Tom Lenon had been investigating with his students in the science laboratory for six months. They were studying about the medical effects of some plants in human people. After organizing a very detailed study guide, they left San Francisco and travelled to the Earth's lung, Amazonia.
Tom Lenon, John, Jack, Mary and Caroline arrived very early on a sunny morning in mid September and Obunga, a native guide, was waiting for them at Recife airport. He was a short and friendly man and he knew everything about the rainforest. Tom and his children were going to visit because he had grown up there.
Obunga was very glad to help them because he was fully aware of the importance of plants in his home.
They left the airport by jeep and soon the landscape and the weather changed. They travelled along enormous roads surrounded by trees where hundreds of colourful birds were resting. After about two hours, Obunga changed direction and started driving through very thick vegetation. As they were entering the jungle, Obunga crashed against a log from a huge tree that was lying across the narrow path. He hurt his knee but since he was not seriously injured, he called a rescue team. While he stayed in the jeep waiting for help, Tom and his team decided to continue.
Tom told the children to walk after him making a line. He had studied about that area lot and he had all the necessary equipment to be safe there.
After a twenty-minute walk, he decided that it was time for a little rest. They sat down and took bottles of water from the teacher's bag. While they were talking about what to do the next day, a monkey jumped down from a high tree and stole Tom's bag.
They tried to catch the monkey but it disappeared behind some bushes very quickly.
Even though it was a very sunny day, it was very dark in the jungle since the sunshine couldn't penetrate through the canopy. They decided to start walking again but they soon got lost in the darkness.
As usual in that part of the world, it started to rain so heavily that they were forced to stop walking. They were soaking wet and they didn't have any dry clothes because they had planned to be back at the hotel in Recife by dinner time.
It was very difficult for them to find shelter because they couldn't see very clearly. Suddenly they noticed that there was an area with plenty of trees on the ground. They approached the place and saw that there were two trucks and some construction materials. They realized that a new road was being built. Nobody was there because they surely stopped working at night.
They were shocked at seeing such a detrimental action for that area since such a terrible deforestation would damage the natural habitat of many species of animals.
Time went by and they were starting to starve. They couldn't find anything to eat so Tom told the children they would have to find some fresh water to drink or they wouldn't be able to keep on walking trying to find the way back. Tom knew which vegetation grew near rivers so he led the group in the direction of such plants. They finally reached a small river and they celebrated they had something to drink.
Tom kneeled down to have a look at the water and he saw some small animals and some fish dead in it. At once, he realized that the river was totally polluted. He thought that some acid rain could have fallen from contaminated smoke coming from the industrial cities near the rainforest.
Having very little strength left, they decided to stop and rest. They sat down on the thick vegetation and while they were discussing about how they could return to Recife, one of the boys turned round and saw a plant with tropical fruit. They knew that fruit was not poisonous because they had studied that with Tom. They stayed there eating fruit for a while.
Suddenly, Tom noticed that a weak light was coming from the sky and he knew the sun was rising.
Very slowly, they stood up and started walking along the dead river, thinking the river would lead them somewhere to find help.
Animals were crying and wonderful birds were singing when they heard someone shouting “Tom, Tom.”
They recognized Obunga's voice and they soon met him. He had had his knee cured and even though he was walking with difficulty, he had decided to look for them in the jungle.
Three hours and a half later, they were having a hot shower back in their hotel rooms.
When they went to the dining room to have lunch Tom had a special talk with his team. He explained to them that the excursion to the rainforest had been extremely important for scientific purposes. Not because they had been able to research about plants but because they had become conscious about the serious environmental problems our planet is suffering.
They were convinced that their duty was to go back to school and work to make people conscious to stop global warming.