Life at an outpost
Paula had malaria on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thank God for these pills.
You should see our method of boiling and washing clothes.
Our home is nestled in mountains except straight ahead
1961 October 8 to Estelle
Letter written by Ina Erickson from the Gurakor Mission station to Durward and Estelle Titus Box 224 Route1, Carlos MN USA
Dear mom and dad,
Well so far so good. We have all survived. Tonight is the first time, of many I suppose, that the children and I are alone. Al and Horrolts have gone into Lae. The Horrolts wanted to take some trunks in to ship them and also wanted Al to see the road again, for soon he will have to drive it by himself. Paula had malaria on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thank God for these pills. Even with them though Paula had quite a high temperature and I was so concerned on Friday evening because she felt so hot. She had such conniptions when I checked her temperature so I quit checking it. I prayed and prayed she would be OK, and when she woke up she felt so much cooler. God’s protecting arm is around us each of us no matter where we are.
Sunday we attended church here at the compound. The church in the village isn’t completed yet so they held service in the school. I wasn’t going to go at first because Paula was sick, but after she went to sleep, I took Tommy and the stroller down to listen what was going on. After church had started, one of the people told Pastor H that I was outside. So he stopped everything while I came in and he gave me a chair in the front facing all the people. It really is strange sitting through a service that I don’t understand, but for one or two words. Mom, these people can really sing. It actually hurt my ears. At night I can hear the boys and girls singing before they go to bed.
I now have two girls helping me. It really is difficult trying to tell them what to do because I can’t understand them nor they me. All is demonstration. If I don’t show them exactly what I want, I have to do it over anyway. I think once they know what I want they will be very helpful. You should see our method of boiling and washing clothes. I was bemoaning- no washing machine -but they didn’t even have a scrub board. We build a fire outside and with rocks around it then put a wire mesh across and place a huge copper pan on top. Then heat the diapers and etc. to boiling, then sop them out with a stick into a pail of cold water where the girls scrub them with their hands. Then rinse and hang to dry. Time consuming wouldn’t you say?
Our home is nestled in mountains except straight ahead. There it opens into a valley. The clouds hang around the mountain peaks nearly every day. Then along about 4:00 PM it rains for an hour, then usually during the night it rains a lot. There is a stream about a mile below. They can’t seem to keep a bridge over it, so we have to drive through it. If it’s been raining, it’s too wide and high, so one has to wait until the water goes down.
We have 12 hour days. The sun doesn’t come up until 6:00 AM and goes down soon after 6 PM. Then between 8:30 and 9 PM we are ready for bed. I think just because it’s been dark for so long. We do have electricity in the evening, but none of my appliances will work on it. Our home that we will be living in has three bedrooms, a study, living room, dining room, kitchen and bath. We do have running cold water saved from rainwater which is in a huge tank, so our water is soft. And we have an indoor toilet.
We are all fine. Paula is OK again.
Gods blessings love the ‘E’s’.
1 This was important for missionary wives to train some of the New Guinean women in ‘European’ ways. They were paid and this trained them to eventually get other jobs, and was an avenue to help bring the New Guineans out of the ‘stoneage’.
Tommy and some of the Gurakor folks
Yard at Gurakor
