Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

Goodall tries to find the right place to start her story. She decides to begin with her childhood. Goodall was born in 1934 to Mort and Vanne Goodall. She grew up in a happy home with her parents and younger sister Judy. Although Christian, her parents didn’t force her to believe in God. Instead, they taught values like “courage, honesty, compassion, and tolerance” (3). She also grew up loving animals. She remembers the time she brought earthworms home to sleep with her or carried seasnails from the beach to her room. Another time, Goodall hid in the chicken coop for hours, desperate to understand how chickens lay eggs.

Goodall’s peaceful life changed when World War II started and her father enlisted. The family moved from England to France, but soon relocated to the Birches, Danny’s manor in Kent. She, Vanne, and Judy lived there with Goodall’s aunt Olly, uncle Eric, and a few boarders. Goodall loved the Birches and all the time she got to spend in nature. She had a dog named Rusty and a favorite beech tree where she liked to play. Danny taught her about the Bible and she loved to read stories about animals.

Meanwhile, the war waged throughout Europe. Goodall remembers the air-raids. Then, four years into the war, she and her family were walking along the beach when German planes bombed the coast. They narrowly survived the attack.

After the war’s end in 1945, Goodall remembers learning about the Nazi concentration camps. She remembers seeing the photographs of the Jewish victims and how shocked she was by humans’ capacity for violence. She struggled to reconcile how God could let this happen, a question she still asks herself.

Goodall reflects on her parents’ divorce when she was 12. Little changed at home for Goodall because her father had rarely been home throughout her childhood. She continued living at the Birches and threw herself into school because she loved learning. In her free time, she played and explored outdoors. She recalls her many encounters with animals and all the time she spent in her favorite beech tree, where she often thought about God and the war.

Goodall’s views on God changed again when Reverend Trevor Davies became the parson of her church. Goodall fell in love with Reverend Trevor and hung on his every word. He inspired a few early poems she wrote, too. Whenever she was outside, she felt God’s presence. By the time she was 16, her love for Jesus was strong. She read the Bible in earnest and began forming her own ideas about God. With Danny’s inspiration, she made a Bible box, or personal collection of favorite Bible verses. She particularly loved the Bible’s poetic language.

After finishing school, Goodall wasn’t sure what to do with her life. She couldn’t afford college, so Vanne took her on a trip to Germany. In the Cologne Cathedral, she had a revelatory experience where she recognized the entanglement of good and evil. On the way home, Vanne encouraged her to attend secretarial school, insisting she could travel anywhere as a secretary. Vanne understood Goodall’s deep love of animals and desire to visit Africa.

Goodall moved to London, where she trained as a secretary. Meanwhile, she visited museums and audited classes. She particularly remembers her theosophy instructor’s insistence on stopping “circling thought,” or “the constant flow of thoughts that go through one’s mind, almost all the time” (32). This practice inspired Goodall to write some new poetry. She finished secretarial school and started working at Olly’s clinic and observing Uncle Eric in his operating theater.

Then, in 1956, Goodall’s old friend Marie Claude Mange wrote her a letter inviting her to her family’s Kenyan farm. Goodall set her mind to saving up for a ticket.

Goodall recalls her journey from London to Kenya. She was 23 when her mother and uncle accompanied her to the London docks and she left home on the boat called the Kenya Castle. She was amazed by the beauty of her voyage, which took many weeks. Eventually, she formed relationships with her cabinmates. She especially enjoyed the ocean views and the unscheduled days.

Goodall arrived in Cape Town, where she immediately noticed the effects of apartheid. From Cape Town, she traveled through East Africa by train. It was difficult to leave the boat and her seafaring friends, but the train helped her orient to her new surroundings. Eventually, she arrived at the Kinangop farm, where she spent several weeks with the Manges. Following this holiday, Goodall secured a job at a British company with her uncle’s help. Through connections at this job, Goodall met Dr. Louis Leakey, a paleontologist and anthropologist at the Coryndon Museum of Natural History.

Leakey hired Goodall as his personal secretary. Not long later, he and his wife invited her and a museum coworker to join them for a dig at Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika. The group traveled into the uncharted terrain, where they spent months searching for bones. Goodall remembers her adventures from this time, including her encounters with giraffes, gazelles, and a rhino. The fossil excavation work was challenging, but rewarding. Goodall marveled each time she found a relic.

Meanwhile, Goodall’s stance on religion evolved. She and Leakey often discussed spirituality and philosophy, agreeing that science and religion weren’t as incompatible as many believed. Leakey also enjoyed discussing humans’ early ancestors and his interest in chimpanzees and other primates.

Back in Nairobi, Goodall gradually readjusted to work at the museum. Meanwhile, she fell in love with a hunter named Brian. The relationship didn’t last because they had differing worldviews. After its end, Leakey revealed that he wanted Goodall’s help researching chimpanzees. Goodall was thrilled by the prospect of joining the project in Gombe. While Leakey orchestrated the venture, Goodall returned home to prepare for the trip and asked Vanne if she’d accompany her. It was 1960 when the two set out for Gombe together.

Goodall reflects on her first travels to Gombe. David Anstey, a game ranger, accompanied her and Vanne. Finally they located a place to set up camp, where they connected with another game ranger named Adolf and a local guide named Rashidi Kikwale. 

Despite the dangers of the region, Goodall was overcome by the beauty of the place. Even when she encountered a poisonous snake, she wasn’t afraid of being harmed. The only thing that worried her at this time was funding. Leakey was working hard to raise money, but found it difficult to secure the research project’s necessary support.

Goodall devoted herself to finding and studying chimpanzees. She can still remember the first time she located a group of chimps while climbing the Peak, an outcrop between the two local valleys. Goodall would spend every night camping alone on the Peak so she could watch the chimps. In retrospect, she realizes she was abandoning Vanne back at camp and is grateful for her mother’s understanding and patience.

Goodall describes her early observations of chimpanzees. She was thrilled the first time she witnessed toolmaking, as until then it was believed that humans were the only mammals to make tools. Her documentation of toolmaking earned her and Leakey a National Geographic Society grant. 

Over the course of the next year, she studied the chimps tirelessly while Vanne made connections with locals and supported Goodall’s research. It wasn’t until Vanne returned home that Goodall realized how much she’d been doing for her.