I am so sorry for the delay of this post!

Belated merry christmas everyone! And so grateful that our major outing turn out fine even though it drizzled a little=)

Last saturday my group went to visit Mdm Chua, Mdm Ho and Mr Chiu. I swept the floor at Mdm Chua's house and found it quite dusty becasue she said she won't clean or sweep the floor herself. She will mostly spend her day at the centre during weekdays. Also she keep saying that she is very fortunate to live in this estate because there are volunteers like us who will visit her. She said she gets agitated rather easily and will feel like crying for no apparent reason. We feel sad to see her like this. Hope that our presence did bring a tinge of joy to her!=)

Next we visited Mdm Ho and I also swept the floor. She told us about her gradchildren and god-children. She treated one of our volunteers to a bao and another to the chee chong fun that they got from the church.

Last but not least we visited Mr Chiu. He received a very interesting electrical appliance which can help to wash his butt. But we did not know how to fix it to his toilet bowl and to prevent us from spoiling his toilet bowl, we gave up the idea of fixing for him. Zhenxiu bought 3 more cds to add to his collection. It's a pity that it is a karaoke cd so he cannot listen to cd at home since he does not have a vcd player. Maybe if we can, we can try to get a cheap vcd player for him?

Yup that's all. Looking forward to the next visit!=)

Sheng Xian

My first experience with T.H.E

Last Saturday was a special day for me because it marks my first volunteering experience with T.H.E.! I was assigned to be in the same group as Yinmin, Criss, Pheng Heong and Jeremy that morning. :D

We started off our day by visiting Mdm Cheong. Upon arriving, I noticed the cute lady in the house walking towards us. But the rest laughed and joked about Mdm Cheong being a “Commando”. I was taken aback by Mdm Cheong’s superb memory as she could easily recall who she had seen before and pointed out that I am the newcomer! HAHA. As usual, Mdm Cheong delegated task for each of us. After completing our “missions”, we settled now and had a good chat with Mdm Cheong. I was touched and amazed by Mdm Cheong’s positivity towards life as she talks about how she actively tries to stay healthy by exercising frequently and how she tries to活到老，学到老. I was surprised that Mdm Cheong actually knows so many languages! That morning she demonstrated Chinese, English, Teo chew, Hokkien and even Malay! I’m ashamed that I’m struggling with Hokkien even though it’s my dialect. Goshh. :X

After which, we visited Mdm Tan. She is a petite elderly who greeted us with her lovely smile. We helped Mdm Tan cleaned her house and checked her mails that morning. During our conversation with Mdm Tan, she told us that she plans to stop accepting meals provided by the Buddhist Society as she heard from her friends that the CC may be catering daily meals for the elderly. Moreover, the volunteers from the Buddhist society have been interviewing her frequently, asking her about how many children she has and how much money they give her monthly. Mdm Tan was worried that this may implicate her children. As such, she is hoping that the CC would be catering food for the elderly so that she can stop accepting meals provided by the Buddhist Society. We might want to take note of this matter during our next visit to Mdm Tan’s house. Also, Mdm Tan was telling us that she enjoys the food provided during the occasional buffets organized by the CC. However, she has stopped attending such activities due to her failing eyesight. She can’t exactly see what food she was taking and was afraid of asking the other elderly for fear of troubling them. This broke my heart upon hearing that. I am really amazed by Mdm Tan’s courage towards life. Regardless of the difficulties she is facing, Mdm Tan is always bearing a smile on her face.

Lastly, we visited Mdm Chow Moi’s house. Mdm Chow Moi greeted us with her wide smile. We didn’t have time to clean up Mdm Chow Moi’s house today due to the shortage of time. During our conversation with her, she noted Pheng Heong as the giggling boy. HAHA. As Pheng Heong and Mdm Chow Moi tease each other, we noticed that Mdm Chow Moi has been coughing quite badly. We asked her if she has sought a doctor but she said it would be a waste of money. As such, she is only taking 枇杷膏to relieve her cough.

