A late blog

Finally, my turn to blog (3 weeks late) le. Anyway, I also have not blog for a long time. After 2 years of being in “touch”, I finally know that every member nd to do facilitation, hahaha. In any case, it was the first time I do the facilitation and I come on the dot. YEAH!!!! On that day, my group has visited 2 elderly (Mdm lin and Mdm ho). Mdm Lin is seriously very weak, so weak that it feels like she will fall down anytime. She also does not eat much so it is quite worrying for her to be alone. Mdm Ho is still the same. A cheerful granny who can always bring out the laugher so it is always very fun to visit her. Overall, every visit is a very meaningful visit. And I am sure that I will continue to go. Lastly, I will say to say “touch” helps to strengthen the bond between us and the elderly and the friendship between the volunteers. yang meh meh!!

The Ties that Bind

Well, I guess it's time to get a taste of my own medicine? Used to ask people to blog and now..=)..but come to think of it..I haven't been blogging for quite some time le..haha..

I kind of ponder like how should i go about writing this post...haha as you can all see..I'm still in the process....ZZzz..

I have been into Touch for almost 2 years (I think) and there are 2 things I treasured the most that i like to share. One is the ties with our elderly and the second is the friendship with all of you in the club.

Well, I never had a chance to ask Chen Hua (okie, i did have chances but I just didn't ask him..) why he would come down on every saturday and spent his time with the elderly for the past 7 years. Well i guess is the kind of special and unique bond with the elderly? it's (the rls with the elderly) something that doesn't establish itself overnight but kind of like an old wine, the longer that you let it ferment the better it would be, and the more that one would like and keep on drinking it. Having said that, it is rewarding to see one being identified and recognised by the elderly for one's conscientious effort and showing concern towards them. (i.e. Mdm Ho and Chen Hua or Mr Tan and Joanne).

On the same note, friendship is the other that motivates me to stay in the touch. Totally enjoyed the 'crappyness', the fun and laughters during and after the normal visitations. Thus, i doubt that i would come down and visit the elderly myself without you guys...haha =)..

Guess to keep the long story short...i shall end here..GOOD LUCK for your exams and see ya ard!

Ken

charm within a picky auntie

Hi, this is Koji, a Japanese exchange student.

Yesterday(I've just finished one assignment, Hooray!! ) was my 2nd and the last participation to THE seniors :(

Among a group of 7 exchange students, I was somehow assigned to Hokkien group, which firstly appeared unreasonable to me, but later turned out to be a fun experience.

The title seems to be misleading since I cannot even understand basic Mandarin, but

as I was hoping to get some chance to show off my pre-nursery school level of Mandarin, Hokkien group seemed to be a nice option to me at the same time.

Our group has done quite a lot of cleaning at the first auntie's room, mainly because of her hair that was scattered around the room. However I enjoyed the cleaning and it was worth putting energy, since I hadn't done much cleaning most of the time before.

Besides, her room looked not as messy to me as everyone was saying.

My grandpa's house is so chaotic and filled with dust all over the place, so I might have an immunity against messiness. (and I'm quite disorganized as well)

As for chatting with the auntie, I had been clueless despite the initial effort to catch up.

Before moving to the second auntie's place, I was warned that she is particular about the way how we clean the room, so I had been picturing some grumpy auntie in my mind.

Admittedly, she was indeed picky about cleaning and everyone had to follow the way she told us to do. BUT, contrary to my prediction, she turned out to be somewhat adorable to me. The way she commanded was not domineering, but rather I could observe some genuine auntie-ness from her (I had no idea what she was saying, but the pronunciation was comfortable to hear, and the way she speaks reminded me of one of my favorite neighbors I used to play with when young. she was also fastidious about many trivial details)

All along, I had little idea what everyone was talking, but I really enjoyed the family-like atmosphere marked by frequent laughters.

It was another fruitful experience for me (even after discounting the hassle of coming over all the way to Kallang from PGP in an early?? Saturday morning), and though my last visit made me get disappointed by myself with my helpless Chinese, but it also left me some nostalgia and some warm-feeling.