7 October 2007
October 6th
Posted by darkblue under: regular visits .
….after some vacation time and a couple of flu struck weekends in September it was time to get on to road again and off to Landstuhl. I stopped at the store to pack up on foods for the DWMMC (waiting room for the transitioning wounded) - a wide variety for every taste - sausages + cheese, all kind of snacks, cheesecake bars and 2 large fruitcakes with marzipan. In addition to all that I also had some some sweets and snacks donated by the Union Congregational Church in Braintree, Mass.
Another big part of todays delivery where a book full of DVDs and one with musical Cd’s donated by AMVETS - a Veterans Service Organization (http://www.amvets.org/) - a big thank you goes out to all involved in this generous project - these DVDs are very appreciated and in high demand since they offer some distraction and a good way to pass some time. There are flyer’s hanging out informing wounded warriors about the option of signing out movies to their disposal and it had some good feedback so far. This is an ongoing cooperation between SSFOA and AMVETS and will amount to countless hours of entertainment for the wounded - another honorable mentioning goes to the memory of Dr. Bryan Chaffee (http://bryanchaffee.tributeforyou.com/), providing the postage to deliver the DVDs. Special thanks also goes out to the Silver Star Families of America organization and their Executive State Coordinator Georgeine Marbeiter for all their hard work and getting this project quickly off the ground.
Karolina joined me to help setting everything up and while we were busy unpacking and putting out food we had a nice chat with a couple of soldiers (a wounded and his escort) who were waiting on their ride to their medical quarters. They were just in from the Horn of Africa and dressed pretty warm, even though the weather out was pretty warm considering our location. They asked a lot of question about the surroundings and were somewhat disappointed not being able to see more of it.
Karolina, in her spontaneous way, invited both for dinner, which her and her husband do on a regular basis as part of their tremendous support work.
We helped to fill out a SSFOA banner request and shortly thereafter their ride arrived. Karolina and her husband would pick them up later for dinner.
It was time to pack up, being a holiday weekend we postponed visiting the Chaplains closet and the Chaplains office - thats set for next weekend when we will be joined by more of our members, which will mean some extra help.
Now we had to coordinate dinner - I offered to cook a Czech dish (SegedÃnský guláš  s knedlikem or Szegediner goulash & dumplings) - we stopped at a store and I bought the needed ingridiens…. once at Karolina and Davids place we started to get to work, while they left to pick up their dinner guests I finished cooking the meal and managed to be just about done in time they returned. We had a good time and everyone enjoyed their meal, while our guests were fascinated by the different type foods and insisted on taking photos… that was quite funny. Karolina and David passed out some German chocolates, which were also highly appreciated and liked - but our time was limited, since the pass away from medical observation is understandably only given on a regulated basis. It was time for all of us to head back again…
