Re-entry

Last Friday saw us return to the UK for the first extended period for nearly two and a half years. It is a funny experience returning to your home country and culture after an extended time away. On the one hand you do feel like you are ‘coming home’, back to a place that you understand and which (most of the time) understands you! Sure, some things might have changed a little… more cars, bigger shopping centres, newer cars, bigger TVs… but generally it is a place that you recognise and in which you can find your identity relatively easily. However, on the other hand it can be a hard transition to make.

The ease of air travel (ash clouds permitting) has made the world feel smaller, more accessible (for a little more on this see our blog last month). This ease of travel, being able to leave East Africa at breakfast time and arriving in the UK in time for dinner, makes the ‘transition time’ extremely short. You leave one culture, one world, and before you know it you are confronted by a totally different one. It is a strange scenario. While you might think this would bring these two cultures – these two worlds – closer together, I would actually suggest that instead it just emphasises the differences between them. In turn actually making a transition between them more challenging.

It makes me think back to the missionaries of old, who perhaps travelled abroad by boat and train, taking months to complete their journey. Whilst their lives were undoubtedly more difficult in many, many ways, I do wonder whether this longer transition period could have actually been a blessing in disguise – providing them with a slightly longer transition period in which to prepare themselves for the change of culture that awaited them. Who knows? Don’t get us wrong, we love the fact that we can return to the UK easily if we need to (and that friends/family can come and visit us easily!). We love Tanzania and the life we have left behind there AND we love the UK and the life we have found again here. However, a quick move between these two lives and the impact this has on who we are as people is certainly a challenge.