Online Course           week 3           Descriptive Paragraphs
Jane Goodall had long been an idol of mine before I had the opportunity to meet her personally. I have been a member of one of her international Jane-Goodall-Institutes (JGI) for a couple of years now. I have read some of her books and like her idea of teaching children all over the world about environmental conservation and wild animal care so much that I hope to do it personally one day, too. As the greatest and most popular scientist of chimpanzees in the world and today also an active member of the UN Security Council and close friend of Kofi Anan, she is very busy and always travelling, so the chance to see her is quite rare.

It was two years ago, that Jane Goodall came to the German JG-Institute in Munich to give a lecture, and so I took a flight to Munich to see her. She did not look like what I had expected a popular world-renowned scientist would look like. In spite of having been born in Britain in April 1934, she had nothing of a typical British behaviour about her. She wore blue jeans, trainers and a cotton blouse. She looked like a normal and modest woman, one that you would meet in a supermarket. And she did not even look like a woman over 50, though her long hair tied in a ponytail was grey. Her face was smooth and in a very mysterious way looked carefree like a child ´s face does.

There was a very lively as well as wise expression in her eyes, but most impressible was the deep love and peace they transmitted to everybody when she spoke to the audience. She had lived over 30 years next to chimpanzees in the rainforest, studying and learning from them as she said. You could see the marks of that life, as her whole body seemed to talk with peace and wisdom and was as fit as that of a young woman in her mid-twenties. And even though she has been back to the civilized world for many years now, where she has taught at many universities and fought battles against politicians, businesses and other strong opponents to get protection for chimpanzees and other apes, she must have done this with those very calm gestures that are more convincing than any powerful and eloquent talk. I guess that has made her so successful, because when you watch her you cannot help but agree with her. And her most important message to us was that the love of creatures can be more powerful than all the weapons in the world, if we will just let it.

Judith Burgdorfer