Settling into Stone Age meets modern
1961 December 2 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,
As you people shovel snow and worry about icy roads, we sit here and comfort with nice cool breezes and lots of sunshine. Now don’t you envy us?
We thought of you as we ate our turkey for Thanksgiving. We Americans are the only ones that celebrate it. So another American couple had to be going up to Wau so had to pass our place today, so I decided to do it a day earlier and stay overnight with us. We have several turkeys, so we killed one. They brought some fresh vegetables as our garden isn’t producing yet. My beans and peas are up but my carrots, parsley, cabbage and rhubarb didn’t come up at all. Today I added some compost and sprayed it in and planted it once again. We had such a lovely rain, I surely hope it grows.
We have heard from the Fricki’s, Jamison‘s and Ted Hilpert[1]. Everyone seems to like their stations OK. The Jamison‘s baby is getting along real well. Ted has a single male teacher on his station so they enjoy each other’s company very much.
Katie is enjoying her trip to Germany. Guess she won’t be able to make it to New Guinea on this trip. She had hoped to come back around the world and see us on her return trip. I guess it would cost more that she had thought.
Al and I are both gaining back our lost weight. Good for Al, but oh, woe is me. Paula says ‘baby’, ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ real plain but other than that she is sure slow at her pronunciations.
The school girls go around sniffing because they don’t have any hanker chiefs. Maybe the ladies could bring pieces of cotton material and ham some hanker chiefs about the size of a man’s. They don’t even have sleeves to wipe their noses on. Driving along the road we see many women with only grass skirts on and the children are naked. The men usually wear loin clothes that is a piece of material wrapped around their waist. Our school girls and the girls that work for us,-- we insist that they wear clothes. Some of the men are wearing walking shorts. They work better for sports and when the wind is blowing.
By the way mother, no I am not pregnant. I was losing my milk but after resuming my coffee again I seem to have enough to satisfy Tommy. He really does have an appetite. He eats about two cans of baby food three and four times a day and then quite a lot of milk. Now that we have our own milk we seem to be always short of it. We get at least 1 gallon whereas before we had 2 quarts a day and I had some left over. I guess I am just not as careful as I was. I do think that Tommy will have brown eyes. Tonight he discovered his toes. He sat in his little chair and played and played with them. Paula is getting to remind me more of Mickey every day. She walks like her and smiles like her and finds mischief like her. I am so afraid the dogs will bite her as she is always pulling their tails or ears or sitting on them. They seem to take it quite well for not having children around them before.
I hope Lisa is continuing to do well. I had a dream the other night that I saw her. I surely wish I could. I wish Bette would write.
Tommy can sit by himself for a little while. He puts his feet down on the little chair and pushes in and the back goes down. Paula loves to help feed him. Every once in a while I will let her put a spoon into his mouth only sometimes it goes into the wrong mouth. She has decided that it tastes pretty good.
Speaking of Bette, I let her first anniversary go by and now both she and Frank have birthdays coming up.
Yesterday I cleaned the chicken coop out some. We have about six chickens so we thought of getting a few more as eggs are about a dollar a dozen. The fence is in need of repair along with all the other repairs needed around here.
The Land Rover works fine so far. About the only thing not in disrepair.
Most all of our trips will be on foot. He will begin some week-long trips at a time. Each Sunday he has been going to several churches that are around this area. I haven’t begun to go as the children cause too much disturbance. Being the white woman, I have to sit in front and every noise the kids make attracts the attention of most of the people. Paula loves to run around in our shoes. She has quite a time trying to make the thong stay on though. I’ll hear her come thumping along in Al’s bedroom slippers. Soon there is a thud because she can’t keep both feet going without stepping on the toe or heel of the other shoe.
The girls are getting to be more and more help. Just having them do the washing and dishes is a big help. Paula obeys more and more commands. Like close the door and put it back. Bring it to mommy, and give Tommy a kiss.
God‘s blessings be with you love Ina, Al, Paula and Tommy.
[1] The Fricki’s, Jamison‘s and Ted Hilpert sailed on the ship with the Erickson’s and went to school with Al.
The men usually wear loin clothes that is a piece of material wrapped around their waist.
1961 December 3 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,
I hope you don’t mind me using this paper for a letter.(aerogramme) I had to write to Fairview for my grades to get licensed here in New Guinea. I made so many mistakes I had to start over. Again I might start by saying all is well. Tom and Paula have had the German measles. They surely had a mild case. Paula‘s eyes were red and she had a little cold. I did not realize she was sick until she began breaking out. Then three days later, Tommy broke out. He had only a little runny nose. Neither had a fever. Tommy surprised us yesterday by sporting a tooth. I didn’t know it was coming until it came popping through his gums which weren’t even red.
My first garden didn’t grow very well so I put some compost or whatever you call sticks and dead plants and spaded it in. Then watered and re-planted. Our corn, beans, lettuce and muskmelon are up but no sign of rhubarb yet.
We’ve got an extra housegirl. We are in summer now. It’s been fairly dry by one rain in a week. So I’ve had the girls carry water to my garden. We’ve been having a little company. Sunday night the couple that was here for Thanksgiving dropped in for supper. Then on Monday some people were driving to Mumeng which is 10 miles from us to look at some property the mission is thinking of buying. So they were here for dinner. I had such a time making my stove heat. I started about 11:00AM but didn’t get potatoes done until 1:00 PM. I had put a meatloaf and a dessert in the oven but they didn’t cook inside so finally I took the meatloaf out and fried it in a frying pan. It got done, but didn’t look very nice. I was trying to make a pineapple crisp, like apple crisp only using pineapple. The pineapple slices didn’t get very done, but everyone ate it anyway.
My school children have been having so many sores. One girl was completely covered. I didn’t know where to start bandaging. So I got a jar of antiseptic soap and made her shower every day. Her skin has now been healing up quite well. I have to make! -her shower or she doesn’t. If only I could teach them a little cleanliness. Trying to make them put their garbage in a hole is difficult. They just dump it in the nearest bush. I discovered this one day and made them haul it all away. Nobody likes me very well. The school girls and boys sleep on the floor and some have mats and blankets but for the most part they sleep on the bare floor. There isn’t another stick of furniture in the room. They cook over an open fire inside the house either putting sweet potatoes and corn right into the fire or using tin cans to boil it in. Very few have shoes but our school children are considered well off because they have two or three dresses and I give them soap to keep clean with. What we consider necessities are unrealized luxuries for these people.
Love Al, Ina and the kids.
Gurakor school boys
