forward to getting some pictures of it. Thank you so much for your lovely Christmas package. It arrived this weekend before Christmas. Paula has been trying on her rollerskates one at a time. I wish you could see how Tommy dearly loves his little piggy. He is pulling that around wherever he goes. He is fascinated with the tail. He and Paula found a picture of it in a catalog and have to find the piggy in the picture all the time.
Al really appreciated the nice white shirt. He will be able to make good use of it. I have had my flowers in the center of our table since we opened the box. It has been so dry that we don’t have very many natural flowers so it adds a bright spot to our room. The kids like the little stuffed cowboy and cowgirl. I have them hanging on the wall in their room. Paula always says ‘ look mommy cute dolly’. And Tommy keeps coming to get me to look at them.
My, we are really having a hot dry season. It hasn’t rained for nearly 6 weeks which is a record. Nobody can remember it not having a rain for more than two weeks before. Work needs to stop after about 11:11 AM unless there is a breeze as it is just plain too hot to work until about three in the afternoon. Evenings are quite comfortable so it is easy to work then.
Paula and Tommy are constantly changing. Tommy is talking more and more. He loves the cows and is always venturing too close for my comfort as they aren’t, especially tame. Al has been able to get our little mountain climbing vehicle working after waiting For more repairs. He finally made a link to the chain. Though it keeps breaking, he manages to fix it again. We’re hoping that soon the link will come. Tommy calls our track grip at twactoa. Believe me that thing doesn’t leave the yard without both of the kids. If they are napping, they wake up pronto and are out like a flash to get on the tractor. When we go to Lae, Tommy examines underneath all the cars announcing Twactor twactor, which is anything with wheels on it.
Al has been at our annual conference up at the school we’re all of the missionary children go to boarding school. You could probably find it on your map –Wau. He has been gone about two weeks. They are supposed to be back yesterday, but evidently didn’t get all of their work done because they announced on our mission radio that they would all be delayed today. It is at this meeting that everyone is rested and possibly reassigned. We don’t plan on being affected by this, this year. Last year we are moved to Malalo.
We surely have been enjoying the National Geographic. We also enjoy sharing it with our teachers here in the station. They enjoy the pictures and can read some of the simple English.
Saturday; Al was here and is gone again. It seems he enjoyed conference very much this year. It was much more positive. Last year everyone was criticizing everybody and everything. Everyone came away quite depressed. But Al was real happy and seemed somewhat rested being able to get away from the heat for a while. Today he left for a trip on foot into the mountain behind our station. (Hotec) He will walk about five hours today. It was quite a warm day for walking. He didn’t get a very early start as he had a lot of business, that he had to be taken care of before he could go.
Letter ends here
1963 February 12 (a copy)
Dear ALCW’s Trinity Lutheran,
First of all, I want to thank you all for the very thoughtful package that arrived last week. I surely do appreciate everything you sent. I made some of the Jell-O for Paula and Tom and –boy that was a hit!. A big package has gone in nothing flat. We can get what Australians call jelly crystals that just don’t taste like good old American Jell-O. We really are enjoying it.
It was such a luxury to pack Al’s sandwiches in aluminum foil when he left on the trip to the mountains. The paper napkins are real luxury. With the number of guests we’ve been having lately it has been a job trying to wash and iron, so many cloth servettes as Australian called them. -we don’t only have to learn Jabem and pidgin, but we have to learn to speak Australian. The shelving paper is so nice. We have to put insecticides on all of our shelves to keep the ants – about 500 different varieties and cockroaches out of the cupboard so it’s nice to have a shelving paper so the dishes don’t get the insecticide on them. Newspaper just doesn’t add too much to the kitchen. Thanks.
I have a yellow bathroom so it is nice to have yellow toilet tissue. We can of course get white here. With two messy kids and drippy noses every once in a while I’m really enjoying the Kleenexes.
We get our groceries from a big supply house in Madang. About once a month, a boat brings our goods to Lae and we pick it up with our boat the Victor. Since it is Australians, mostly in charge of it, they order most of their things from Australia. Many of the Americans have been trying to get them to order certain commodities that can’t get or are so much better from America. But they always argue. It is too expensive. Finally, they were induced to at least price these things and there is now a shipping line between Los Angeles and New Guinea with New Guinea plywood. In the last mail we had a note saying a shipment from America had arrived not giving us any details of what there is. We just write an order, and if they have it, they send it otherwise if they don’t send it, we know that they don’t have it. So I’ll try ordering some of things and let you know what we can get now.
