Alethiology (Epilogue)

alethiology (n)- the study of truth

I made a short list of the things I learned on the plane ride home. Here it is, in no particular order, with some explanation.

What Did I Learn

-Europeans aren't as sophisticated as they act. Whenever I heard the word "European," I used to immediately think: sophisticated, advanced, and refined; I assumed all European people embodied these attributes. However, I had never been in close contact with people actually from Europe, just emigrants and descendants. My European roommates, behind the doors of our flat, were just as foul, careless, and rude as the people in the dorms on American college campuses. They did not think about resource use, taking interminable showers, blatantly refusing to recycle, and driving cars everywhere when it would have been easier to walk. They did not consider the consequences of their actions, like playing techno music at 3 in the morning or leaving towels in heaps on a wet bathroom floor. I know these were just the four people whom with I had contact. It certainly shifted my prior perception of the utopia that is European life.

-American culture has a global presence. Why? Why do people throughout Sub-Saharan Africa listen to our pop radio, watch our embarrassingly bad comedies, and know more about our political system than Americans themselves? American media is broadcast just about all around the world, giving people in other countries a skewed lens of what it is like to live in the U.S. Coca Cola is probably the most popular soft drink in the world. I knew it was widespread but I didn't know how pervasive it was nor how it inundates (figuratively) entire communities. My understanding is that people in South Africa, at least, if not in the rest of the world, see the people of the U.S. as rotund, lazy, gluttons who garishly drive our gas-guzzling S.U.V.s to menial jobs that allow us to live in whatever decadent manner we choose. My friend described the U.S. as a veritable land of milk and honey, where people don't have to work for what they have and subsequently don't value their abilities, possessions, or freedoms. Thankfully, he said I helped shift his perception somewhat.

-I've had it so unbelievably amazing with regards to education, safety, sanitation, parenting, infrastructure, hunger, healthcare, and especially love. I had a solid education from my public school without my parents having to pay exorbitant school fees. My parents helped supplement my education and fueled my curiosity and my passions. My parents were able to pay for me to attend a four-year university and learn about a subject that I find fascinating, not just one that I think will make me employable. Although I'm sure my parents did, I have never worried about going out alone at night. I never have to wonder if I will have access to electricity, water, or passable roads. I have never had to wonder if the water coming from the tap was clean enough to drink. I have never been hungry, except for by choice. I have not begun to think about life without my parents' presence. I can afford, through my parents' generosity, the medicine I need and doctors to take care of me. I speak the dominant language of my country. I have people who love me, both out of familial obligation and of their own volition. I will never, ever forget the crushing loneliness that accompanies the knowledge that no one in your hemisphere loves you and your home, with open, unconditionally loving arms, is half a world away.

-It's far too easy to just be complacent. Whether it is vacation planning or political regimes, it takes effort to speak up when something is important. A phrase I heard so often in South Africa was, "it's just one of those things, hey?" in response to the latest tragedy, injustice, or scandal. The supermarket being out of your favourite flavour of yogurt is 'just one of those things.' Police forces shooting at peaceful protestors or millions of people living in squalor cannot be 'just one of those things.' If we allow ourselves to accept such atrocities as constant, given factors, they will never change. Yes, change is hard. Yes, the bad things in the world can be overwhelming in their abundance and severity. We cannot be content to sit back and let other people try to sort their problems out at the same time they struggle for basic survival. Those with privilege and power, which is anyone who can identify with the statements in the above paragraph, must speak up. And with regards to the vacation planning, life is short; we only have so many chances to do the things we dream about; opportunities should be seized when they are present and created when they are not. I didn't see any baobab.

-My education is preparing me for a life as a world citizen.The South African university system focuses on training people who will be successful in their chosen fields. By contrast, the U.S. higher education system focuses on people who are well-versed in their discipline but also broadly introduced to the basics of many other subjects. A scientist needs to know a little bit about economics and politics just like an artist should know about physiology and history. My fellow students back in the U.S. were more rounded and socially conscious because of the interdisciplinary nature of our education.

-Diversity is detrimental when integration is missing. South Africa describes itself as "the rainbow nation." While I did personally see the beauty and the majesty of so many cultures, languages, and mindsets in South Africa, I learned the hard way that the presence of many different peoples does not equate to the harmonious cohabitation of these peoples. For example, South Africa has eleven national languages, which sort of implies that each language has equal importance in the eyes of the government. However, take road signs: warnings and important information is printed in either English or Afrikaans. Someone who doesn't speak either of those languages would be lost. Of course, I'm not saying that different cultures should abandon their identities in order to form a more cohesive whole (although it would, arguably, make communications easier). What I am saying is that any entity, be it a family, university, or nation that claims to value diversity needs to ensure that each contingent part of the whole is equally represented and that no one group is given more weight than any other. Also, different peoples need to know about each other, the basic tenets of the various cultures, such that neither alienation nor assimilation need occur. Only when this delicate balance is achieved will the whole become whole, one unified collection of many disparate, though not disjointed, parts.

-A little kindness goes a long way. This one is simple, self-explanatory, and vastly important.

-What I want with my life slightly narrowed. This is a very good thing, although it is slight. I now know that I want to pursue a career in conservation biology and that I want to continue on to earn my Master's degree to fully grasp the scientific methodology necessary for a position in this field that is fighting an uphill battle, so to speak. Like so many freedom fighters before me, I have stumbled across the idea to which I am prepared to devote my life: Homo sapiens is just another species inhabiting the multitude of ecosystems present on the planet. Our population has grown in numbers and intelligence such that we are destroying our co-earthlings, and at faster and faster rates. Therefore, some humans have to take the initiative to protect the species and their habitats that are in danger of disappearing, in the speediest and most efficient way possible.

-An identity as a woman and as an American. Augh, this is an experience that I find hard to explain. As I mentioned earlier, I know what Americans are thought of by other peoples from other nations. Thus, I was able to define myself in the context of what I know of my American life and what other people assume happens within American borders. Sort of? Similarly, I became hyper-aware of myself as a woman in South Africa. People were always telling me, oh, it's dangerous for a girl to do that, to go there, etc. I spent many hours thinking about why South Africa is like this, why it has the highest rape rate in the world, why women are still treated as inferior to men. Here's my theory: during WWII in the U.S., women stood up to the jobs that men had performed before they were drafted off to foreign battlefronts. When the men returned, they found women perfectly capable of doing the industrial, labor intensive, or managerial jobs they had abandoned for the war. After this period, women were more accepted in the workplace and began to be treated more like their male co-workers. In South Africa, only a small number of men were drafted to the U.K.'s war efforts, not making space for women in the workplace until the equality laws of post-Apartheid South Africa were enforced. Anyway, I felt like my freedoms were restricted as a woman living in South Africa. Returning to the U.S., I have reclaimed those freedoms and treasured them like never before.

I have this idea that as we move through life, we are constantly learning. Some of the things we learn are factual, and they are truths that we add to our working knowledge of the world. Some of the things we learn are so deeply and staggeringly resonant that they must be integral to to the working of the world; this is the Truth. It is universal. It is whole. It is the fabric of being. It is perfect. We can only learn the Truth by exposing ourselves to as much of life as possible. I sit comfortable with the feeling that studying abroad in South Africa helped me add to my tiny understanding of the Truth.