We have really had a busy month now before Christmas and I’ve just got to tell you all about it.

Water tank for household needs. Collects rainwater from the roof. All the water has to be boiled for 10 minutes before drinking. So one of the daily tasks is to boil water and get it into the refrigerator. As a kid, I remember the firm rule was only to ever drink water from the fridge and never the ‘tap’.

1962 December 15
Warning this letter is long, and rambly but so much happened.

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

Dear mom, dad, Willa, Martin, Mickey, Elaine, Jenny, Beryl, Bruce, Danny, Lois, Claude, Bruce, Betty, Lisa, grandpa, Dorothy, George, Inez, Charlie, Ben, Allen, Rick, Marion and Virgil, David, George, Betty, Keith’s, Herbert and Herbert, Elsie.

We have really had a busy month now before Christmas and I’ve just got to tell you all about it. It all started back this Saturday when we cared for this baby that would not breathe well. It’s OK now. I still don’t know for sure what was wrong with it but anyway as I was saying this was on Saturday. We were expecting company on Sunday. I had debated whether or not to bake on Friday or leave it until Saturday as everything gets stale and soggy so fast. I decided to wait until Saturday. Well, Saturday I didn’t get much baking done.

We spent the night in Lae, by the way -a trip to Lae is equivalent to taking a trip to Minneapolis. Only without gas station stops along the way so must provide bathroom facilities for children, drinks, food, and blankets for sleeping as they like to sleep most of the way though of course as it is always an overnight trip and it’s four hours each way. Well, so we came back with our company on Sunday.

