It is said that some people prefer to relate to other people.

Other prefer to relate to an organisation or other more abstract issues.

Jane Goodall likes to relate to chimps. Her name is forever linked to the study of chimps in the area of the Great Lakes in Central Africa.

Jane relates about her youth in England. One day she receives a letter from an old schoolfriend, That friend lives in Kenya, where her parents bought a farm. Jane saves some money for a returnticket by boat to Mombasa, she spends some time at the farm of her friend’s. As she likes animals very much she is advised to contact Louis Leaky who works as a paleaontologist and anthropologist. His office is at the Museum of Natural History at Nairobi. Jane can get to work straight away as his secretary. He dictates his book about the Kikuyu to her and takes her with him on his fieldtrips, for instance to Tanzania. 

She gets the offer to do research om chimps. She leaves immediately (with her mother who had just arrived!) to Kigoma and Gombe. Jane builds a camp from where she can start her research. And this research continues up till this day. 

In this book she weaves the strain of her personal life and her scientific work, and she adds a thread of religion and mysticism. 

Jane Goodall / Phillip Berman – Reason for Hope. A spiritual Journey – New York 1999