BLACK AFRICA, BLACK AMERICA, AND CHICAGO PIZZA
Sangha River, Central African Rain Forest. No one knows how many gorillas there are in this vast untracked jungle. Researchers estimate as many as 100 to 200,000. There could be a lot more - no one knows.
To see a family of gorillas up close in the wild, which is what I brought a group of intrepid TTPers here to do, is profoundly memorable. What had the most impact on me personally was how peaceful and benign the gorillas' lives are. They eat leaves. Babies ride on the backs of their mommies. Kids wrestle and play. Dad - the giant bull silverback - watches over them protectively. They have no predators.
The contrast between gorilla life and human life in Africa is overpowering. For several of the folks with me, this was their first experience of Africa. They had, of course, heard of poverty here, but to confront it in your face - whether on the streets of a big city or a village in the bush - was inexpressibly shocking.
Our jungle lodge had a deck overlooking the Sangha River, where we would watch the sunset and enjoy a cold beer or gin and tonic. When our conversation turned to African poverty and hardship, I was asked what I thought as I'd seen so much of it. I said it made me think of Chicago pizza.