Moving between cultures

At the SIM training course months ago I received a very helpful table about 'Moving between cultures'. There are five stages - own culture, leaving, transition, entering, and new culture. Let me begin by sharing with you where I have been:

Own culture
Committed and involved with people, places and events. Know what is going on, acts responsibly.
People know who you are, what you can do and where you belong. You are part of a number of networks of relationships and information.
There is security in knowing and being known. You are confident in roles, responsibilities and behaviour. Appropriate intimacy is enjoyed in relationships.

This is where I am right now:

Leaving
Begin to distance and disengage from people, places and events. Roles and responsibilities are relinquished.
Farewells change relationships. Begin to move to periphery of networks, especially when future is being planned.
Sadness, guilt, rejection and even resentment may be felt. Important to say "goodbyes" well in order to be able to say "hello".

These categories accurately capture my experiences so far, except I'm happy to say that 'leaving' hasn't been so awful. It's a little tinged with those negative emotions, but only a little. (Actually that's not quite true - leaving Bruny Island and Salamanca Market for the last time was pretty upsetting.) And hopefully it's been good to have an extended holiday before leaving, not just because it has given me time to rest and say goodbye, but also because it's allowed me to get used to loss of responsibility and role in a 'safe' context. This loss (coupled with the sense of losing friends) was incredibly hard for me when I moved to Sydney, but I'm actually appreciating it now. I love my work, but I do carry around a sense of responsibility and concern for the people of my church, so the lifting of that has been refreshing.

I'll let you know about 'transition' in a couple of weeks when I'm in Santiago.