Sullen mood from problems the day before chased away right after I sat down with Uncle Lee before facilitation, eating his favourite sweet and kena-ing his teasing as always. O.o
Visiting Mdm Tan (everybody already knows about Shengxian's horrifying screech right - please refer to earlier posts), Mdm Lim & him, gathering with the rest at lao ka (这么巧!!) like one big family.
Kou rou bao and Mi Fen prepared by Uncle Lee specially for a whole big group of us. He started preparing it the day before and woke up at 5.30am on Saturday itself just for that.
拿起那个包，拿起扣肉，包包包包包，再这样包包包包包，包这个扣肉包，再包包包包包几个小时，再包起那个包，包包包包包包，扣肉包包，再包包包包包，就变成了扣肉包。
小朋友们，没那么简单哦！
I ate 3 leh but like not enough. But of course cannot fight Engsoon who ate 4 plates of beehoon at one shot.
MY VERY FIRST MAJOR OUTING:
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| That's Chunhai & ME!!! |
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| Awesome volunteers who made the day possible |
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| Thankful for the sunny sunny morning (spot the elderly!) |
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| Happy people :) |
Rejoicing at the hot sun & seeing all the volunteers waving huge waves frantically to the elderly as they arrived group by group. And the day begins!
Listening to stories and hearing almost every elderly saying that they havent been here for "20 - 30 years"
Playing the games enthusiastically even when they do not understand some steps (contrary to popular belief, some of them do not know the game "scissors paper stone" needed at our newspaper station!)
Looking at the elderly resting at Stoneboat at the end of the day, chatting away, many with smiles on their faces
Waving Goodbye (but not for long!) as they boarded 940's daddy's van out
This is an excerpt from an email I've just sent to my Malay 1 professor:
A really defining moment was when me and another volunteer brought a Malay elderly to the washroom as she was having a stomachache. Due to her age, she required our help in the washroom and it was obvious that she felt embarrassed. Yet, the moment I spoke to her in Malay, asking "sudah sihat? perut tak sakit? boleh jalan-jalan?", it seemed like she looked more at ease, thanking us and saying "Pandai, pandai, saya boleh jalan-jalan".
She said, "Awak tahu Malayu?" and I asked her how to say "abit" (haha I forgot), and she taught me "sedikit".
Just want to share this with you because the experience meant alot to me for I never expected that taking this module would help me to make someone's day.
Thank you for all that you have taught me!
Terima kasih, Cikgu.
**Disclaimer: This email wasn't sent in the hopes of pulling up my grades, lol.
I guess this is the same as how each of us are trying to pick up dialects bit by bit, to bridge the distance that exists between us and the elderly. Gambate, everyone!
And after that incident, I kept returning to the part where she said "Old already, now like that". It must've taken alot for her to ask for our help, and she probably felt really bad for having to trouble us and she'd never think that we don't mind it at all. Hope she could feel our concern, I hope she did!
That's all folks. Looking forward to more yummy food on Saturday :D
Love,
Li Jia
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