We had a lovely ride even saw some dolphins and porpoises. We had to walk up the hill as the tractor grip wasn’t fixed yet and poor Mrs. Heist was about done in. She is one of the people we came over on the boat with. ( on the Oronsay from San Francisco) They are in their third term here. Her daughter, Janet, came to Malalo with her. She’s 13. She babysat for us on the boat. 1
We were going to all have showers before supper and I found no water in the tall tank we pump water into for use in the bathroom. No water in the tank we use for drinking water, no water in the laundry tank. We hadn’t put locks on our tanks and somebody used it all up and it had not rained. We don’t have an outhouse and can’t flush the toilet. No baths, and what about dishes and drinking? Well Al got buckets and sent the boys down to a stream about a mile away. (We couldn’t pump water into the tank we use in the bathroom because the pump was broken.)
So Al built a new pump station about 200 feet down our hill. It’s just a little trickle of a stream and he piped it into a 44 gallon drum settling tank and then intoa storage tank and then a pump which pumps the water up a pipe about 400 feet long to a tank on stilts. Then it is piped into the bathroom so we can flush the toilet. I hope the little trickle doesn’t go dry.
On Tuesday it rained much to my surprise and the two theological teachers from Bula came about 7 PM for supper and to stayed the night. All our beds were full and the kids are sleeping on the floor but we put some more mattresses on the floor and had a jolly crowd. The reason they had come was that the following day the people were going to open their council house on Salamaua. For the first time elections had been held and the people elected councilman from one of each village to make laws for these areas as a step toward self-government. The government made a big deal out of it so the people could get some idea how important it was. So they invited the missionaries and government people as well as hundreds and hundreds of New Guineans to open the council house.
The Victor(our boat) wasn’t big enough to transport all 64 of the school girls at once and it was too long of a trip to make twice so they decided to walk over to Malalo the night before. The school girls, all 64 of them stayed in the village at the foot of our hill.
What to take along to feed my gang as it would be an all day affair? We finally decided to make a huge kettle of macaroni and meatballs and  gallon jugs of lemonade, jelly sandwiches, as it’s too warm for meat. Also bananas, carrot sticks and cookies. We took paper plates and stuck in lots of spoons and cups. Fred and Edna Scherle2 were there too and had been told to bring a lunch so joined us.
We had 12 for lunch at all. I was thankful I had plenty of food. The Victor was going to make a trip back to Bula to take the two white teachers and Mrs. Heist, Jan and however many of the Bula School girls as could go. About 30 to Bula 1 1/2 hours over and 1 1/2 hours back in time for unloading and then come and get us to go to Malalo. Most of our food and all of our Mooley (lemonade) was gone. There was no drinking water available so what to do with two thirsty kids? We had left Malalo at 9 AM and got back at 8 PM. Finally we persuaded someone to go up after a green coconut in the tree. The green coconut milk has a little zip to it so it is quite refreshing. Both Paula (2½) and Tom(1½) love to tip the coconuts up and drink from them themselves and both loved the milk. Paula keeps asking for ‘conut conut.’
Daytime are 12 hours here on the equator with no twilight. It is dark at 6 AM and again at 6 PM all year round.
At 6:30 PM Victor finally came in about 7:30 we got back to Malalo in the dark of course and it was just starting to sprinkle so we raced up the hill as fast as we could, I was with Tommy and Al with Paula. Climbing our hill is like going from the bottom of Inspiration peak near Leaf Valley to the top every time you come home from somewhere. I was so exhausted when I got to the top I was ready to vomit and we were really drenched. Supper that night was really piecemeal.
We got word on our skid, the wireless radio, to keep in contact with the outside world. Another lady and her four-year-old would soon be coming to spend a week with us. By the way, to complicate matters, I now have new house girls. I was trying to break one of them in first while I still had my two old house girls but they were teaching her so many bad habits that I had to get rid of them. So here I was going to have company and only one inexperienced house girl.
Well, anyway, the people were to ride on Saturday so I was busy baking bread, cake, banana bread, and cookies and do you suppose I could get my oven hot? It just wouldn’t bake anything on the bottom. I can’t just run down to the store and get some bread or ice cream or cookies. The bread was beyond help, but the banana bread I took out and turned upside down to bake it and really burned it, in all the confusion of meeting my company. Al still has not gotten the water fixed so we are carrying buckets of water.
Most houses have showers and if you want a bathtub you have to buy it privately. The mission won’t supply it. Well Fred and Edna bought a tub and were so kind as to leave it. Arlene Conlon sees the tub and wanted a bath in a real bathtub I was delighted to oblige until it came to putting the plug in Tommy had carried it off somewhere and I just couldn’t find it anywhere. We wadded up a washcloth around the smaller kitchen sink plug and it stopped the water long enough for a bath. Arlene said that she and Marky would stay until Friday and then her husband would come over for the week and go back to Lae on Monday. We were so happy to have them and they’ve been so nice to us when we were in Lae. However, there was only one complication and that was the week I was supposed to go to Lae as the boys from Malalo are graduating from sixth grade, which is quite an accomplishment. We were having confirmation at Malalo so Al could not go so I was supposed to be present at Malalo. An additional complicating factor on Tuesday what that we were planning to go to Madang on the mission boat for two weeks to have our physicals etc. at the Mission Hospital at Yagaum. Well when the weekend came, Arlene decided that her husband would be too tired to make the trip to Malalo because he had to make a trip to Madang for a week of meetings. She decided to go back to Lae on Friday. Her husband had been planning on coming and was going to leave Thursday after Arlene arrived. He really wanted to come after all. Well, it looked like maybe I could go to Lae after all. Al wanted me to have a party for the confirmation class before I went on Saturday -only 200 kids, it was supposed to be at 3:00. I would leave at 4:00 or 430. Friday after Arlene left, I baked. I baked banana cakes- eight round layers and one 9 in. pan and three regular size tins. On Saturday morning I made chocolate powdered sugar frosting with peanuts and coconut and made 10 gallons of Mooly which is lemonade. Well, things being what they are, the party didn’t begin until 8 PM and the boat did not come so I didn’t get to Lae after all.
I didn’t have enough cups for the party only about 30. So we took a bucket of hot water and some rinse water and dish towels and quickly washed and wiped the cups for more people to use. We had a round layer cake and a long 8 x 11 cake left. Not nearly enough to go around again even by cutting them in half so much to the dismay of the boys and girls. We took them home.
Sunday dawned on December 2 and it was nice and rainy. This was confirmation Sunday and all the girls had nice white dresses, and men white laptops and T-shirts. Al started church 9:00 AM. He had baptism of the children, of the heathen, confirmation class, and communion. The service broke at 12:30 for one hour and at 1:30 he went back. It rained so hard and the roof of the old church had so many holes that everyone got drenched. The communion wafers stuck together so many got two and three and even four. Al was exhausted as he tried to preach 2 sermons in Jabem. He does so well , but it still is so hard.

