Of Leopards and Mosquitoes

My second blog entry discussed the dangers of sharks and elephants, so now it's time for another couple of topical tropical beasties.

Much excitement was caused in our little neighbourhood this week by the sighting (but I don't know who by) of a leopard ('lay-oh-pad') a few nights ago. Tracks were found and identified by... someone. Our househelp, who lives a short walk away, was woken in the middle of the night by 'what sounded like a person' on the roof. Her neighbour poked a stick under her door, trying to shoo away what she thought was a dog, being barked at by other dogs. She wondered why the 'dog' didn't move on, but thankfully didn't open her door. The following evening our househelp wanted accompanying home after babysitting for us - a first. I braved the four-minute walk back home on my own. But I did check around while heading back, I have to admit. I've not heard anything about that beastie for the last few days, so it's probably moved on to another part of Karen... Interestingly, the Kenya Wildlife Service said they had to deal with a lion in Ngong first - a much more frightening feline.

And then today I ended up taking a little kid with a fever to a clinic. Later on his dad popped by, and told me the little one had malaria. And they'd not been anywhere, so this was quite a surprise. People here often refer to a fever as 'malaria', just like people back home refer (annoyingly to my mind) to a cold as 'flu' (though not as 'influenza' - that sounds far too diagnosed). But dad's puzzlement showed that wasn't the case here. Real, live, malaria, caught here in Karen, at 1800 metres. It's not the first time this has happened, but it's rare enough not to think about taking prophylaxis, common enough to use a mosquito net. Though that's probably more because mozzie bites are a pain.

But which causes more worry, announcements, chatter? The leopard. Leopards don't attack people unless provoked. We walked within 5 metres of one, with the children, at Crater Lake. It was the leopard that ran away. Mozzies, and the malaria they can (most don't and can't) carry, aren't big and scary, don't cause panic, but are far more dangerous. Our oldest obviously doesn't really believe this, the number of times I find her asleep with the mozzie net up. It tends to be the things we don't fear that get us, not those that do.