Mr. Mei took me for a two-day walk in Laos while his wife stayed home with their baby, Kai. His other four children had died last year. The spirits got them, he told me. Kai, which means ‘chicken’, was a nickname to confuse them this time around. It won’t work.
‘It was malaria,’ whispered my friend Phone.
Family-sized mosquito nets, impregnated with repellent, cost five dollars. I didn’t see very many of them in villages in Laos and Cambodia, where malaria is the number one killer disease. I’d be chuffed if you could contribute to the Cambodia Daily Mosquito Net Drive.
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