I had an enjoyable and enlightening experience interacting with the elderly at T.H.E. I have learnt so much from the elderly I visited. I’m surprised by their spontaneity and their strong will towards life. These are lessons that we can’t learn from books and school. My experience with the elderly last Saturday morning certainly motivates me to quickly brush up my Hokkien. There is so much that I would like to learn about them. I am looking forward to the good memories and laughter to come! I am praying hard that it won’t rain tomorrow. I am certain that tomorrow’s major event would be filled with love and fun! :D Aja Aja Fighting! ^^

lots of love,
Carline :)

3 Dec 2011 Visit

Hey! Sorry for posting so late. Had to settle other things :/

Anyway, Jian Ting (I may have typed her name wrongly, do help me edit it Im wrong), Guowei, Eng Wee and myself visited Mdm Lim, Mdm Tan and Mr Chiu.

We went to visit Mdm Lim first. We didn't need to do any housework so we just sat there and talk to her. She was telling us that she quite frequently get breathless and her heart will beat very fast. Then she will need to take medicine to calm these symptoms down and if she take 3 tablets already and the symptoms still dont stop then she will need to go down to see the doctor. Because of this condition, she was feeling quite depressed and was saying that if she passes on then so be it... better than having to suffer through this :/ She also said that sometimes her legs will feel very weak and will give way so she need to walk around with a walking stick. And because of her spinal cord sticking out, she has to sit up to sleep instead of lie down. Her visitation reports show that we never really visit her either cause she's not at home or not feeling well. If any of us get to visit her again do try to cheer her up :D :D and also check on her condition :D:D

At Mdm Tan's house we help her do housework - clean the windows, sweep the floor and mop the floor. Her eyesight as usual not very good. She told us that she ask her friend to help her buy those packet coffees from the supermarket. She said that she every morning also need to drink coffee.

Finally, we visited Mr Chiu's house. No cleaning was needed. He was reading chinese newspaper before we arrived. He showed us songs lyrics of an event he attended organised by the CC if im not wrong. There were quite alot of people that participated in the event. I think it was something like there were a some people who had to go up on stage to sing the songs that were on the song lyrics paper he showed us.

Yep that's about it. Sorry can't really remember everything we talked about with the elderly. If i miss out anything do add in! :D

Cheers,
Yixiu

3 Dec Visit! :)

Heyhey! Sorry for the late post oops!
My group consisting of wynne, zhenxiu and ying cong went to visit Mdm Chua and Mdm Cheong on saturday.

Mdm Chua was a little emo that day, as she was having a headache too. She tends to be very forgetful, and I realized her bedsheet hasn’t been changed for some time although she always said that she’ll change it the following day. Maybe we could help her with it if it hasn’t been changed by the time we next visit her. Mdm Chua also insisted on treating us to coffee, so maybe we should arrange hers to be the last slot, so we can bring her down for coffee next time. We did the usual cleaning, and settled down to watch the tv, which was airing the show about celebrity dads learning how to take care of their kids. Mdm Chua told us that in the past, only the woman in the house takes care of the kids, while the man goes out to work and earn $$ for the family. Guys must learn from these celebrity dads k! :)

We then proceeded to Mdm Cheong’s house. We could smell the aroma of the jin zhen hua liang teh she was boiling from the doorstep. She was very cheerful that day and looked really pretty in her flowery blouse. :) After splitting the work among us and having done them all, we settled down to chat. Mdm Cheong told us that she is trying to learn to speak Chinese, so she kept trying to identify objects using Chinese. I really take my hat off to Mdm Cheong’s 活到老学到老 spirit. Meanwhile, Wynne had a good sleep in the beach chair while Mdm Chua looked on and laughed. Hehe.

Yea that’s about it for last sat’s visit. See you guys and the elderly soon! And please help publicize about our MAJOR OUTING on 20th Dec and get your friends to join us too, it'll be fun! :D

yinmin