Like a Dream Come True 2

The buildings were so tall I was dizzy on the first days, but I got used to them and the “El” Loop (the train like a flying snake above our heads in Chicago). Things were really strange there, very close to my cousin's "Tshikhago." We were told about the museums, and we visited them and learned more about the American culture. I will never forget my foolishness at the science museum. In South Africa, I had never seen people watching a film lying on their backs. When we sat on the chairs they turned and made us lie on our backs, an unusual position for me to watch a film. I fumbled for something like a gear lever to put my chair up, until my colleague noticed this struggle, she calmly advised me to leave the chair alone as it was meant to be like that. I looked around and was so embarrassed to see all the people on their backs; they were surely watching me when I was struggling with the chair. I decided to be careful and learn the culture cautiously without exposing my lack of experience to people around me.

There are so many revelations to share. I wish we could have money to exchange students so that they could also experience these cultures and not only learn about them in their Internet communication. When I retire, I will write a book about the cultural experiences in the project and the different people I have met. My American team members are part of my conversation with my family. We are secretive people since we are the only people from the Xhosa background in our area; we do not easily open our home to visitors of other cultures because of our different and undermined cultural practices. But today because of the project, the passage to our home from other cultures is wider. This project has opened our eyes to other cultures, especially the international dominant American culture, but it has instilled confidence in me. I now have more fuel to fight the status of subordination imposed to me by colonialism and apartheid. And slowly I am becoming a liberated African woman – the "rock" of my nation.