anglican

Sleeping at the Anglican Mission

Allison:

That night we stayed at the Anglican Mission Station. The British missionary, Father Peter Robin, was "on patrol" at the time, walking from one mission outpost to another to visit the Papuan Evangelists who were opening small schools and beginning to teach local people elements of Christianity. We were welcomed by his assistants and volunteers from England and made to feel at home. One of the people we met then was Robin Hide, who was doing Volunteer Service Overseas. He eventually studied anthropology himself.

Marek stayed up late after supper, talking to the mission staff. I slipped off to have a good rest. The beds were actually nothing more than army cots, but I was delighted by the beautifully colored, woolen afghans covering them. Since Simbai was at about 5,000 feet in altitude, the night-time temperatures were very chilly, and the piles of afghans, which had been lovingly knitted and donated to the missions by Anglican women in England, were very much appreciated!

The next morning, I asked Marek how he had slept. He could hardly respond: he was freezing cold and had hardly slept a wink! A cursory look on my part revealed that he had not gotten into the bed properly, but had only gotten under the first of a great many of the layers of afghans and had never managed to get warm. Somehow, the fact that the "bed" was an army cot had led him to assume that it was not made-up as a bed at all.