missionaryMAC

Maybe, hopefully, even hasta pronto  for some of you. ​This might be the end of The Blog, but it certainly doesn't mean the end of my service to the church or the many relationships I've formed in eight years as an international missionary.  Josh and I left the Dominican on a Monday morning I'd been dreading it for weeks, sure I'd be a wreck by the time we had to board. Had we not been able to make it to my beloved garden one last time, I might have.  From the time I finished cleaning up my breakfast dishes until past when I'd wanted to be on the road, my house was full of friends and laughter.  Miraculously, neither of us had to pay for overweight baggage, even though one of mine weighed 61 lbs! THIS got whipped into shape within a day or 2 of landing at my parents' house.  We're settling nicely into a relaxing routine marked by morning walks if it's over 50° (which it mostly has been), pre- Jeopardy!  afternoon walks if it's not, and Jeopardy! , ye...

​Josh's last sermon was Maundy Thursday and his last time assisting with liturgy was Easter Sunday, but according to his supervisor Ross , his vicarage OFFICIALLY ended with our despedida* on April 12 .   He could drop the title "Vicar," and its implications for making coffee, putting away chairs, and other undesirable grunt work and go back to being just Josh.  Sem wife Mayra (Mexico) started publicizing the event on Pueblo Nuevo's social channels well in advance.  The service featured some of our favorite hymns from Himnario Luterano .  Toward the end of the service, Ross called Josh up for whatever you call the opposite of the rite of installation for a vicar, which didn't exist in English. I joined him after the benediction.  Then came the parting gifts: a signed Dominican flag, a mug, and something in a concerningly large box, which turned out to be a beautiful crucifix. I told Josh that fitting the latter into a suitcase was all him at that point...and som...

​April's DR ladies night - a monthly-ish get-together of missionary and seminary ladies for snacks and usually an activity of some sort - was a despedida doble  in honor of "Mrs. Wareham to be." Oh wait, that's me! Despedida  is one of those words we usually say in Spanish for whatever reason; it can be translated as something like a goodbye or going away party. It was  doble  (double) because it was exactly that plus a  despedida de soltera  (bachelorette party). The play on words only works in Spanish! We took a group photo (below) and then dove into the food: charcuterie, because evidently the time I turned a couple of folding tables in the office into giant charcuterie boards for an all-team meeting was pretty memorable.  One of the seminary wives brought apple slices - arranged into the shape of a heart in the center.  First on the agenda was a trivia game that I of course couldn't play because I knew all the answers. Turns out Katie Weber k...

Our final countdown (last full week) started on Easter Sunday. Josh participated in a service for the last time, as crucifer and then by assisting during the Gospel processional.  The Kreys invited us over that evening to celebrate Easter, their oldest daughter's 17th birthday, and a visit from DR seminary graduate Kevin and his new wife Valentina. I contributed a salad to our turkey dinner. Afterwards, we played an intense , 16-person game of spoons. Becca, eliminated early, played a different song each round. One of them might  have actually been "The Final Countdown," but I'm not positive. I might have gotten 4-of-a-kind a couple of times... ...which propelled me into the final - against Josh! I promise there was no collusion happening, and Josh was victorious in the end.  We essentially had one event per day scheduled the rest of the week, filling the rest of our time with cards, naps, Amazon Prime, and packing. Of course we hit the botanical garden first thing e...

​Much like I did as I prepared for my move here , I held a venta por mudanza (moving sale) on what turned out to be a beautiful Saturday morning to get rid of anything that won't be coming to St. Louis with me. It went exactly as expected, in large part due to my KISS philosophy of pre-sale prep:  Piles in my empty back room grew by a little bit every day or couple of days until this is what Josh & I were faced with carting outside the morning of the sale. Early on, I wisely started categorizing items by price: RD$100 (~$1.64), RD$200 (~$3.29), or FREE.  I'd shared a Google sheet of individually priced big ticket items back in January but still managed to fill four borrowed tables with things I cleared out of closets, cabinets, drawers, and shelves.  Yes, I would put out a plate of homemade treats ( molasses crinkle scones and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies ). Josh put on some tunes to round out the vibe.  Cutest shopper (but no, they didn't buy the mug)! At the...

​Holy Week in the Dominican Republic is synonymous with one of two things: the beach or the mountains.  While we as Lutherans value gathering together with our church families for the holy days of the triduum, beginning with a Maundy Thursday service this evening, the early part of a week with no work/school nationwide was perfect for an overnight getaway to Santo Domingo to see friends Franco & Kelsey and their 16 mo. old daughter Anza one more time; I've known them since they were just novios .   We made an 8 min. detour on the way into town to see Parque Logístico CCN , the enormous, new-ish (2022) distribution center/factory complex owned by the parent company of my favorite grocery store and where Franco works when he's not at his corporate office.  After passing through airport-esque security, we started by peeking into a warehouse with 70+ semi-truck bays (A-C on the map below) for incoming deliveries and shelving stacked 5-6 levels high with product that'...