Was looking forward to this one after attending the first visit a fortnight ago, as every visit would bring about a new experience. We were then split into smaller groups, namely the English/Mandarin speaking, Hokkien speaking and Cantonese speaking to facilitate with communicating with the old folks.
As we were making our way to the flats, a huge crowd of the elderly were queuing up to collect their food from the sponsoring vendors at the void deck. When they saw us, they smiled and waved at us and we did the same to them too. Can tell that they were really happy to see us around. I also saw Mdm Cheong, the lady who I visited last week (but I don't think she remembers me hahaha). As usual she would help some of her neighbours to collect their food as they are unable to do so on their own due to physical disabilities. We can tell that although these folks are living on their own, they will still look out for one and other, which is a heart-warming sight.
My group of 8 first visited Mdm Ho, 88. She was one of those whom Mdm Cheong helped collect food for. Her knees are showing signs of deformity and has difficulty moving around. She mentioned that she has to go for check ups at Tan Tock Seng hospitals occasionally. Her doctors advised her to undergo surgery but she refused to do so. A common understanding of the elderly is that when they are told to undergo surgery they will choose not to do so. Is is because of the high costs of doing so and they are not able to afford? Or the pain and after effects the surgery may bring about?
So after some basic introduction, we got down to business and started cleaning her flat, and 2 other friends helped her to buy her dinner at the hawker centre. Her request was to help clean the underside of her bed. There were a lot of dust accumulated there, and even dead cockroaches where swept out. It was understandable as Mdm Ho, being physically disabled, would not be able to reach for those inaccessible areas. Cockroaches wise, she was living on the second floor, so that increases the likelihood of these bugs 'visiting' her. She even have to place an insecticide on standby. So maybe we can highlight to the relevant authorities regarding the standard of cleanliness which gives rise to the number of cockroaches in the estate.
Once we're done with basic cleaning of her home, we sat down and chatted with Mdm Ho. While most of the time she speaks in Hokkien, she can also speak Mandarin and some English to the foreign volunteers who were with us. Then we found out from her that she is now a great-grandmother, and her grandchildren are about the age of 30-40. Her husband passed away recently. After talking to her, I think that she is generally optimistic in life and was really happy to have us around. Before leaving, we presented her with the mooncakes from PRIMA DELI and took a group photo together.
We then visited Mr Chiu, 75. He was very jovial and bubbly, always smiling. When asked if his house was needed to be cleaned, he declined and so we sat down and chit chatted with him. As like Mdm Ho, we presented Mr Chiu with mooncakes and took a photo together. Initially clad with just a pair of shorts, he specially wore a nice looking shirt with printing that looked similar to the SIA flight attendant's uniform just to take the photo. Mr Chiu loves to sing karaoke with his friends and in fact sings pretty well too, when he sanged a part of a song to us. He shown us some VCDs of Chinese oldies that he brought from Chinatown. However, he did not have a VCD player and his normal CD player was incapable of playing that. Apparently the VCDs were produced in a set of series, ie the ones he owned are volumes 11 and 12. So maybe next time we should look for a VCD player for him so that he can sing to his favourite music, as well as volumes of Chinese oldies, not restricting to the older volumes of the VCDs he owned.
That sums up the visits this week. Enjoyed myself thoroughly and I hope the rest who attended did too. The next visit will be in a fortnight's time on 1st October, the old Children's Day hahaha. Definitely looking forward to it!
- Jeremy :D
No comments:
Post a Comment