January 2nd was like a full day’s history lesson of all the details of Apartheid that I never had in formal schooling. Though the TripAdvisor reviews mostly said you could spend about 2-3 hours in the museum, we spent 3.5 hours in the museum and had to rush through the last part of it because we were due to meet with a guide to take us to Soweto at 12:30pm. If you really wanted to read everything and watch every film and hear every recording, I think you’d probably need at least 4-5.5 hours at this museum.

The museum is a brutally honest depiction of everything that happened in South Africa, from the beginning of the colonization through the fall of Apartheid to the end of Nelson Mandela’s presidency. While the District 6 museum was a close examination of what happened in that specific area of Cape Town, the Apartheid Museum exposes everything that went wrong throughout the country, even during Mandela’s presidency.

I wandered through the museum reviewing the different parts of the exhibition and wondered why the U.S. has to be in such denial about all the atrocities that we have committed. We still can’t even fully discuss slavery and its impact on African Americans today. The concepts of institutionalized racism and sexism seem to be nonexistent to our country’s right wing base; it is all about how people on the left supposedly view everything through some racial/gender-based “filter,” and we just don’t know how to escape it because we’re constantly and wrongly thinking we’re being oppressed. Even with the Roy Moore scandals, people defended him, saying that women were being paid to lie and accuse him of assault and sexual harassment that never actually happened. President Dipshit basically insinuated that anyone would be better as Alabama senator than any Democrat…. even a sex predator, which isn’t hard to understand given Dipshit is a sex predator himself. We still can’t believe women or people of color today in the U.S. It’s always the white man’s voice that reigns.

Somehow, despite Apartheid having ended just over 20 years ago, I feel more hopeful about South Africa’s progression than I do about the U.S.’s. There’s something about the energy I’ve felt here, the honesty about the past, that makes me hopeful.

When I was in high school and college, I kept track of general domestic politics in the U.S., but I barely paid any attention to anything international unless it was major. I guess I was a product of American exceptionalism and all that crap, which basically made me brainwashed (without my ever fully being aware of it) that the world revolved around the U.S. I’ve definitely been paying attention to more international news in my 20s and now my early 30s, but I know I could do better.

So you can imagine how amazed I was when we met these Dutch girls between the ages of 17-19, and they basically talked about American culture and politics as though they were really smart Americans themselves (I say “smart” because American teenagers as a whole are hardly considered smart from a global perspective). They kept track of our elections, of who was running, even of the controversial Roy Moore vs. Doug Jones Alabama Senate special election. These girls are going to be the next leaders of tomorrow, yet unfortunately, they don’t represent the U.S.; they represent the Netherlands. When I was their age, I probably wasn’t even half as knowledgable about the world as they probably are.

I guess it also helps to have highly educated and successful parents who actively participate in your learning and growth, and also take you on world travels. But I’m sure a lot of their desire to know is based on them as individuals. Still, I was kind of blown away and embarrassed by my own lack of knowledge when I was their age. We all have things to aspire to.

This year has gone by so fast that I barely know what happened. It seemed like just yesterday I was leaving a shitty job with terrible people and terrible technology and going to a company with real technology and real people who actually seem to be good and genuine. I can barely remember the winter of early this year, when I can probably count on my hands how many times I wore my snow boots (that’s very little – what a mild winter it was!).

Here we are, on day two of our safari to end 2017. Each day we get older, time passes by even faster. It’s like we just arrived in South Africa, yet in two days, we will be ending our 12-day trip to this incredible country.

Coming here has only magnified how little I know about the African continent in general. It’s always been the part of the world I’ve lacked the most knowledge on, both from a news and a geography perspective. But now, I want to learn more and see more. I’d love to see the rest of Africa and see the differences across all its countries, as well as its similarities. I’d like to learn what everyday life is like for people who live here who are rich and poor. I’ve seen a fair bit of Europe and Asia, yet Africa has always seemed so distant and far removed from me. Maybe that will be how I will start 2018, seeking to learn more about this beautiful part of the world that so many don’t even care to think about or visit, but really should know about to appreciate more about the world.

It’s so easy to live a sheltered life, stuck in our day to day, wherever we are in the world, whether we work on a game reserve outside of Kruger in South Africa or in a dense office building in midtown Manhattan. We lose so much perspective if we don’t stop to think about other parts of the world and visit them, and see how others live. I hope I don’t ever become one of those disillusioned people who stops caring about what’s outside her bubble. There’s so much to do, see, and change in the world. We can’t become complacent and indifferent.

We departed Cape Town today to head west to Hoedspruit, where we would be driven about 45 minutes to reach our private game reserve just outside of Kruger National Park. We’d finally be in the genuine African bush. I wasn’t sure what to expect other than hot weather and frequent animal spottings.

The animal sightings started much earlier than I thought, as the van that took us to the reserve passed by so many animals that I lost count. We saw countless impala, kudu, giraffes, wart hogs, and others. Our driver was even kind enough to stop a few times to allow us to take photos and videos of these beautiful creatures. Even though our driver was obviously driving our vehicle, because he was born in Port Elizabeth and relocated a lot across South Africa as a child, he was familiar with all these animals to the point that he could pass them in a fast moving vehicle and still correctly identify which animal they were. When we first arrived, I didn’t really know anything about the different antelope, or what differentiated a white rhino from a black rhino (white rhinos are not actually white, contrary to their name).

When we arrived at our lodge, we were treated like royalty, with refreshing lemongrass-scented towels to refresh with and some fruity non-alcoholic cocktails, plus a delicious lunch that included what the bartender said was called “fruity brown rice” – mixed with fresh cut up fruit, various nuts, and a nutty brown rice. Our evening safari began shortly after that, where for the first time I got quite close to a white rhino. We observed him for quite some time on our open safari vehicle, and I watched him intently as he grazed on the grass he stood on. I kind of felt the way I did about the elephants when we were in Knysna; the rhino, also a deadly creature, seemed so innocent and cute. Its life purposes are so pure and simple: eat, sleep, and avoid getting killed. Our amazing and extremely knowledgeable safari guide reminded us that rhino poaching continues to be a massive issue in South Africa, and rhinoceros are officially an endangered species, all because of man’s obsession with owning and using rhino horns. The poaching is so bad that they have a 24-hour patrol for poaching in the area. And unfortunately, the primary demand for these horns for all types of medicinal purposes is coming from China and Vietnam…. That’s just great – where my heritage is from. The Chinese and Vietnamese have all these ridiculous beliefs that rhino horn medicine will help cure ailments from everyday sicknesses and aches to even cancer. And because such wealth exists in those countries, that demand keeps driving the killing of these creatures even though it’s illegal.

I have no idea what data exists, if any, to prove that rhino horns do anything to help human health. Where did the sheer idea even come from, anyway? It makes me feel even more distant from my mother and father cultures, and infuriated that they can be so damn deluded and stupid.