A confirmation class. Not sure which year.

In the meantime, the people from the sawmill, the Beck’s, were returning from Lae and got stuck in a bad storm so turned in at Malalo and walked up our hill in drenching rain. Evelyn fell down once with her 10 month old baby. The fire was out and I had given my new house girls the day off. It just happened Susanna and Mathalina, my old girls were back visiting, and pitched in and helped me. The Becks have two children. We just got them warmed and dried and fed and Al came in so exhausted. He got dried off and tried to be sociable. About 10 PM he got sick and vomited. I think it was exhaustion so tucked him in bed after taking an antimalarial for good measure.

Ina with Tommy, June Prange from Bula School and perhaps Adela Wilkin who came later in 1964. Taken at the Bula School

It was good I had gone to Lae anyway, though I was disappointed to miss the Christmas program that our higher schools were putting on. Everyone said afterwards that it was really good. They’re just are not enough concerts in New Guinea so this was a real occasion. It was an experiment for the girls and boys performing together something unheard of in New Guinea.
Phyllis who teaches at Bula, our girls school, which is 45 minutes away by boat and Eleanor Unruh who teaches grade 3,4,5,6, came from Lae. Ellie will stay with us until after Christmas.
She and Phyllis are conducting a refresher course for some of our teachers and a rush program for our mountain kids. Out of 10,000 people from this mountain, none are in English school. So Al wanted to bring the brightest teachers here and drill and drill until they can pass an entrance exam into our station school. One thing about the mountain people is if they do get educated they are very interested in going back and helping their own people out. I might add the mountain people, are very interested in being helped out. Often the coastal boys after the mission has paid for their education turn their back on the mission and go their own way, seeing where they can get the most money, one can’t really blame them, but New Guinea will never progress until the masses have a higher standard of living, medicine, and education.
I have been having such a time with a rash I believe was a penicillin reaction so I spent most of my nights reading instead of sleeping so I wouldn’t scratch. Then I had to do my washing and ironing and meals all of which my old housegirls had to help me with before because my new girls just weren’t trained yet.

Every November/December packs of clothes were distributed to the Malalo station workers and students if there was enough. This is just one of the tables.

One Tuesday night we were distributing Christmas gifts from American churches to our teachers, evangelist, preachers and students in our higher schools. We had about 90 families to fix things up for so it was well after midnight when we finished. I sank down on the bed and said to Al I just can’t move one step further. I was going to go turn off the light plant when someone was at the door. Al said “you’d better get something to eat as you’ve got a long night ahead of you. A lady was having difficulty having her baby and wants you right away”. So I grabbed my bag and went rushing down the hill. The girls were there to look after the kids.
It was the ladies fourth baby, the third one had died during delivery. It was down to the first station but her cervix was edematous and sticking out. I thought perhaps her whole uterus prolapse with the baby intact. The heart tones were good. I decided to send her to Lae as the boat was here and I didn’t think she could deliver it herself. Our native nurse went along ‘just in case’ and that ‘just in case’ happened. Just before they got to Lae, the baby was born alive and the mother didn’t bleed. She was taken up to the hospital and the next day returned to her village. It was about 2 AM when I had finished with her and sent her off on the Victor. I decided to sleep in the village as they say in pidgin ‘me no Enup’ to climb the hill. And Al brought the track grip down and took me home.
We kept learning about polio breaking out here and there and Tommy hadn’t had any vaccine. I’ve tried and tried to get it but they never had any, at Lae nor the mission hospital had sent me any when I requested it. The hospital where we had been planning to visit on our way to my dang add five cases and was put in quarantine, so no one could go in or out. Then we heard that they had eight cases of polio at the Yagaum hospital at Madang where we were going to go so we canceled our trip to Madang.
We had been going to try again to get Tommy’s vaccine when I went in for graduation and the Christmas program, but you know how that turned out. Our boat had to go in so I was ready to go in then only the boat had to take this lady who was having a baby and during the middle of the night, so I couldn’t go then either. I was sure Tommy contacted polio while we were waiting. So on Friday our boat went into Lae again and we all got aboard and all went to Lae and Al had his third shot and Paula her third and Tammy his first polio shot much to my relief. When we got home on Saturday, a man met me at the shore saying a man from Buakup was having some pain in his chest. So I walked over to Buakup to look at him. He had such ashen color and erratic pulse I knew he had a heart attack so – dashed him off to Lae on the first boat. He died the next day in the hospital.
Then on Monday, Al left for a meeting where he’d have to spend the night. I met him at a village on his way back. While I was there, I checked the sick people and bandage sores. There were so many with sores we had a production line. An English-speaking native was home and his village from school in Australia. He washed all the sores, I cut bandages and applied ointment and penicillin, and another old man cut tape. I gave shots and examined other ailments.

