I just finished our End of Service Conference with WorldTeach and it was a great way to begin my final week in Colombia. Tomorrow I head to my favorite place-- Villa de Leyva. I've said before that it's a beautiful town and I will be with some of my favorite people. Then I return for a few final days in Bogota before my midnight flight on Saturday. End of Service kicked off my own period of reflection on this year and started to prepare me for the process of "going back home." I have some anxiety about the many unknowns in the future and I expect a good deal of reverse culture shock. The process of going home is so much more than a place or even a community I am a part of. Here is a quote WorldTeach shared with us that touches on the important aspects of how a year abroad changes you...
"The problem is the word home. It suggests a place and a life all set up and waiting for us; all we have to do is move in. But home isn't merely a place we inhabit; it's a lifestyle we construct (wherever we go), a pattern of routines, habits and behaviors associated with certain people, places and objects, all confined to a limited area or neighborhood. We can certainly construct a home back in our own culture-- just as we did abroad-- but there will not be one waiting for us when we arrive. And this is true even if you move back into the same house you lives in before you went overseas. In other words no one goes home; rather, we return to our native country and, in due course, we create a new home."
-- Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures
"The problem is the word home. It suggests a place and a life all set up and waiting for us; all we have to do is move in. But home isn't merely a place we inhabit; it's a lifestyle we construct (wherever we go), a pattern of routines, habits and behaviors associated with certain people, places and objects, all confined to a limited area or neighborhood. We can certainly construct a home back in our own culture-- just as we did abroad-- but there will not be one waiting for us when we arrive. And this is true even if you move back into the same house you lives in before you went overseas. In other words no one goes home; rather, we return to our native country and, in due course, we create a new home."
-- Craig Storti, The Art of Crossing Cultures
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