22.7 – 28.7.2024

Monday – Visit of Wein

I and Pastor start this week by visiting the hospital. We visited a man who had broken ribs and a blood clot in his head. His name is Wein. Now he’s in much better shape. He can move more freely and he has more strength in muscles. This day will be his last day in hospital.

We talk a lot about how medication goes, how Wein feels, and about his family situation. It was a long, but interesting talk. We also talked a little bit with a nurse who takes care of Wayne. Very little funny but a little sad in one was Wein’s call with his wife.  His wife has Alzheimer’s and memory issues, so she asked a couple of times in one call which hospital Wein is. But very interesting was that Wein during call answered every time without nervousness. Now I can imagine better how it is to care for a family member who has Alzheimer’s. In the end, I pray for him.

So I am happy that Wein is in good shape and mood.

Tuesdays – visit of Janie

Today we go visit Janie. Before visiting pastor encouraged me to talk more and be more active in our visits and pastoral talks.

After we arrived at Janie’s room, Janie invited us by choke because she had eaten at that moment and the food was a little dry.
And then we start talking. Pastor introduces me to Jenny and Jenny to me.

Jan is a very strong and interesting woman. She has had multiple sclerosis from a young age, so she has little problems with movements and her body parts can have sometimes scary shapes. Despite that, she had a job and she was a volunteer at the zoo. We talked a lot about the zoo and how much he likes animals and cares for them. We talk about giraffes, elephants, and penguins.

We also talked about her nursing home. This nursing home is great because they make trips and visits to the zoo.

Pastor in the end serves her Lord’s supper and I pray for Janie. It was a great visit because Janie is still happy and full of hope which is at her age more rare. She has strong faith in God and a great sense of humor.

Wednesday – visit of Peter

On Wednesday we go to visit Peter – a man in his 80s whose wife passed away a few years ago. He has an interesting big house in the countryside style. I like his decorations in a house like farming miniatures and rustical furniture.

But the main part was talking with him. We talk about life and health. Peter is alone so it is important to visit these people to talk and share time with them. In the end, I pray for Peter and his life & health. It was a nice and fulfilling visit.

Friday

This day, I didn’t work with Pastor. I didn’t know why, but he sent me to the kitchen to help with the preparation of the Slovak national picnic at Sokol farm. It is only a joke. Today is nothing special, so pastor allows me to go help in the kitchen.

With Debby and her two friends. we prepare food for the Slovak picnic. We prepared, sauerkraut, cabbage noodles, and stuff for Zivanska. We start with cutting and peeling of onions. There were two big packages. Fortunately, it was not so touching as cutting off an onion can be.

After the onions, we cut bacon into cabbage noodles. This was also fun and interesting but bacon was harder to cut. During these activities, we talked about life, picnics, and kitchen things. After this, me and Pastor go to lunch.

Minigolf and Biig ice cream

In the evening, Peggy and Randy take me to a local mini-golf playground.  he was very funny and interesting to play golf. I found that I’m not so bad but I need a lot of training too. There were 18 golf courses at this playground. It was very big fun for everyone and we enjoyed it. We had a score – Randy 45, Peggy 53, and me 55. I lose 😭 this game.



After mini golf, we go to the local ice cream store. There was a lot of ice cream on the menu. I choose vanilla ice cream with cherry and then blueberry ice cream with chocolate chips. It was amazing and very tasty but there was one  shocking thing for me – one cup of ice cream was almost in the size of regular 2 cups of ice cream in Slovakia.
I had a big problem eating everything, but I did it. Then we took pictures of a plastic cow which was before the ice cream store. It was a great day.


Saturday

Saturday was a lazy day for me, Peggy, and Randy. We don’t do something special in the evening we make dinner and I helped to make a salad with Peggy. it was fun and I was happy that I could help.
Evening, watching a film about a male actor, which have cancer and his life with cancer. It was an interesting and funny film.

Sunday

This Sunday service was shorter. Before Sunday worship me and Pastor also shake hands with people who come to church and talk for a few minutes. I think this is a great habit, to talk before and after worship service with people. 

Pastor Erick in the sermon talks, mainly about how we want to control Jesus for our comfort. He explained that this would not work. Jesus will fill our needs not according to us, but according to him. Jesus knows the best is good for us.
After the church, there was again a good time to meet together and we had a few snacks and sweets next to the church entry. I talk with a few people about many things.


After this one family today, took me on to trip. It was Susan and Reed. They took me to a Slovak national picnic on Sokol farm. On this picnic were people from the Cleveland area who are Slovaks and or have Slovak roots.
Before we could go here, we stopped at the house of Susan’s and Reed’s nephew. There was a cute pay full dog. This house is very big and has a beautiful view to walk with the creek and forest. I hope that in future will have something similar at my home 😄. It was a beautiful view. After a few minutes and a glass of water, we go to the picnic.

Travel to the picnic was a little long, but it was a good time to talk. After we arrived at Sokol Farm, we paid for entry and booked a table, and took a beer and meals which were delicious. I took Janka and three beers together. I also tried local Strudel. It was tasteful too.

To my surprise, I get free tickets to food and one special package of apricot cakes. It was because I helped on Friday with prepares to Slovak picnic. It was a surprise for me, but it was great.

A very big price for the picnic was the arrival of a 109-year-old lady Emma. We talked with her for a few minutes. This lady knows also the Slovak language so it was great to talk in my native language after a month of talking in English. I talk with her about her life and Slovak background. Emma told me that she came to the US as a little child from the town of Tisovec in Slovakia. She had two sisters. A big surprise for me was that she didn’t talk in grammar-correct Slovak but in Slovak dialect from this area. But still, I was able to understand. It was nice to talk with this old lady. 

After this Me, Susan, Reed, their son Ben, adult nephew, and niece with her dad, played dominoes. We played three games and every game was fun and great. I talked with Ben and he studying in college as a marketing worker. Their nephew works as a machinery engineer. we talk a little bit about life and our professions.

I tried three beers on the picnic. These beers originated from Slovakia and Czechia. I have a Pilsner Urquell, Golden Peasant, and Czechvar. They were great.

But at this moment, we go home from the picnic. We again make a stop at Suzan’s nephew’s house. This time we spent more time and had a little tour of this house. Reed showed me the garden and beautiful bridge over the creek. then, Susan shows me a collection of their nephew’s whiskey and bourbon. It was a big and impressive collection. One mistake was only that I don’t like bourbon much 😊. Suzan also showed me a pinball arcade machine and I played one game. It was funny. Never before have I seen this machine.

Irish Restaurant

Next, we go to an Irish restaurant on the coast of Lake Erie. It is a nice restaurant in a nice location. At the start, Susan and Reed ordered a few appetizers to eat and these appetizers were great. Then I ordered the main dish Salmon Boxty. It was tasty and a great meal. This meal consists of salmon steak with vegetables in potato pancakes with milk sauce. I can eat this meal every day. So it was very great in this restaurant. Thank you for taking me to the restaurant Suzie and Reed. 


After a visit of our restaurant Suzie and Reed take me to Randy and Pegy’s life. During this journey, we talked about gardening and our hobbies and it was great to talk time again. After this, we arrived at my host family house. Reed, Susan, Rendy, and Peggy start talking. It was funny but after a few minutes, I slowly disappeared to my room because I was tired from this amazing day.

So I thank everyone for this amazing week full of trips and funny experiences!

See you soon in the next blog.