Out of Africa

[qatarperegrine]

We are home from Gabon!

I am semi-officially in love with Africa.

Pictures and videos will be forthcoming. For now, suffice it to say: GORILLAS! ELEPHANTS! HIPPOS! ZOMG!

You all have evidently been busy in my absence, since my Livejournal friends page has 220 new posts since July 2. Since friends pages only go back 220 posts, you'll have to tell me if you posted something super-exciting on July 1. :-)

Two pictures to whet your appetite:

The Ndogo Lagoon, taken from an airplane. Every little scrap of land is teeming with life. Qatar this is not!	GORILLAS ZOMG!

Comments

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

Gorillas!!!! Squeeee!!!!!

Tell all!

[(Anonymous)]

I am too terrified of malaria to go anywhere exciting :(

You're TOO lucky. Awesome pics - more more more!!

QC

Baj

[(Anonymous)]

QC aren't there precautionary measures that you can take to avoid infection? My friend went to very improverished, disease-stricken neighbourhoods in India for some charity work a year ago and he'd take anti-malaria pills. Ofcourse it would scare the living daylights out of him whenever he forgot to take them and remembered afterwards.

Re: Baj

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Yup, there are a variety of malaria prophylactics available these days. None of them are 100% effective, but they're not bad. I took them when I went to India, and I'm still on them now for the Gabon trip. I guess I'll let you guys know in a couple months whether they worked or not. :-)

Re: Baj

[(Anonymous)]

I read the last National Geographic and it pretty much put me off travel anywhere where there's malaria infestation. To sum the article up - malaria parasites are smarter than we are. And no matter what medicine you take - there is always a strand of malaria out there that is resistant to whatever it is you're taking.

:(

Re: Baj

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I read that article too -- in fact, I just posted a long thing on malaria, largely based on it.

The message I took from that article was quite different, though: malaria is dangerous on a global scale, but not particularly on an individual one. Millions die of it in Africa because they don't have access to preventatives and cures; people from affluent countries who travel there are unlikely to get it and ridiculously unlikely to die from it. That's the tragedy: that it doesn't HAVE to be a significant killer.

The U.S. State Department's travel advisories tell you pretty specifically where malaria has developed drug resistance, so you can choose your prophylactic accordingly. We're taking doxycycline, which to my knowledge no form of malaria is resistant to.

Re: Baj

[qatar.livejournal.com]

More interesting stats.... According to the CDC, there were 1,528 cases of malaria in the U.S. in 2005, but only seven deaths. Of the 1,528, only 160 had been taking recommended prophylactics when they traveled to malarial regions, and only 72 had been taking them as prescribed. So really, the risk to tourists who are taking precautions are pretty limited.

[(Anonymous)]

You have successfully whet my appetite! :-)

Can't wait to see more pics!

Ann
http://mobaydp.blogspot.com/

Bravo

[(Anonymous)]

Nice pictures plus good story too,Thanks for highlighting malaria issue and visiting Africa too.
Hope next time you will visit Kenya too.

Re: Bravo

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it!

I'd like to visit somewhere in Africa again, although Liberia is probably next.