Stateside

I flew back to Indianapolis on the 20th of April to stay for a few weeks. Since I have been home I have been hanging out with my parents, brother, and I have seen a few friends. I have golfed twice with my dad. There is no golf where I am living in CR. Come to think of it, I don't think there is anywhere they could build a golf course. It is way to mountainous.

This is my second trip home over the past 6 months. One thing I notice since I have been home is my rush to get things I cannot get in CR or that I don't spend money on because they charge twice as much. Simple things you buy at the grocery down there are twice as expensive. Like a small thing of Peter Pan creamy peanut butter costs like 6 bucks down there. Anything that is name brand from the states is twice as expensive down there. Quepos makes money off tourists and they know that tourists are going to pay to have what is familiar...at least I think that is their thinking, along with importing it. My friends have given me lists of things to bring back to Quepos for them as well. Simple things like nuts, t-shirts, peanut butter, things for baking, hair products.......I think we all have things we miss from the states that we cannot get down there, so when someone comes here it is nice to be able to get the things we like. You can get a lot of the things down there, but I have found that often times it is just like throwing your money away. I would estimate that 80-90% of the things you buy down there with a name brand is a knock off or what you might call boot leg. I bought a pair of "Sony" headphones and they busted the next day. I called them phonies. lol. Maybe you get what I am saying.......maybe not.

It is just kinda strange coming here after being in the town I am living in. You get to see how consumeristic we are here in America. There is nothing but stores to buy things here. So many stores. I am trying to not spend much, but it is hard cause I know there are things I need and want that I cannot get down there. AHHH!

I bought a return ticket for the 5th of May. I miss the guys at the center and the routine I was in. I have learned pretty well how to relax, but I miss home. I have quite a few people I would still like to see and I am hoping to gain a couple more financial supporters. LOVE=LOVE

We are back to 8 men in the program right now. We had our staff meeting this morning and it seems like this is a good number for us. Anytime we get more than 7-8 it does not seem to last for very long. I think it is tough for that many guys to live in small quarters for prolonged ammounts of time.

I recently purchased a male pitbull. I have wanted a dog for years and never felt like it was the righ time to get one. Well, I just went ahead and did it when the opportunity presented itself. I live alone and I know how great it is to have a dog around to keep you busy and laughing. It is a big responsibility as well, especially with a 7 week old puppy. I named him Gideon. He is golden, white face and legs...with baby blue eyes. Talk about a job man. I knew it was not going to be a cake walk, but this little thing is crazy. Just have to be patient, I guess.

I have been sick for the past 5 days with sinus pain and my body is aching as well. I had the same sort of stuff about a month ago. My friend Jimmy has it as well as many others in the area. I went and had blood drawn the other day because I thought I had dengue fever again. Hopefully I will start feeling better here in the next couple of days.

I taught at church last week and I am teaching again this week. I think it went pretty well and we all learned something. I hope to grow in this area as it continues to challenge me greatly. If you happen to read this, please pray.

Please pray for my friends Jared and Eileen Cantrell-their future, all of our finances as a team, and for our program and church. thanks!

Well, sometimes it seems as right after I tell how many guys are in the program we lose a couple. We are down to 9 men now. This is really just how it goes I guess. Since I have been involved back in Indy and here it has always been the same up and down with the numbers of program men. The guys had 4 days off this past Thursday-Sunday. It was Holy Week here and Costa Ricans typically take off the entire week, but we only gave them 4 days. I think it was probably kind of hard for them being away from family and wondering what everyone else was doing. Many of the families go to the beach during the week. I went last Thursday and it was jam packed. I got there early and I was ready to go around 2pm.

I just received an email from Jared and Eileen. They are stuck in Brazil...they will not let them leave because they do not have their yellow fever vaccine cards with them. They can either get another one...which that process will take about 10 days, in order to get new cards or someone can DHL the ones at their house. I am off to see what has happened. Peace

11 guys

We now have 11 guys in the program! I have heard from my friend Jimmy who is our program director that all of the programs across the country are full and so are we. This is going to work out good for us because we have a pretty big work load. We just recently obtained 2 contracts with the Marina. We are going to be doing some gardening and landscape work for them. These are the biggest contracts that the program has ever had. We are still waiting to hear back from the church in Colorado who is wanting to help us financially. They have told us that they started fun raising and are still coming in June with 60 people to do a childrens bible school and help us with building a shed for the woodmizer.