On January 10, we received the very sad news from Edmond Teppuri, one of the Nukumanu translators, that two siblings of his wife Evelyn had passed away:
I am so sorry to inform you that David, Berol’s father (Evelyn’s elder brother) passed away on the early hours of Sunday morning (3:20am) and was buried about 11:00 am that day, then after we returned from the burial and at 3:15pm that same Sunday Florence passed away and was buried on Monday morning. Florence is Evelyn’s younger sister and is married to Andrew my younger brother. She is survived by Andrew and their 2 girls. Both of us are now in deep sorrow. Just imagine losing two members of the family in one day is just a double overwhelming sorrow. We don’t know when our sorrow will end, and also we have extra 3 mouths to feed and look after. I will do my best to do as much as I can in translation work.
Please pray for us!
Edmond
On January 16 we received the following update from Edmond.
The outbreak of diarrhea on the island was classified by the doctors in Buka as partly cholera. The situation has lightened a bit now. We were lucky that I have this Bgan [satellite phone] and an experienced nurse on the island and she handled the case well with the advice of some medical staff abroad, but our only fear is the medical supplies. Some supplies are already short.
Praise God that I was given this Bgan at the right time. I made six phone calls using the Bgan asking for medical advice from Dr. Amani Poraka and thanks that this device has helped to save the lives of some patients. Unfortunately not for David and Florence, because when I started contacting it was already too late.