Ebola River

By Nam Sang-so

River Ebola is the upper tributary of a Y-shaped headstream of the Congo River in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo bordering Central African Republic and the Sudan in the east.

I remember the name because I was in the neighborhood in the early 1980s when the country was called Zaire. On board an antiquated river boat holding a pair of binoculars, a camera, forest maps and a bottle of drinking water, I traveled what was then called the Zaire River to investigate the availability of lumber and rafting transport for the logs to a proposed plywood factory near the capital city of Kinshasa, where electricity wasn’t available.

The Ebola virus, later identified as having broken out in the region in 1976, was not known then, nor had the HIV/AIDS virus been identified. Both viruses are later believed to have originated in fruit bats, monkeys and chimpanzees in the forests of West Central Africa, and were transferred to humans by exposure to infected body fluids.

In addition to the engineering study for the plywood factory, I was also burdened to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of local hospitals in the remote regions of the Zaire. That required me to investigate the existing conditions of the medical facilities in the remote villages and to record the most prevalent diseases in the different regions. To do so, I had to shake the wet hands of hundreds of local health care providers.

Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, with a magnetic compass dangling from my neck, I was puffed up with pride as if I was a pioneer venturing deep into a no man’s land in equatorial Africa. Two native young men who spoke poor French and local dialects accompanied me and carried my bags, leading the way on the forest treks.

This would make a good story to tell my colleagues in Seoul, I thought. Then a guide pointed at a primitive shed in the shade and there was a small rusty rectangular red sign with familiar cursive letters in white ― “Coca Cola.” Suddenly it shattered my day dream and sent me back to civilization.

Mosquito bites were stiffer in the rainforest and far more painful than those I experienced in Korea. Sometimes a small drop of blood oozed out from the bites. Congolese mosquitoes were aggressive and bit through cotton socks in the midday when my legs stood still.

I was shocked later when the media started reporting an outbreak of AIDS and that the virus originated in Zaire. I was there when it was first found. Agonizing worries about the blood-stained mosquito bites and wet handshakes with the indigenous peoples put me into insomnia. I read a dozen of the medical reports about the AIDS and HIV and realized later that my worry was medically uncalled for.

Ebola disease has a maximum period of incubation of three weeks, so infected persons unconsciously interact freely in society or take airplane and cross borders. As if to make the situation worse, some tribes in the West African countries have a practice of washing dead bodies, thus letting the virus easily transfer to them.

Volunteering to join a global assistance organization such as the Korea International Cooperation Agency would be a noble idea. And helping people outside Korea to understand Korean culture, and helping Koreans understand their cultures would be a worthwhile effort. Just wash your hands often and rest before you get too tired under the scorching sun.

The writer is retired architect and project analyst. His email address is sangsonam@gmail.com.