Mendi, 1952
Miss Elsie Wilson came to Mendi as a teacher to work in the new little mission school. She arrived with Rev Roland Barnes and his wife Miriam, and Sister Joyce Walker in October 1951. Elsie Wilson was an experienced teacher. She went to New Britain to teach in the Methodist Mission school at Vunairima near Rabaul in 1939, before the war. Just before Christmas 1941, there was news that Japanese Navy was on the way to invade the islands of New Britain and New Ireland as well as mainland New Guinea. Elsie Wilson was one of hundreds of Australian women and children who were sent back to Australia by ship, just before the Japanese arrived. She was very disappointed to leave her work in New Britain but found a job teaching in South Australia. At the end of the war, she applied to go back to New Britain but the MOM Board sent her to North Australia instead, to Elcho Island. Elsie Wilson really wanted to work in New Guinea and was very happy when they changed her appointment. She arrived back in New Britain early in 1947.
When the church was looking for a teacher to start a new school at Mendi, they wanted someone who was experienced and who was very committed to the people of Papua New Guinea. They also wanted someone who would do their best to learn the local language. They chose Elsie Wilson who by then was a woman in her mid-thirties.
‘We encourage adult visitors to come in and sit on the floor and watch and listen to the children at their lessons.’
Elsie Wilson 1952
In 1952, when Elsie had been in Mendi for a few months, she wrote a story about the place and the people who she was meeting.
This is what she wrote.
“After breakfast this morning, one of the schoolboys came to help me in the garden. His name is Papu, and a more charming little boy it would be hard to find anywhere. He pulled out Kunai roots, and I raked over the patch and set out plants. Papu all the time chattered away to the two boys who help us with our chores, and after a while they came out to the garden, too. They worked well, but there was much good-natured chaffing about “Work, work, work”. When the bell rang for school, they went to bathe.
I went to school for the beginning of the session. Today had been set aside for the teaching of organised games. Tomas marched the children into school, and Stephen conducted prayers and catechism. The plan was to have a picture talk and singing, and then games. The same picture is used every day for a week, and by Friday morning there is a group of children who can talk quite well about it. This week the picture was a potter. We have had several references to clay pots lately, to get the children interested in making them, as they have only gourds for water. Games were upper-most in their thoughts this morning, but Welin talked about gourds, and said he had seen one at the Sisters’ house. I came up the hill again to fetch it from our house.
Sister Walker had gone to Murumb, where she holds a baby clinic every Friday but Miriam, the wife of Ladi, the catechist, was here. She had bathed the three babies, and was feeding them. The babies are orphans who have been given into our care. Three men were looking on, but they left Miriam and the babies to tell me that they had brought some wood and sweet potato for us. They were the fathers of the three babies, and we accept their gifts gladly, because they are a sign of the growing confidence and friendship of the Mendi people. We have come here to help them, and it is very good to know that they are beginning to understand that.
As I had to go back to school, I asked the men to come, too. We encourage adult visitors to come in and sit on the floor and watch and listen to the children at their lessons. As the children tidied the school room, I took the gourd to ask the men about it. They said they would bring me seeds to grow. One of the men said, “My tooth aches”. He opened his mouth and showed me the tooth, but I had to say, “I am sorry, but I cannot help you. Wait till Sister comes back from Murumbu”.
The teachers put the children in two teams for rounders. With nearly forty children, it was a good game, and great fun. Mendi boys and girls are very active, and they throw well, but will have to learn to catch a ball. I sat on a box and talked with some women who were looking on. Some men joined us. “What is that paper for?” asked one, a stranger. I tried to explain that I wanted to write words that I heard them say. A bell at midday ended the game. The group around me had been asking to see the babies, so they followed me to the house. We talked about their names, their village homes, and the fact that they are orphans. The first of the babies, Hunja Punk, is a delight to all. If the Mendis could write, Hunja would have a fan mail, but as it is, everyone who comes here asks to see her. Her old grandmother is as proud as if she had reared Hunja herself. The people must see what a difference cleanliness makes, and regular feeding also.
I managed to persuade the people to go outside the fence and thought, “Well, now to get some lunch”. By the time I had lit the fire three more men had come. It was another toothache. I said again, “You must wait till Sister comes”. The man said that he would wait, and they would have moved off, but they saw that I was getting a meal ready. There is surely no more absorbing sight in the Mendi Valley. These men, as so many others have done, stood at the door and made comments on all they saw. One can take only a little of that at a time, so by and by, I chased them all away.
Miriam and Dalsi came to feed the babies, and Papu came to work in the lunch hour. I sent him off, to wait for the bell for afternoon work, but he was here before I was ready. He brought two other boys with him, and I worked with them until after Sister Walker came home. She had had a good clinic, and said that she had given worm treatments to forty children, had bathed sixteen babies, and had seen a number of bigger children. Welin and Oliberi said goodnight when they were going home. It is, “Goodnight Sister, good-night Hunja Punk, goodnight Bali, goodnight Tisho, goodnight pussy”. We wanted a picture of our household, and that was before we had Bali and Tisho, so we think we had better take that picture soon, before the family gets any bigger.”
Elsie Wilson 1952, Mendi
Sources:
Miss Elsie Wilson, Missionary Review, July 1952 p.12
Margaret Reeson Whereabouts Unknown, Albatross Books 1993 pp. 26-28; 483-4
Margaret Reeson 