Can't help falling in love

Prelude:

7am: alarm rang

8.30am: officially woke up

9.30am: Reached Blk72

Before the visit started, I went to do facil! Wanted to do it alone because I want to talk to all the 32865 elderly (ok lah actually only 14) that I haven’t seen for 800 years! But as you can see, my reach-there-super-early-so-I-can-talk-to-all-of-them-for-at-least-15min-plan had epic failed (再接再厉 next time T.T) However, all hope is not lost! GUESS WHO DID I MANAGE TO TALK TO (for at least 15min)? ;D ;D ;D

Mr Wong! Who would usually just come to the door when I call him, reject visit and tell me he wants to rest – but today he didn’t! This isn't just any defining moment okay... it was THE defining moment during facil! *fireworks* *skips around*

He told me his hand was swollen and he couldn't sleep well at night so he wants to rest. I said nevermind you can rest while we help you clean your house then he said it is okay, he will clean when his hand is better, and that he usually stays at home and never left his house ever since he moved here 5 years ago unless he needed to see the doctor! Then he went on to say that he used to stay at Geylang Lorong 17 and I was like “I also stay near there!” – which was how we started talking! (ok now you all know the trick to getting him to talk: just say you used to stay near him! xD) He told me he used to deliver 300kg of newspaper last time (so fit hor!) together with his friend but they only earned very little because newspapers were sold at a very cheap price This was how he was paid: newspapers were sold at 30cents each for every 100kg; so the person that delivers it will get 15cents but ONLY IF he have delivered 100kg, and if you deliver lesser than that you earn less. Then there was once he and his friend were on their way to deliver the papers but accidentally knocked into someone’s car and that dude actually asked them to pay! Then he was like “no money how to pay already earn so little; the newspaper 300kg stack until so high cannot even see the front” (#angst). Since they didn’t earn much from delivering newspapers he switched to becoming a garang guni man and sold xxx (didn’t manage to decipher what was it :x) at the same time. I recalled myself always mimicking the garang guni man when I was in primary school: whenever the garang guni man shouts “gaaaarang guuuniiiii~ bo zua sa kor xxx dian si ki pai lay lioo” I will go to my window and shout the same just to imitate him and then I will hear momentary silence from him. (It was kinda like my cheap thrill hobby ok!) Since Mr Wong said he stays near lorong 17, I was wondering in my mind, COULD IT BE THAT I HAVE BEEN MIMICKING MR WONG THE GARANG GUNI MAN WHEN I WAS YOUNG?!?!?!? :O :O

But I didn’t manage to find out the answer. Gua gua T_T

I was having a really nice chat with him (he told me other stuff too like how there's an elderly day care centre JUST OPPOSITE MY BLOCK AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW *facepalm*) but at the same time my heart was doing a little zumba because it was 10.25am and I still haven’t done facil for blk 62 so I had to stop the conversation and I said I will ask people to come up later but he went back to his “I’m so tired” mode again so I spent another 2min to persuade him before secretly deciding I will ask people to come up anyway heh.

That was for prelude of visit. Hahaha. Now to the visit proper! (:

My group consisted of xuankai, amy, shurui, clement and myself and we went to mdm cheng’s place! I haven’t been able to visit her ever since she got discharged out of hospital so I was really looking forward to visiting her! We split up to do the house chores and since there were 5 of us, I had nothing to do so I became chat-tographer (chat +photographer) of the day.

 Shurui's sexy back~

Hard at work!

擦窗擦到很开心 ^-^

传说中的：窗-动-作

They found treasures and became t.h.e.s very own 济公们---

-that help fan the elderly while listening intently!♥

Mdm Cheng's friend wasn't around to bring her down today so we brought her down instead! We went on a quest to look for this blue paper that she wants to paste on her window to block sunlight. Went to SKP but the lady said they don't have so we went to a baking shop to ask (LOL IKR THIS TOTALLY WASN'T MY IDEA, MUST CLARIFY OR NOT I KENA THE BIMBZ LABEL FOR NOTHING AGAIN) which doesn't have it of course, so we went to a few other shops, still trying to figure out what was it she wanted and it turns out to really just be the translucent fluorescent plastic. Guess who was the smart one that figured it out? Hehehehe (; 

After we completed the quest, we went back and helped her to stick the blue plastic on her windows. The guys made full use of their height to do the measurements while shurui and I provide background support, holding the plastic and cutting scotch tape (hahaha). Now her room has the under-the-sea feel! Super nice I want my room to be like that too! Just nice it was 12.30pm already so we took a (few) celebratory photos before we left~

Taken by Xuan Kai

Taken by Clement

There are a few personal takeaways from this visit. 

While we were at Mdm Cheng's place, I noticed that Clement was actually quite 温柔 towards Mdm Cheng! I'm not sure how he is like towards other elderly because it is my first time being in the same group as him, but I was really quite touched when I saw a different side of him! Not because I 被电到 or what (I know what all you stir-obsessed people are thinking), but because I really saw how the act of volunteering helps to nurture the different sides of ourselves that we might not even know exist! (I don't think clement knows he was being gentle, you can ask him hahaha) I guess towards different elderly, we shape different sides of ourselves. For example, towards uncle lee, we learn how to be friends/bros with an elderly; towards Mr Tay we learn how to be patient, etc. The best part? Each of us are going through a different set of nurturing process due to individual differences, and who knows what we will all turn out to be after all these subliminal learning! (: (:

One thing I didn't mention when I was describing the chat with Mr Wong was this: he told me that when he was young, he couldn't understand why the old folks have so many issues but now that he have aged, he finally understood why. He said before one of his friend passed away he (that friend) had the sensation of a lot of ants biting into his skin, and he (mr wong) is now just waiting for that sensation to come... and that I will understand how he feels now when I have aged too. I don't know what was the best answer I could give him other than "you can't think of it this way". Can I say for sure I wouldn't turn into an emo old lady? Can I say for sure that even though I visit these elderly, I have fully understood what they have been/is currently going through? I can't, and it really resonated in me because I realized that all we could do is to provide a listening ear for all the problems that they are facing, spend that 2 hours with them and when we leave, they are back to that four walls - and all their personal problems. Of course, a little bit of company is better than no company at all, but I'm just wondering, could we teach the elderly how to up regulate their emotions instead of just providing listening ears? Then this thought suddenly hit me: we are actually already all walking together with the elderly through their problems! We do it by keeping track of their cough, surgery, etc via the visitation and welfare reports, and sharing with one another during the debrief so that we can get suggestions for solutions to their problems if possible! My heart just swelled with so much love knowing how caring the volunteers here all are (': (':

When I got home, I was feeling really thirsty due to the weather. I drank one mouth of water and it actually tastes sweet (no joke)! Emotional psychologists have compared two groups of people - one in a love condition and the other in a jealousy condition - and they found out that people in the love condition rated water sweeter than usual as compared to people in the jealousy condition, who rated water as bitter than usual! And I guess, I have fallen in love with volunteering all over again~~

♥♥♥,
Camy!