Soon after we got back to Malalo, Al was trying to fix the track grip otherwise we’d have been up the hill. A man said would you please come look at this man? His hands have been eaten by a shark. I went tearing down to his canoe there was a man drenched in blood with his hands all bandage I checked his pulse and it was good and he was conscious. He had been fishing on his canoe quite far out and caught a fish. He reached down to pull it in and then a shark flipped up and grab the fish and the man’s hand. He pulled real quickly and pushed the sharks face with his other hand and got that one bitten also. I don’t know how he got away but he had both hands and fingers that were still attached. These two fellows that were with him grab T-shirts and made tourniquets and by some miracle they had bandages with them on their canoe and put compress bandages on. He was in pain and his pulse was starting to get erratic so fortunately the Victor was in so we just sped him on his way to Lae where the doctors could sew him up properly.
Now in January, we are expecting a German lady that is helping with the women’s work. Ted Hilpart and his girlfriend, Fred and Edna Scherle and Jimmy, and Australian couple and an infant son, Barb and Vince Fricki. So we will have our hands full with companies so don’t be worried if you don’t hear from us. (Note from Estelle-we did not hear from them for a month).

God bless you and grant you all a very merry Christmas. We surely long to see you all. Thank you Bette and Claude for the package. It arrived a little bashed up but I think the contents will be OK. We will wait until Christmas to open it. It certainly was wonderful of you to think of us and so generously. You have so many of your own problems. You all are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. We are grateful to have a common bond though we are miles apart.

Mubu village. Ina trying to persuade a man with TB to get to the hospital.

Though depressed and discouraged sometimes we find God so willing to answer our every need.

Tommy’s vocabulary is increasing. His best word is cow and anything he doesn’t have a name for he says cow. He can say light, door. He loves to close the door. Anybody in the way had better watch out because he really slams. Kitty with a lot of added saliva to make it more indeviling, doggy, hot, up -for both up and down, mommy, Aula for flower - Jabem is ngaula and Paula says Howla for flower. So Tommy says aula for Paula which is almost the same.  Or muk for more milk and constantly dragging me to the fridge for more milk. Paula is growing so tall but is so slender. They both play outside so much of the time.
Love Al, Ina, Paula and Tom.

Christmas 1962

Congratulations if you made it to the end. I’m not rereading it because I know I’d never send it for all the mistakes. Merry Christmas to all and all a good night. (It’s 10 PM.)

Footnote:
1 Martin and Florence Heist Evangelism and administration at the Bumayong High School in Lae. 1946-1967. Janet their daughter babysat Paula on the ship Oronsay from San Francisco to Sydney.

2 Reverend Fred and Edna Scherle evangelism and social concerns. 1946 to 1967. 1972 to 1981. They were stationed at Malalo from 1946 to 1961. Fred recruited Alvin Erickson to the missions, Alvin was stationed at Guroker near Mumeng. The Mumeng school was having troubles so the Scherle’s traded stations since Malalo was running smoothly.

Teachers at the Bula girls school at the time:

Phyllis Engebretsen. Teacher/Education Bula girls School and Malalo elementary school. 1962-1979
Eleanor Unruh Teacher/ Education. Bula girls school and Tiria 1962-?

Korinne Okland Madsen. Teacher/Education Bula/Malalo elementary school and Kaiapit
1962-63