It is almost time to embark on the next leg of the journey. After 10 weeks of bits and pieces - preparing, cleaning, tidying, paring back, storing and to a big extent resetting, it is just 3 days until I step into something almost completely unknown. The two physical rooms of my past left bare, but hopefully the people I am physically leaving behind realise that I am always close at hand and ready to listen for them.
This is an interesting turning of the tables. I will be in a situation that I saw from the outside in the past. Those I love and those I want to see do well will now be so detached that all that I can offer is an ear and some thoughts. I know too well that sometimes this is not enough to make situations right. But the journey that I am taking I have decided on after considering the consequences. I am willing to deal with these consequences.
What about the project - what should I expect? I have at best a rough framework and some background understanding of a new society. I have no language skills, yet. I have no local friend networks, yet. I will be the obviously different one. So this is a journey to somewhere well outside my comfort zone. It will be interesting to see what becomes of me and of the relationships that I consider important right now, over the space of the next 6 months. Will I come back across the bridge a different person and with different relationships to those that I am leaving behind - I suspect the answer will be yes.
