You may remember that Lion Guardian Kapande was very ill with appendicitis a few weeks ago. (http://lionguardians.wildlifedirect.org/2008/03/18/kapandes-surgery/). Last week he went back to the hospital in Nairobi for a final check. I had to get a person to accompany Kapande to Nairobi whom he can trust because I was held up in Camp and couldn’t go with him. He is getting better and we expect him to be back on duty in the next month or so. Kapande is pledging for help from you to help pay his hospital expenses and other cost incurred because of his illness. If he were to clear this bill himself it will cost him all his Lion Guardian wages for more than a year. I am not sure of the actual bill for the hospital. I will visit him on Sunday and get to know the right amount.

Kapande’s life has had a lot of dramatic events because his father disowned him for volunteering to be a Lion Guardian last year. This led his father to send him away without any livestock, which he had been herding almost all his life. When he was a herder his payment for a year was one cow with a market value worth Ksh 10,000. This was supposed to cater for his family needs as well as his savings for the future.

Sadly, his wife too has been admitted to the clinic with birth complications. If the clinic is able to treat her problem, then there will be no cost incurred, I will send updates as soon as i get them.

We all hope that Kapande get well so that he can continue tracking lions and helping his community. Evn though he is sick, he has been reporting lion sighting around his area with the help of herders.

Here is a photo of kapande learning how to write.

By they way, I visited the Mara tirangle blog and they are mourning the death of two lions. Here is the link to the site. http://maratriangle.wildlifedirect.org/2008/04/15/two-lions-dead/.