Hihi ...it is me again.
Last thursday, we brought the eldery from touch seniors to chinatown for night shopping and sightseeing. It was a major event as many volunteers were called down to be "tour guides"for the tour. The volunteers were then spilt into their respective groups marked by numbers and colour. We then proceed to pick up the elderly. If you were there...you should have seen the excited faces of elderly as they eagerly await for the start off.I heard from Jasmine that these elderly have not gone chinatown for many years hence they really treasured this outing. So excited were they..the elderly in my group were poking me, urging me to lead them in their shopping spree...haha
Magaret and I were leading group 10 consisting of 5 aunties with 5 unique personalities.5 different shopping habits and 5 different shopping lists. There are many times which Margaret and I have to spilt up so that we can keep an eye on them while they are marking things off their shopping lists. Oh boy...their bargaining power was amazing! At the start, I was wondering why they didn't buy anything. I forgot the rule of thumb in shopping-See market first..then ATTACK! They were even teaching us things like best time and best place for bargains. Very streetsmart sia!
After shopping...we went to do abit of sightseeing. Actually this is my first time I have been to chinatown during the chinese new year period..so was awed by the decorations. We also got to see an artistry put up by this amazing caligrapher in front of temple.
Like the chinese saying goes... tian xia wu bu san zhi yan xi .The time came for us to depart from chinatown. But the most touching part came after that. A very tired Jasmine was standing next to me in the train home when she received a message in which the touch people conveyed their thanks to the volunteers. As she read the message ..every sign of tiredness disappeared and a smile surfaced. There, the beauty of volunteerism: being happy because someone else is happy.
Elicia
