Dear friends and family

We have come to end of our break but the last few days we have both been ill with some kind of gastric bug ☹. Now Wendy has come down with a virus. Anyway, we are glad it happened on our break 😐.

On Friday David went to the funeral of a dear friend of ours going back to the early days at Katagu in the early 1990s. His name is Brian Samogoto (the picture above shows Brian, Rose and Sisime in 1993). He was a help to us in language learning then later on in our early translation work. We unofficially adopted his son, Sisimelugae (shortened to Sisime). When we heard that Brian was in hospital we visited him several times. He was being treated for TB and looked very ill but the last time he looked a lot better. The next time we went we were told that he had been released and had gone home. So, the next time David was out that way (Katagu) he went to visit him but was told that he was back in hospital. It was only about two weeks later that we heard that he had died. Then his daughter rang and told us that his funeral was to be on Friday. He was the village court clerk.

With love from

David and Wendy