The Pony Express

Good morning from Santiago! 

My best friend Marie drove me to the airport at 4 am yesterday when there were ZERO Ubers available in all of Williamsburg, VA, and Courtney picked me up when I landed just after 1 pm. I left Tirzah's welcome back/Canadian Thanksgiving pizza party last night at 8:30 pm to go home and SLEEP, but I've already been to the botanical garden - a group of regulars said they'd missed me! - PriceSmart, and the grocery store this morning. 

Now back to the conclusion of Home Service 2021...

In case you missed my Facebook post, Enterprise was low on inventory, so I made my longest drive, 7 hours to Seward, NE, in a silver Ford Mustang convertible. I stayed with the Gauthiers, former missionaries to Panama. As such, they get it; we shared some laughs about accidentally throwing TP in the trash even after being in the US for weeks, for example. Rev. Brian is a professor at Concordia Nebraska now and already booked to bring a short-term team of students to the Dominican in May!

Amanda, the Gauthiers' 3 kids, and I went for a short nature walk at a vineyard near their house one afternoon. It's called "Junto," pronounced with a hard "j,", but the Spanish junto, with a soft "j," means "together!"

L to R: Aviva, me, Ezra, Amanda, and Alice. 

Where's Waldo?

I'm not normally a baby whisperer, but I had the magic touch with Aviva!

Brian arranged a full Wednesday on campus for me: presentations in under- and upperclassman theology classes, chapel, lunch with students, and presentations at the Mission Minded Students and Pre-Sem/Pre-Deaconess meetings. Yes, that's FOUR. Yes, I about lost my voice and drank nothing but hot tea for the next 2 days. 

Heading home from the Pre-Sem/Pre-Deaconess meeting for some well-deserved wine and homemade chocolate cake, I noticed my favorite feature of the Pony for the first time :)

Thursday morning, I saddled up and rode out to Omaha for the Jamaica FORO, but that's another post for another time. Until next time, blessings!