It's been a long time since I went to touch center last time. I believe It's encouraging to see some of the familiar faces in between the busy school schedules. We visited Mdm Tan and Mdm Cheong this week. I was assigned to the group leader at the first time. Erm, it's time to do some real work after a few times of free-rider, haha.

We decided to visit Mdm Tan @ blk 62 first because Mdm Cheong said she is only free to see us after 11. It took me a while to find her departments as I'm quite unfamiliar with the surrounding. She speaks Hokkien. Unfortunetely I don't understand and therefore i decide to do the house work. We entertained her by singing some of the chinese songs. Interestingly, she started to talk about me after knowing I come from China. She asked me where I live and whether my parents live with me and a couple of other questions. I was quite surprised that she actually concerned about me though it was my first time visiting her. She also told us that she got 7 siblings and she was the second elderest. She had to work at 15 to support the family. I feel sad for her that she had to comprise her study to raise the family.

Then we went to visit Mdm Cheong. We were a bit late and She was about to have her lunch. She told us she needed to go to church after our visit so we got to rush a bit. The first impression of her department was the arrangement of the furnitures. There were 3 chairs aligned in front of her bed and 2 more neatly rested at the sides of the table. I was surprised that she was particular about the ways to do the housework though I had heard about her from other volunteer before. We mopped the windows, floors and chairs. She also treated us a soft drink and that was really appreciated after a day of work.

Other than the usual visiting, this time we were asked to help inform the elderly about the emergency button and collect their birth date. It was fun to note that many of them cannot rememer their birthday so just noted as 1st Jan.

There were less ppl this time as it is close to exam period. So we had to go on a group of 2 or 3 which I think more manpower needed. The arragement of making the new comers as the group leader was great. I was given a piece of paper with all the elderly's info on it. Personally for me, words in black and while help me remember their particulars like name and address. And it was also a wonderful experience to get a feeling of how time management and task management as a group leader given the limited manpower.

Lu Jiajie