The Courage to Hope

I have been thinking a lot about “the courage to hope” in recent weeks and I want to explore what this means to me. I first started thinking about this phrase in preparing for our return to Kagaba, a community where we were unable to continue our work since leaving in September due to insecurity caused by militia and rebel groups. We were left with the decision of whether or not we would go back to Kagaba and face the unknown, namely, how safe we would be?  In this climate of fear, understanding the connection between courage and hope was something of a necessity for me.

In thinking about the courage to hope I am reminded of a trip Scott, Selina, and I took to the Ituri Jungle. If ever visiting Congo a trip to the Ituri jungle should be a priority. The feeling of being completely surrounded by trees and not having a clue as to how to make it out without the help of a guide is truly a humbling experience. During our trip we organized a hike in the jungle with two national park rangers and a Pygmy guide. As we lost ourselves in the deep, dark, and deafening sounds of the Ituri I thought of how vulnerable we were. We were at the complete mercy of our environment and had no real control over anything. Throughout our hike we periodically heard an obnoxiously loud and high-pitched scream, which I assumed was coming from a larger animal due to the loudness of the noise. As we continued our trek I asked the park rangers if they could show us what was making that noise. After a number of failed attempts to show us the animal our Pygmy guide found an opportunity and quietly showed us the culprit. We didn’t know what we were looking at or how dangerous it would be. All we knew was that we wanted to see the animal making the big noise. As we looked up into the trees we could barely make out where the animal was hiding due to the smallness of what turned out to be a grasshopper-sized insect leaping from tree to tree. All that noise coming from such a small insect!

Having the courage to hope is a bit like my experience in the jungle. Despite being surrounded by the perceived insecurity of the Ituri Jungle I was fixated on a task during which thoughts of my insecure environment were replaced with trying to catch a glimpse of the noisy creature. When faced with the unknown, insecure environments, and seemingly daunting tasks in life, having the courage to hope allows for the transformation of these situations into possibilities and opportunities. The courage to hope for me is about seeing the possible in impossible, seeing the ability in disability, and seeing the hope in hopeless.