The Foret Pont Mwembe is a curious bit of forest. Densely packed with tiers of lush greenery, it flickers with a rainbow of breathtaking butterflies. No antelopes lap at the streams. Few tropical birds dart among the verdant trees.
Nobody lives there.
Everything else is gone. To this forest, Gaspard Menga came each day, traveling 18 miles, from his small Kikwit home to gather wood, burn it into charcoal and sell the blackened strips as fuel back in the city of Kikwit. And it is here that scientists have come to trap mice, rats and bats so their blood and tissues can be analyzed for Ebola infection. Probably not in insects. Some residents of Kikwit keep pet monkeys, chimps and gorillas.