Monkoto

Monkoto airport
The elephan bai in Salonga National Park near Monkoto. Another view of the bai. The path was made and is maintained by elephants, not people.
The bai into which two elephant trails lead from the west.
The WCS guys who showed me that the forest has a face.
National Park guards
Notice the condition of the center guard's SKS rifle, the shoulder stock is half worn away.


Yesterday I flew to Monkoto in the Caravan. Monkoto is 357 nautical miles northeast of Kinshasa almost on the direct line to Kisangani. There were strong headwinds higher up and I had to decide whether to fly high and slow with low fuel consumption, or lower and faster with high fuel comsumption. I flew lower and faster.

Two of my passengers worked for the WCS. They were going to Monkoto because it is deep in the forest, deep in the Salonga National Park and they are heavily involved in researching the one and developing the other.

In the past when I've flown over the forest, it was a vast expanse of anonymous, menacing green. Not so on this trip. Because of our relatively low altitude, my passengers could see well and comment upon what they saw. That wasn't just forest by the river, it was swamp forest and you could see how it was a different color. Those weren't some faceless settlements in the distance, those were the string of villages that were supporting the organized gangs of poachers.

Everything we saw had a meaning; from the poacher camp to the illegal logging site to the stream that formed the boundary of the park to the clearings in the forest. All these things now had names and they were related to something else. The forest has face. The features on the face have a meaning and it isn't nearly as frightening to me as it was.

The two guys took photos and gps points and seemed very pleased with the view. Close to Monkoto there was a bai they wanted to look at. A bai is a clearing in the forest kept that way by elephants. It wasn't out of the way so I flew a little lower so they could see a little better. The clearing had water in the middle and two small roads going into it. Elephant roads. The trails looked to be 3-4 meters wide with a dirt path in the center and grass on the edges. They were about 1/2 kilometer long leading through the forest to the bai. The guys were excited about this one, lots of elephants, they said, lots of elephants.

I read once that flying is much more fun if you do something with the airplane between point A and point B besides flying between point A and point B. It's true.

This is the Congo though so there is more to the story. Another reason the guys were going to Monkoto was because two of the park guards had been shot by a poacher. One died. Apparently when they caught the poacher he got hold of one of their guns and shot the guards. The poacher then fled but he dropped his voter registration card so they know who he is, a pro from Kinshasa. Maybe they will get him, maybe they won't.

These guards die a lot. They are very poorly trained and armed. They get no ammunition to practice with. But they go out and they try and they die. The big donors in the West don't realize what a hard place the Congo can be. They want to give money that will result in a glossy brochure photo of a baby bonobo, not a grainy picture of the guards practicing prisoner control or 5 meter shots at pop up targets. Warm and fuzzy sentiment and breathless earnestness don't cut it here. This is the Congo, a tough place where it is easy to get killed.

It breaks my heart to hear of men of courage dying because they can't get the training and the tools they need to stay alive, let alone do their job. And they can't get what they need because it won't make some hero of the Manhattan cocktail party circuit feel good.

Okay, enough venting. It was a good flight and I had fun.