Like a Dream Come True 1

My first visit to America was like a dream come true for me. After we were informed about it, I began having dreams about the land I had never seen. I grew up with many cousins and during story time at night one cousin used to tell a story about "Tshikhago," a land where fried chicken talked and walked in the streets and rivers ran milk instead of water. We knew that was not true, but we appreciated his creativity. This journey made me think about him; he passed away in 1976.

Thinking about the fourteen hour flight was torturing me. I was used to one-hour local flights but I was not sure I would be able to handle this long one. But this trip looked like the opportunity of a lifetime. I never slept on the plane because I was afraid to die while sleeping. At least I wanted to see death coming and grapple with it. It was worse when the plane flew from London to Chicago. We were flying above the sea. 9/11 was fresh and like a photo in my mind, and deep down in my heart I was regretting the decision of coming to America. I kept checking my colleagues, who were relaxed and chatting and sometimes sleeping and did not care about the sea below. Although I was born in a city, I grew up in rural areas where I was taught to respect water, be it a river, dam or the sea, as some of our ancestors are said to be under deep waters. I cannot swim; falling into deep water would be the end for me. When I confessed this to my colleagues, it was a joke. Cultures and beliefs are different. In my culture, a first born and a twin have to throw a silver coin into the water before they swim. when somebody has disappeared under water, we believe she/he has been called by the ancestors and no one should cry, or she/he will die under water. That is how my cousin of the "Tshikago" story passed away (he drowned in a deep dam used in the rural areas for irrigation). The project makes us look deep into ourselves and who we really are. Even now remembering this crossing of the Atlantic to America gives me butterflies in my stomach. I wish there was another way without crossing above water. However, such experiences are part of learning about other cultures.