Hi everyone! :) It has only been a few days since 10th November but I'm surprised to see that a handful of volunteers have already posted entries about last Saturday's event! Or am I too slow... Haha please forgive me. Anyway, I'm Jia Ai and I'm a new volunteer! 10th Nov was my first visit to this regular project and I just want to share some of my feelings here :) 

Just some background on myself, I'm a year 1 student intending to major in social work and I've always been inclined towards working with the elderly. Thus, I was pretty excited when T.H.E.S finally contacted me regarding the volunteering project! Even though a part of me was filled with uncertainty (since I'm joining sth new afterall...), a larger part of me was really looking forward to interacting with the elderly! :)

My group (consisting of Amirah, Yu Lin, Camy and myself) visited Mdm Cheong and Mr Lee, and it was indeed a good feeling to be greeted with smiles from the elderly when we arrived! When we were at Mdm Cheong's house, we helped with some basic cleaning, did sand art together, and chatted with her. Since she mainly communicated with us via Canto/Malay - both of which I don't understand - I felt a little disappointed that I couldn't really interact with her that day. Nevertheless, I could tell that Camy and Amirah were doing a great job in interacting with her! It was actually comforting enough for me to know that Mdm Cheong was happily giving us tasks to do, trying her best to do the sand art, and sharing her old photographs towards the end of the day :)

When we visited Mr. Lee, he was singing karaoke in his house! Ok maybe not singing, but the music was there. Haha his enthusiasm was felt nearly instantaneously. I read through the recent entries of this blog and I have to agree with shurui that he has this very positive mindset towards life! Also, like what shurui mentioned, he eagerly explained to us the meanings behind this huge collage of photos which he has pasted on his wall! He also told us that he's planning to form two other words - 友情 - on his walls as he takes more pictures along the way, which I feel that it's pretty meaningful :) He's like having some personal art gallery at home, and I know he's proud of it. Haha we also tried to get him to sing but he rejected us.... (And a pity I didn't get to see the numerous toilet rolls and soap bars in his toilet :P)  Anyway, visiting Mr Lee was really interesting cos I didn't face the language barrier and I think he's a really funny guy (sneaking up just when I was sharing about him during the debrief session haha). 

That's roughly my summary of visits to Mdm Cheong's and Mr Lee's houses! Oh and not forgetting the ketupat part. Haha like what kai him said, it was a great challenge for some of us and our elderly might not be interested (like Mdm Cheong who strongly refused to keep the ketupat even though camy has already made for her. I think she prefers deepavali :P). Nevertheless, I feel that it doesn't really matter cos we can always improvise and seek other ways to interact with the elderly instead! Even if it's just chatting :)

All in all, I was really thankful for Saturday's experience. Even though it wasn't my first time interacting with elderly persons, I felt the same level of happiness when I met Mdm Cheong and Mr Lee :) And I certainly hope that I'd be able to get chummier with the elderly as time passes! (hopefully meet famous Mr Tay and his buttercino *shocked* haha!) Cos currently I feel that I haven't completely stepped out of my comfort zone yet. (Maybe need to start learning Canto and Malay already...) More often than not, I ask myself this question, "why am I so inclined towards working with the elderly population?" I love children and I enjoy working with the intellectually disabled, ... After taking out some time to read the past entries of this blog, it dawned upon me that the reason behind why I enjoy interacting with elderly more is because of the way they are so easily neglected. I believe none of us would want to envision ourselves staying in an old folks' home or living in loneliness during old age... (for those who does prefer solitude, I'm not judging haha). But yeah, my point is, I believe majority of us would want to spend our old age with our precious family members - people whom we would have slogged our guts out for at least half of our lifetimes. But the sad thing for some of our elderly is, their family members are not necessarily there for them. And I think that's when volunteers like you really play an important role in their lives :) 

Like what Jocelyn mentioned in her entry about Mr O, I believe that there are also many other elderly persons out there who are not so healthy, and have to go through the tough process of taking countless medications a day and going for countless doctor appointments. That's happening to my grandma currently, and tbh, I feel that it's not something we can control. However, we can always make their days better by being there for them, even if it's just for awhile. In the case of my grandma, she gets really grouchy when no one visits her/when she has to constantly go for check-ups. But she also gets contented very easily when we just bring her out to the nearby supermarket to buy...nothing in particular. Haha she just likes crowds :)

So...yup, just wanna remind everyone (including myself) not to neglect our own elderly grandparents or parents at home too! And to end off, I just want to say that even though I've only recently joined you guys, I can tell that the passion and dedication in you all are like...raging! Hahaha it really surprises me :) And I'm very appreciative of that - Singapore's ageing population has hope! Haha in the meantime, jiayou for finals everyone!

- Jia Ai