I surely was aghast at the postage. I think that I can get gauze bandages for the price of postage. I can’t, however, get the drapes, but I do hesitate, asking you to send them with the postage so high. Some have sent clothing articles in a big bag like a flour sack and they have arrived in good shape and not had to pay for the box.
I have discovered that my pressure cooker makes a good sterilizer. I’ve been having so much trouble trying to sterilize rubber gloves in the oven not getting hot enough and not burning. Then comes the dawning - that my pressure cooker gets hot enough and with the moist heat it doesn’t ruin the gloves and I’m sure that everything is sterile.
I wish I could see the audiences that gather outside my windows when I play the records that arrive from Mrs. Slatter’s circle. Thank you so very much. We will be able to teach our school kids, some of the songs. Needless to say we enjoy the records too. I wish some of the Sunday school kids and teachers could have seen the faces of the teachers when we handed the teachers what they sent to be put up of them and thank you for the pencils and books.
Al is now on a trip in the Hotec area right in back of Malalo over a very few mountain. He sent a note back the other day, saying that Paula had very thoughtfully included a string bag full of toys. He really got a bang out of that.
Photo from the Erickson collection. Unidentified
Both Paula and Tommy busy themselves and keep us entertained and their mother out of mischief. Mud and Tommy get along, so well, but true to form he and soap seem to have developed an allergy. He continues to make life, miserable for his kitty and dog by pulling their tails and riding on them. He still will sit down besides their dishes and share their food if mother doesn’t see him. Paula picks up all her toys and lugs them to a new location where she promptly unloads them, she’ll do this time and time again, but always manages to finish with them strewn all over. (My daughter did the same thing-Paula)
God has, indeed been very good to us. We hope to be able to do more in the line of mission work as we do know the language a little better now. Al wants to spend a lot of time with young people and giving classes and Bible studies to the Luther league. Having classes for the pastors. The native pastors really have a big job and really need your prayers. In America, we have a rich supply of friends, sermons, literature, to draw Christ and strength. They must be very dependent on God and Bibles in their own discipling, which is as it should be but difficult without outside encouragement. Back in the villages, it is rare for them to see an encouraging signs of Christian loving giving. They need your prayers and guiding their people.
With gratitude which often think of our friends and Trinity and can’t thank you enough for your letters, thoughts, prayers and gifts. God‘s guiding love be with each of you. In Christ name Ina.
Photo from the internet Kalakai photography
1963 February 12 (a copy)
To Elise and Mike,
I wish I could say Happy Birthday personally, but there seems to be a few many miles in between. Maybe you can save all your pennies and come and see us someday. We surely would enjoy that.
Paula and Tommy have grown so much. I can’t remember if you got to see Tommy or not. It doesn’t seem like we got to see very many people after he was born. And then we had to be on our way so fast.
We do enjoy New Guinea a lot. Paula and Tommy love to drink coconut milk and chew on sugarcane. Al likes sugarcane also when he has been on a long walk and is very thirsty. Water just doesn’t seem to quench the thirst.
peeled piece of sugar cane
The weather has been so very hot this dry season. For weeks, we didn’t get any rain which is unusual here as otherwise it rains almost every night. And when it rains it comes down in buckets raining three or 4 inches and just a little while. The people’s gardens have all been burned by the hot sun. I don’t know what they will do for food and their gardens are the main source of food. They just don’t have many to go to the store and buy canned food. Maybe they will fish a lot more and sell their fish.
Our house girls went hunting for shrimp, and came back with quite a few. They surely look ugly. At first, I didn’t know what in the world they were, then, after looking at their curly tails decided they must be shrimp. They are an army green and then we boiled them, and they turned the bright orange. Then I took them out of the shells. Paula and Tommy were helping me and I wanted to fry them for supper tonight. But they kept eating them so I didn’t have very many left.
