I returned to the U.S. for the month of July and had a great time catching up with friends/family & sleeping in the air conditioning. Attended my families annual Orange Beach, AL vacation, traveled to NYC to see my brother & Suzanne, attended my Godson's Baptism in Tampa (photo with Walker Kennedy Kleman below), & met some friends in St. Pete Beach for my bachelor party, yep bachelor party (see below). Always great to be back in the U.S. but after 5 weeks I was ready to return to Central Amercia, it was a long time away from Carina.
Walker and I sending Carina an e-mail in our matching shirts.
I was also able to spend time with my little brother Seth (Big Brothers Big Sisters) when I was back. I started mentoring Seth when he was 6 years old, he is a freshman in high school this year and only a few inches shorter than me. Time flies. He went with me and my family to the beach and I also took him to an amusement park in Kentucky one day. He has become a really neat young man, mentoring is a cool experience! I purposely asked a girl with an iPhone to take this pic so she would understand how to work my iPhone, she still couldn't figure how to hold it upright. I think she rode the Kentucky Rumbler a few too many times!!
I drove to Chicago to attend the Baptism of Carina's niece (Kathryn) and nephew (Anthoni). Carina has a huge family and many of them live in Chicago. I have been to see them several times, they are always very good to me. (The wife beater didn't appear to show through my shirt when I was at the house getting dressed, what a look!)
I flew back to Honduras on Aug 1 and returned to my volunteer position with the Olancho Aid Foundation. We had 7 long-term volunteer teachers arrive on Aug 7th, they are a great group of people. I did an orientation with them for 4 days which included a hike to Mountain Boqueron, always a hit with the volunteers. We take a guard with us to the mountains, just to be safe, 8 gringos in the mountains alone could be problematic. I took the opportunity to practice my shooting.
Carina joined us on the hike.
On Aug 24th I traveled to Costa Rica by bus to attend a language school for a month. I have been in San Jose, Costa Rica for the past 2 weeks and starting Monday I will be in Samara, Costa Rica (the schools beach campus) for an additional 2 weeks. My Spanish is improving and Costa Rica is a beautiful country. In San Jose my host family was a real sweet retired couple, Olga and Geraldo. They provided me a room, cooked me breakfast and dinner, and also helped me navigate my way around the city. There were a lot of college students from Germany at the school, some studying Spanish as a 4th language. I was the only student staying with my host family, but one night a German girl traveled through and stayed at the house as well. She was suppose to arrive on a Tuesday evening but she didn't show until Wednesday (3 days before her luggage). I spoke with her on Wednesday and asked what happened with her original plan to arrive on Tuesday, she told me that she did in fact arrive in San Jose on Tuesday, however not San Jose, Costa Rica....San Jose, CALIFORNIA. She booked her flight to the wrong country, the wrong country. She had to purchase a same day flight from San Jose, CALIFORNIA to San Jose, Costa Rica....ooop$. In all my travels that's the first time I have heard of that. I did accidentally go to O'Hare instead of Midway one time, if you ever do that there is a shuttle for airline employees that they apparently let Cardinal Health employees ride, I guess they felt bad for me.
My school.
Friday I took a bus and ferry (6 hours) in order to get to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica (Surfers Paradise) where I'm relaxing for the weekend. You should have seen all the stuff the passengers were bringing with them from the city of San Jose, I guess that's there opportunity to shop, there is not much shopping here in Santa Teresa. One guy had 20 gallons of motor oil. Santa Teresa is a small beach community located on the West Coast of Costa Rica. I'm staying in a little cabin directly on the Pacific Ocean. No paved roads, very few automobiles, mostly bikes, ATV's, and surf boards, it's very relaxing, shirts and shoes are rare. I arrived at 8:00 pm, just as the USA / Costa Rica futbol game was starting. The whole country was watching the game (tough loss for U.S.) The place I'm staying doesn't have a front desk, it's the kind of place where the owner walks you to the room and gives you a key. I tried calling the owner of the cabin as I was approaching the town but she wouldn't answer, so the bus driver dropped me off at the local grocery store and one of the employees called the owner for me. She sent some guy to the grocery store to pick me up and give me a key to the cabin. Today I take a bus/ferry to Samara where I will continue my Spanish courses. There are a lot of surf board rental shops in Samara, so I'm hoping to surf in the afternoons.
20 gallons of motor oil.
View from the ferry.
Town of Playa Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.
As for Carina, she is doing great. Busy as ever, working during the day, English classes every afternoon, and studying at a university on the weekends to complete her teaching degree, she will be finished in May. We have been discussing marriage and a date for months now, but I wanted to buy the ring in Nashville from my friends who own a jewelry store, so my July visit gave me the opportunity to make that purchase. Carina had told me one time that she would love to get married at the little chapel in the school where she works, however the chapel only holds about 40 people so that won't be possible. I did feel it would be a great place to propose. Directly outside the doors of the little chapel are the beams I was scrapping and painting in June 2011 when I spotted Carina and asked to be introduced to her. Anyway, on August 20th I purchased candles and rose pedals, placed them all over the chapel and I went to pick Carina up from her English class. I previously asked our IT guy (Oscar) to call Carina and let her know that she needed to stop by her office and re-set the internet (our server is located near Carina's office). So when I picked her up from class she informed me that we needed to stop by her office and reset the server. We walked into the school together, she noticed the candles and rose pedals and quickly realized what I was up to. So it's official, she said yes, actually she said "si amor"! We are getting married November 30th 2013 in Juticalpa, Honduras.
I always like sharing the creative Honduran work ethic. Check out the 2 guys on the bicycles, this is teamwork. Apparently they work in construction and needed to get 30 ft of rebar to the worksite.
So the Central American Adventure continues. Enjoy the beginning of the new seasons back in the U.S. Fall and Football.
