Hi everyone!
First of all, a Happy Belated Mid-Autumn Festival! (since this is the theme for today's celebration!)
Anyway, we arrived at the center at around 10.30 am only to find most of the elderly not there yet cos they were queuing for free 'baos' (Dotz..Haha..). Then when the elders came in, we started with the game bingo. We later on heard that this game was actually one of their favorites and can have over 90 elders playing at one time! In the end, most of the elders managed to complete the 5 lines needed almost all of them received the small gifts that were prepared for them. (special thanks to the volunteer, HT, from 'Qiu2 Ai4' community service for preparing the bingo cards and Magarat for the moon cakes!)
After that, we also played a game that involves passing around a ball made of layers of newspaper with music. Then when the music stops, the person with the ball needs to either do a performance or enjoy a gift. Some of the elders were quite shy but others like Mr Chew and another elder( Sorry, i forgot her name!) were quite spontaneous when asked to do the little forfeits. Mr Tan who was sitting beside me also 'kana' once, but luckily it was a prize instead of a performance! You can see that some of the elders were more active but some were not. I think sometimes more attention needs to be given to those who are less expressive and tend to be more quiet to make sure that they too are able to enjoy the activities. For Mr Tan's example, he is unable to see clearly. So for the Bingo game, I had to help him locate the numbers and tell him the basic rules cos he does not understand the instructions. I also feel quite bad cos in the last game (the Win, Lose or Draw game), he also could not participate actively due to his poor eyesight :( We then ended the games at around 12.30 cos some of the elders need to go off to another outing (Sometimes, I have to admit, their Saturdays are even more fun-filled then mine!!)
After the celebration, we also had a 'course' on volunteering work conducted by .........( I'm really bad with names..sorry!!!). The information given were really practical and though it may sound obvious on hindsight, those are really some of the mistakes we make when we interact with our elders. I think these constant reminders are useful for our later interaction with the elders. We also got to learn how to use the wheelchair and how to get up and down ramps. Though there were a little bumps here and there but generally all of us did quite well considering its our first time!
All in all, I think today was really a fun day where there was alot of laughing and joking around, both with our elders and among ourselves. It definitely was one of the most meaningful Mid-Autumn Celebration I had for a long time!(since last time mid-autumn festival to me means burning lanterns and candles to create really big fires at the playground..haha)
Lastly, to end, I would like to wish Cheng-hua and Shi Tien a Happy Birthday!!
See ya guys soon!
Rong
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