“Isn’t it dangerous?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked some variant of the above question. Especially while living and working in Congo, where decades of war and instability have wreaked havoc on millions. But worldwide, less than half a million people die from war and murder combined per year. Malaria? 429,000 deaths per year. Cigarette smoking kills 480,000 people per year in the United States (41,000 from second-hand smoke).

“What about surfing? Aren’t you afraid of getting eaten by a shark?”

For the past decade, there has been an average of six fatalities per year due to shark attacks.

And what about that Ebola crisis? 11,310 deaths. In three years.

My family is especially afraid of flying. So I researched the number of commercial passenger jet fatalities for 2017: ZERO.

And THEN when I got pregnant and moved to COSTA RICA!?

“Aren’t you afraid of getting ZIKA!?”

Out of 76,000 births in Costa Rica last year, there were six cases of Zika passed on from mother to infant and none of those presented in microcephaly.

In the United States, there is something far more dangerous than Zika that kills an average of 11 children per week: car accidents. In fact, car accidents kill about 40,000 people per year in the US and an average of 1.25 million per year worldwide.

So, the most dangerous thing I have ever done is drive. Anywhere.

This is a photo of one of the armed rangers that accompanied us as we explored Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo a few years ago. Although no tourists have been killed in Virunga to date, more than 180 rangers have died protecting the park and the rare mountain gorillas that live there.

Magic 354/365, Armed Guidance in Virunga, DRC, April 24, 2015