Phase ???

And on day 133...curfew is back with a vengeance. The language of phases seems to have vanished from the vernacular, but between the economic sector reopening, campaign rallies leading up to election day, and Dominicans heading to the polls on July 5, the COVID-19 situation is spiraling out of control. As a result, the current and new administrations filed a joint petition for a new, 45-day state of emergency late last week. It was approved Sunday; the anticipated reinstatement of curfew was announced yesterday and took effect today. For the first time, the hours vary by province; Santiago is in the stricter group. 

It's rough. 

Bombarded by news of restrictions loosening in the US and sidelined as a number of colleagues travel for personal reasons, I'm steeling myself for (at least) 20 days of quiet evenings. I had hoped we'd be entertaining thoughts of when we could host teams again at this juncture, but instead, the last one in LAC for the remainder of 2020 cancelled. Why am I reminded of the last petal on the cloche-covered rose in Beauty and the Beast?

My church elected not to have services on Sunday, and another of the congregations in Santiago was forced to stay away from God's house when the mayor put the kibosh on public gatherings. I was able to worship in-person at the 3rd area congregation, but I'm not sure what this coming Sunday holds. 

OK, this post needs some positivity! Scrolling through my camera roll reminded me of some recent bright spots. 

Baseball starts this week. I'm over the moon. Opening day of a 60-game season that sees teams limit play to their own divisions is Thursday; the Cardinals' first game is Friday. Speaking of the Cardinals, they won this inter-squad game that was streamed live on the team's website last Tuesday ;) 

I went hiking on Saturday morning, and we did not get lost a) driving to the trailhead; or b) in the woods. Double win. 

We walked in or along a "creek" the majority of the time, and this was the most water we saw in one place. At one point, we stood on the dry bottom of one natural pool I've seen Dominican kids doing backflips into. 

As we await more shelving for the seminary library, Courtney organized The Mountain of cataloged books that don't fit on the current stacks by the first two letters of their call number. It made Monday (41 more down) infinitely more pleasurable. 

Cooking Camp continues! We missed Ashley Lehr, but MK Abby chopped veggies like a pro and learned the difference between white meat and red meat while making Ground Turkey Ragu for her whole family! I think her favorite part might have been crushing whole, peeled tomatoes (I've never seen canned, crushed ones here) by hand. We also tried to de-gluten-ify my go-to beer bread recipe, which resulted in a decent looking, slice-able loaf that was nowhere near as good as the real thing. 

Not pictured: My new glasses should be ready to pick up tomorrow. My prescription didn't change, but my current frames got badly bent in the process of getting mugged back in January. Replacing them feels like closing the book on that, even though I was due for new ones anyway. 

Also not pictured (but soon to be pictured in an upcoming post): a mango recipe a day keeps the doctor away? I successfully tracked down mustard seeds this afternoon, so next on my list is homemade mango chutney. 

Until next time, blessings!