School has just started here. We have our summer vacation during December and January as this is the hottest time of the year. Our school children live on the station in dormitories as it is much too far for them to go back-and-forth to their villages every day. They must make gardens so they can grow food for themselves. They grow taro and sweet potatoes, which they boil and eat dry without butter or gravy. They pick it up in their hands like we do bread. Their sweet potatoes aren’t like ours as they are white and when I cook it, I add a little sugar to it and then it taste almost like our white potatoes. They grow corn too and beans and tomatoes. Here on the coast, the tomatoes are small like cherries. They grow pineapple. They are so nice and sweet. Then of course coconuts grow too. Some of them grow coconuts to sell. They make copra out of the white coconut meat by drying it. Then they sell it and people make shampoo and soap out of it. We love to drink green, coconut milk after we’ve had a long, hot dry walk.
Photo of various sweet potatoes and taro. From FB of Humans of Papua New Guinea
Our congregation is building a lovely new frame building for a new church out of very hardwood. They have been building on it for over four years and I think they will have it done in April. At least that is when we are planning to have the dedication. It will seat about 1000 people. The present building is a bush building that is almost falling down. It has very big holes in the roof and the white ants have eaten out most of the supporting poles. I’m sure one of these days when we have a good earthquake, it will come falling down. Nobody puts a gate across the door so often the cows wander in and leave their evidence. One day during church, Tommy hollered at the top of his voice “Cow ta” which means cow pie. I surely was embarrassed.
I wish you a very happy birthday and hope you had a nice Christmas. We had a nice Christmas.
Love, Ina.
Old Malalo church 1962
The new church in process of building. Photo circa 1962
Contributions (date unknown)
$100 from Bethany Sunday school
$18.50 Zion AICW for dispensary equipment
$12, Chippewa, Lutheran Church, Brandon
$50 June Prange for dispensary equipment.
$10, Mrs. Guzman
$10 Sade Jones, personal
$5 Rose ( Ina’s cousin possibly)
$5 aunt Mamie (Ina’s aunt)
$15, Mrs. Hintzen
$5 aunt La –private (Alvin’s aunt)
$5 Mrs. Brown -private
$5 aunt Mary (Alvin’s aunt)
$20 on Martin and Willa - private (Ina’s sister)
$10 Elk paint South Dakota
$192 Alexandria Sunday school
$5 Sam Zimbelman
Glasses, 3– 18–0
Fishnet - 8 pounds
Flannel graph 6 pounds
1963 February 11 (a copy)
Dear Marge and Bob and girls (Jamison), (Missionaries in PNG who also came in 1961)
Were delighted to hear of the possibility of your spending some time with us. We only hope that it will be a reality. Al is now taking a two week trip in the area behind Malalo. Already I’ve had two letters and he has been gone two days – that is really a record as he doesn’t usually send any. This time however, they just happened to be people traveling through. He also sent some pork that one of the villages had given him. It had been cooked in green bamboo stick and was real good.
It is the watermelon season here and the people have really been bringing them in. Will be eating watermelons until they are sticking out of our ears.
Al seems to enjoy conferences this year. He said it wasn’t as depressing as last year. Maybe next year I’ll be able to go. It would be nice to meet some of the people.
The Victor is in Lae on Friday’s returning to Malalo on Saturdays and on Simbang. We usually have sick people taken in. Let us know by letter or when you might be wanting a ride.
Korrine will be leaving Bula on Friday (Feb 15). We will really miss having her and Ellie (Eleanor Unruh) around, but will enjoy having June around. Did you meet June when she was in Minneapolis with the Scherle’s. Speaking of the Scherle’s they left yesterday. All of the people from Malalo congregation went to see them all. They left here at 3 AM so I didn’t go with them.
I was cleaning all of my cupboards and closets, putting Deldrin on all of the shelves. Later in the afternoon, one of the English speaking, teachers came and asked me if it was true that we are moving. It seems that when the people saw my things scattered around, they put two and two together and got five. Seeing as it was conference time. They were asking Al about it when he came back from conference but he of course didn’t know what they were talking about. It really was funny how far the story got. It reminds me of my small hometown. We’re looking forward to seeing you when you come. They will always be beds.
1963 February 11 (a copy)
Dear Mrs. Meland,
In response to the letter regarding the recipe, I’d love to share one with you that we all have enjoyed so much and one that is very easy to make. It is for unbaked cookies.
Boil together for one minute
½ cup salad oil
½ cup milk
2 cups of sugar
Removed from the fire and stir in
3 cups quick cooking oatmeal
2 cups dry coconut
½ cup cocoa
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt.
Return to the fire and boil for five minutes and spoon out into cook sheet to dry.
Sincerely, Ina Erickson