Official Visit (8 Dec) -- Mdm Cheong, Mr Tan

It's been awhile since my last visit, coming for this visit is "refreshing".

My group went to visit Mdm Cheong first. As usual, she assigns us cleaning jobs, instructs us on how to clean (saying "I don't like to nag, I'm just teaching you all how to clean.") then checks whether we have cleaned properly. It may sound like I'm complaining but I'm not, and none of the other volunteers are. We know this is the "Mdm Cheong Style". I remember Mdm Cheong once explained why she "commands" us. Many of us know that Mdm Cheong's apartment is well kept and clean. She doesn't really need our assistance in doing house chores. Nonetheless, every time we visit, she gives us chores. She thinks if we have no chores to do, we have no reason to visit her. Therefore, she often says, "there's nothing much to do, I've done most of them yesterday",  but in the end we'll still have things to do.

I think many of us have realized that some of the elderlies' apartments are quite clean, so why do we visit them? The reason is--we're not free cleaners, we're volunteers! As volunteers, we're there to show care and concern because it seems that these are what our society lacks.

Next, we went to Mr Tan's place. As usual, we don't have to clean his place. We just sat down and read letters for him, as all of them are in English (Qn from Mr Tan: I thought our country has 4 official languages? Why so many letters in English?). From the letters, we found out that Mr Tan has some health issues. For this week and the next, he'll have some checks done at the hospitals regarding his problem. He and his wife are hoping it's nothing serious, we hope so too.

For the rest of the visit, we chat with Mr and Mrs Tan. I find it enriching whenever I visit Mr Tan. Sometimes, he tells us things that many of us, tertiary students don't know! For example, do you know that Marco Polo is the first "Ang Mo" that visited China? And Marco Polo is a priest, he went to China to spread Catholicism? I knew what Mr Tan said is true, because I learned this during a lecture last year. Hearing this from Mr Tan made me think: How ignorant was I? Only to know such a thing after 12 years of schooling? Yet, Mr Tan, who has never attended university already knew this.

"家有一老，如有一包", we have heard this saying since young. However, many people tend to belittle elderlies just because they receive little education. This is a mistake. It just reflects how naive some may be, thinking that high qualifications is directly proportional to knowledge.

It's always fruitful for me when I come for visits, not only do the elderlies bring joy to me, sometimes they teach me things that I'll never learn from lecturers. Kudos to our elderlies:)

Chun Hai