For this week's official visit, I covered VM duties for the first time, as well as facilitation. I must say... YI'AN YOU WERE MISSED. VM is never an easy job, I wonder how she does it week in week out. Was slightly stressed out because I'm scared I'll mess up the groupings, being the disorganised person that I am. And I eventually did, when I failed to forsee the fact that some volunteers cannot speak dialect well and I paired them with elderly that cannot speak Mandarin. Luckily with a few twist of fates here and there, the problem was solved. So, this emphasizes the fact that there are many amazing people in T.H.E.S. Yi'an may appear fierce, I always tell her to be 温柔一点, but when you see her, do remember that she's the one doing the hard work pairing you with the elderly you're supposed to visit, and say hi when you run into her in school hahaha.
My group consisting of Criss, Joscelin (小 Jo) and myself first visited Mr Tan. He was hospitalised recently, and was discharged ahead of schedule. He complained of having some specks of blood in his urine, so we told him to drink more water and see the doctor if the situation does not improve. His apartment did not require cleaning, so we sat and watched 砖石夜总会 with him. During the commercial breaks we chatted, and talked about world affairs like the impending war that will be breaking out in Korea, as well as the Fisherman Island conflict between Japan and China. We also asked him whether he has any special talents after watching the magic tricks on tv, and being the humble and wise man he is, he said he didn't. Hahaha I'm sure we are all curious about it and hopefully he'll show us some tricks or skills he have learnt over the years!
Next, we visited Mr Chiu. He is recovering well from his surgery, and now he is now able to go to the hawker centre to get breakfast on his own. Yet at times, he still seemed a little tired and frail. We spent the bulk of the time cleaning his apartment, as well as to clear any expired food items. Our only interaction with his was also to watch television programmes with him. He was looking forward to watching 黄金年华 as always, and when he said that, there was a tinge of excitement in his facial expression. Other than that, he appeared very sian. His condition and surgery really took a lot of energy out of him. We should try our best to cheer him up in coming weeks.
During debrief, boss 940 spoke of having the feeling of nostalgia for this week's visit. She described this like regaining the feeling of being first-time volunteer at T.H.E.S, and how she fell in love with our RVP when she first started visiting the elderly here at Kallang Bahru.
I felt the same way too recently, especially last week during the unofficial visit where I visited Mdm Cheong and Mdm Ho. These two awesome ladies, muahahah, happened to be one of the first two seniors I have visited in my first two visits to T.H.E.S.
My first impressions of them are still vivid in my mind. The senior volunteers sort of described Mdm Cheong until like very scary, but no. Mdm Cheong is the cute commander everyone knows. She goes around helping other elderlies too. And Mdm Ho is ever the cool 大姐大, and she will always be remembered as the one who called me a 'playboy' back when my hair was longer and dyed (fortunately or unfortunately she has forgotten this fact).
If you all are interested, this is my first ever post in this blog: http://touchseniors.blogspot.sg/2011/09/hello-everyone-17th-september-was-my.html (I have not stopped writing blog posts ever since hahaha.)
From then on, I went on to build many memories with the other elderlies, and every visit comes a different experience.
Now as I look back, I really think that the journey thus far is simply amazing. Amazing elderlies, amazing volunteers who are like-minded and share the love of volunteering. And when I first visited, I did not expect myself to join the Committee. I am glad that I did, and I am thankful for the guidance that everyone in and out of the comm have shown me.
Was telling Criss, whom I started out this journey with, that seeing the current batch of volunteers coming back week in week out to visit never fail to give me a sense of relief. He then said that this is always a good thing.
And I know 不管发生什么事, 至少我还有 T.H.E.S 这个家. :)
"要是你迷失方向 想找個地方流浪
家永遠在你的身旁"
阿乐
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