My apologies for the late post.

 I had my first visit with THEs last Saturday, on the 28th of September. It was one that I really looked forward to, and I must say, I was really pleased with the way things turned out :D

  My group visited Mr Lin, who luckily for us, was at home when we went up to his flat. We did a bit of tidying up by sweeping and mopping the floor, and afterwards, we sat down and did some catching up with him. It was my first time seeing him and so i couldn't tell, but apparently Mr Lin seemed to be in a really good mood that day as he was more chatty compared to the previous times my group mates visited him. He shared with us how there was this Caucasian who was really helpful by providing him with new furniture for his home, such as a new cupboard and wardrobe. And from the tone of his voice, you could tell that Mr Lin was really appreciative of the aid that the Caucasian provided. We also talked about some of his favourite television programmes. For example, he talked about how he didn't like to watch 黄金年华 and local chinese drama because he found them to be boring and not useful in helping him learn new things. As such, he preferred watching the news, documentaries and korean drama! Hearing him share about some of the things he talked about had this "calming effect" within me and although I didn't really talk to him much as I was a newcomer, I really enjoyed listening to him and I thought I could just sit there for hours just to listen to some of the things that he had to talked about. Alas, time is never on your side when you are enjoying yourself, and my group had to leave to visit another elderly- Mdm Ho.

  When my group arrived at Mdm Ho's place, another group was also there, and they had already helped her with her housework, so all we had to do was to sit down and accompany her. What struck me about Mdm Ho was her personality and her 精神. She seemed really energetic and there was this very "firm" feeling about her voice that was able command our attention like a very strict teacher (not in a bad way though). One interesting thing she talked about was how she was already a great- great- "grandmother" and how she would offer her great- great- "grandchildren" yakult during CNY by getting them to queue up 1 by 1 all the way till the corridor outside of her house. The feeling that i got from Mdm Ho was that she seems to be way younger that she really is, which can only be a good thing. 

Overall, I have to say that my first experience with THEs went way better than expected. I had this sense of fulfillment after the visits, and I really enjoyed myself just by listening to some of the things that the elderly had to share. If only schoolwork wasn't so time consuming, I would definitely make it a point to go down and visit the elderly every week :D

Gary