Touch Visit - 21 Feb 09

Hi All,

It's been long since I last volunteer with Touch... Really miss all the wonderful memories that I had with CSC, when I was still studying! Hah.

Last week, I had been assigned by Jolene (current chairperson) to blog on the experiences I had in my last visit to Touch. Apologies for the delay in the posting, as I am very tied up with work. :p

So, here's the updates.

11.00am: Was late for Touch, coz was helping a lady whose card was stuck in ATM. But anyway, first elderly I visited was Mdm Ho. She was really amazing, as she can speak and understand many languages and dialects.

11.10am: By the time I reached the flat, Chen Hua, Margaret and Lin Xun were already doing house-cleaning. So I am tasked the simplest yet most meangingful job, i.e. to chat with Mdm Ho. Ha. Learnt a lot from Mdm Ho. From the consveration, she seems to be a happy and optimistic lady. She talked about many issues: her family, her driving licence which she is so proud of, her CPF letters on GST Credits which I helped her to read, and of coz the volunteers whom she treated as her grandsons and granddaughters...

11.30am: Mdm Ho taught me how to wear a tie which I needed for my presentation on that day. Really surprised that a lady of her age know how to tie, something that "young" people like me don't even know. Heh. As the Chinese saying goes, "Jia you yi lao, ru you yi bao"... Been taught a valuable lesson that day... :)

12.00pm: After bidding Mdm Ho goodbye, we left for Mdm Lim Chuey's house. Mdm Lim was very happy to see us. We heard from her that she was very depressed and kept thinking about negative stuff. Very "gei shim" that her house was dirty and untidy, thus we volunteered to help her clean the place. Just like in the past, Chen Hua and I were tasked to clean the windows. Margaret was cleaning the fan and Lin Xun was sweeping / mopping floor.

12.45pm: Flat was clean and neat. Mdm Lim was happy and grateful to us, kept thanking us profusely. We asked her not to think of sad things and try to stay positive and happy. If possible, to interact with other elderly and go for a short walk. However, she indicated that she feels ostracised by some elderly and is afraid to travel long distances, as she don't know the way well. We offerred to bring her around, whenever she needs some company. She finally smiled...

1.15pm: We left Mdm Lim's house. When we reached the void deck, the rest had already gathered. Jolene did a de-brief and dismissed the group.

That's all for last week's updates. For more details on the elderly, do come for visit next sat. See ya there! :)

Cheers,
Zip

Lunar 'Niu' Year Celebration 2009

Hello everyone, this is my first time blogging in the CSC touch blog so do give me some feedbacks and comments. 

It is the yearly but greatly anticipated event, the Lunar New Year Celebration. This is my first time involving in such a celebration with so many senior citizens. Before the event got started, few of them were early and sat down chatting with each other.

The senior citizens wait patiently for the celebration to get started. Jiancong started off the celebration by playing his harmonica. Great effort and it sounded really nice. The elderly enjoyed it.

Up next, games and lots of food! 

"Blindfolded & Guess the food"

Lin Xun and Jia Hui feeding the elderly

prize giving

last group playing the game

After the games, the traditional "lo hei" is next to come as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year.

Mdm Chua singing while the volunteers preparing the"lo hei"

The elderly tossed the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to wish for a prosperous and wonderful new year ahead. Kam Poh can be seen actively tossing while at the other end, Wei Jian is a make shift table to hold the "lo hei" container. Thanks for the sacrifice.

Last but not least, distributing the new year goodies to them. Each of us is supposed to bring a tin of new year goodies so these are the ones. Volunteers helped to pass it around for the elderly to taste a great variety of goodies.

A group photo to end the event on a high.

Thanks everyone for their effort and time spent with the elderly.

Cheers.

Weizhong.