Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
body in a way that had nothing to do with thinking—why they had chosen this life. There was no
puzzle in the poignancy of human need, the way men and women showed their injuries and asked
for help, requiring disinfectant or antibiotic ointment or a large Band-Aid, medical supplies that
most North Americans had in their homes. It was not easy to see through the illusion that many of
us harbor about helping others: that we must wait for scientists or doctors or governments. Aspiring
to an ideal—to a grand vision of change—is often the enemy in such cases. We forget simple needs
and how much each of us can do even with our limited resources.
The last person to ask for help was a young man named Mbangi Lofoso, a team leader for the
bonobo trackers. He said that his daughter was sick, her arms and legs straight and rigid, her hands
clenched, unable to open. She hadn't eaten in days now. Michael told him that he should take her to
the reserve's clinic immediately, just seven miles away, in the next village over within Kokolopori,
but Mbangi explained that he just wanted purified water for her, that he was already working with
a traditional healer. Even later, when Sally and Michael offered to drive him and his daughter there,
he refused. He looked hardly more than twenty, the skin of his face smooth, a hollow scar at the
side of his throat, just to the right of his Adam's apple.
Afterward, Michael showed me the small river near the camp. We descended a steep path
through the trees. A log bridged the water, and two children squatted on it, fishing for minnows.
Hundreds of white and violet butterflies covered the smooth wood, pulsing their wings. Dozens
more of them pressed together, fluttering in place. I had never seen butterflies like these: a few with
white tails, others turquoise or tiger-striped. One had brown wings when they were closed, but the
insides were baby blue, visible only when it flew.
As we walked onto the log, they fluttered up from in front of our feet, clouding around us, land-
ing again as soon as we had passed.
