San Jose Trip

I currently don´t have internet at the new house so I have had to go to an internet cafe to access email and update my blog. I was fortunate enough to go to San Jose with my friend Jimmy this past weekend. I stayed with his brother and sister. Right as you get into downtown San Jose you an tell that you are in the city. Quepos is laid back and relatively quite. San Jose´s downtown is packed with people, stores, homeless, bars, and restaurants. I kind of felt like I was in a movie or maybe it felt like it because I have watched a lot of foreign films? We went to Jimmy´s neighborhood and I quickly saw what he had described to me before we went. There are a bunch of homeless and the poverty is pretty bad....worse than what I have seen in the states. It was pretty cool to see Jimmy in action with people from his old neighborhood. He only talks to people about God, no sports or unrelevant topics. Drugs are dirt cheap and robberies happen often. You can tell that there is not much going on but evil...so his philosophy is to tell as many people about God while he is there. It was awesome to witness him interact with everyone...cause it seemed like everyone knew him. Jimmy was formerly a crack cocaine addict and huffed a lot of glue. He went to a program and has been clean for about 6 years now. He is married, has four kids, and is the director of the recovery program where I work. While in San Jose we visited one of the families of one of the men that is in the program. When Jimmy goes back to San Jose he routinely does this to help the families. We also ran into about half a dozen men who had left the program and Jimmy on a number of occasions when we were riding the bus would point out the window and say,¨there goes so and so." It was pretty insane to see so many guys from the program back out on the streets. I am convinced that I met a couple men who were demon possessed.( yes I do believe in demon possession). They were in active addiction and it was clear to me that I was not communicating with the man I was talking to. It was pretty sad and scary. One of the sadder things I have witnessed here in Quepos and in San Jose is the men that are alcoholics drink rubbing alcohol. It is about 50 cents and strong as all get out. Usually it is used to disinfect or light fires down here but they drink it. I saw one man awake and an hour or so later we went by him again and he was coma tose with an empty bottle laying next to him...all I could do is shake my head and ask God why? Pretty clear to me that we need to help others at whatever the cost is to us. Man it was sad. One of the coolest things to me is when you go into a Costa Rican families home they are extremely hospitable. Within 10 seconds of walking through the door you are offered food and it is usually already prepared. If it is not prepared they will ask you if they can make you something. Are you thirsty, are you hungry, do you want more? Wow it is awesome to be treated so well. I am also leaving next Tuesday morning. My plan is to get home and relax and try to raise support to come back asap. I love it here and I love working with the men. I am looking forward to seeing friends and family, but I am not looking forward to leaving relationships that I have started. See ya