My First Visit with T.H.E Seniors!

Hello everyone!
Firstly, I'm really sorry this post is coming in one week late! >< Secondly, I'm here to share abt my experience last Sat morn! (Yes, I'm a freshman! So it was Orientation Visit 1 for all of us freshmen last Sat!)
I was rather apprehensive in the morning when I was heading down to Kallang station where we were supposed to meet. This was cause I was going ALONE for my FIRST visit! Yikes! However, when I got there, I met a few other Year 1 students who came alone too! (haha so much for worrying.) We introduced ourselves and the mood quickly changed from awkwardness to friendliness. (:
When majority of the student volunteers arrived, a grp of us bused down to the place. We were met by many others who were there earlier than us. I was nicely surprised by the crowd I saw as I was kind of expecting only a small group! :/ haha anyway after splitting ourselves into 3 grps, English/Chinese, Hokkien and Cantonese, we headed to the homes of the elderly!!!
I joined the Hokkien grp despite my poor limited knowledge of Hokkien. (Actually, I'm a Teochew-nang, not a Hokkien-lang, but I can understand the dialect! just not speak it ://) Yes, haha the first home we visited belonged to a gentle and sweet-looking ahma called Mdm Tan. From the seniors, I learnt that Mdm Tan's eyesight is poor. Yet, she still welcomed all of us into her home jovially. We quickly set ourselves at work, sweeping/mopping the floor, wiping the window grills/panes, washing her fan, etc. There were 10 of us so the cleaning up of her alr very clean house was done in no time! haha the rest of the time was spent talking to her, or rather, listening to her talk! ^^ Wow she really likes to talk! She kept saying she's vey "hua1 hi4" that there're so many of us to talk to her. She shared abt herself- the no. of children and grandchildren she has... then she shared abt her past- how she had to go all around the kampong area looking for her 6 children after work everyday... THEN she shared abt her pastpast!- how her father worked so hard as a farmer to support the family... woah haha ;D
After that, we went to the home of Mdm Chow Moi! oh my she really speaks (and laugh) very loudly! But that's due to her poor hearing. We didnt clean her house. She insisted we "zeh zeh" and talk to her. Actually, we spent most of the time laughing with her and at her cuteness! :D I was indeed very delighted at the sight of her, even at the age of 90, laughing so heartily.
All in all, I'm glad to have plucked up the courage and joined T.H.E Seniors last Saturday morn visiting the homes of these two elderly ladies! haha yay! I've come to the end of my rather loooong post! Thank you all and I'm looking forward to my next visit! ^^
Regards,
Carina!

Johnny Tan

"eh, Richard just informed me that Mr Tan Po Seng just passed away, maybe he fell in the house" text message from Yi An.

Seriously. I was totally shocked. No, Im still in shock now. Mr Tan.... though kinda old, but he is one of the healthier beneficiaries we know of. Few weeks ago he just sang Japanese song for us, and waved the Singapore flag happily! And now... he is gone.

Remember how Mr Tan used to repeat his stories? He worked in a Japanese Tobacco Coy when he was young, so had to learn Jap language. And he had travelled to China before, with his good friend whom isa teacher. And many more stories.... I used to tell this joke to the freshies whenever we are heading to Mr Tan house " Mr Tan confirm tell you guys these stuff later... I used to work in Japanese company, then I learnt Jap... etc", and it ALWAYS happen as expected.

[Stolen these photos from facebook. The caption was "Mr Tan telling his army stories again"]

I thought ... I could have told the same joke last Saturday during Orientation visit 1.

On a more personal level, I have some interesting experiences with Mr Tan which accumulated throughout the past 2 full years of volunteering at T.H.E. Seniors.

- He once cut holes in his shirt (the tummy area.. like really big to see tummy) so its more cooling. So cute right! haha

- Volunteers were always so "afraid" to clean his house cos of the slippers trail! But we were always there cos we love to talk to him!

[ lifting his leg high up like a young boy!]

- When I was in Year 1, I helped Mr Tan to get an english name! He wanted Michael at first, but found it too common, so he decided on Johnny finally! I thought its just some random conversation we have with the elderly (and ya, given the memory disk space of most beneficiaries, they would probably forget the crap I said in each visit), but he actually remembered it! The following visit when I called him Johnny he responded! And he kinda love that name, and continued using it!

- How he appreciates the gifts we gave to him during festive seasons. like the Christmas hat, the part hat! he kept them with him and hang up high high!

[we found this in mr tan place weeks after the celebration. he got it washed!]

- Being in T.H.E.Seniors for so many years. I always feel kinda guilty towards Mr Tan. During festive seasons, we have to host celebrations in C

hinese as majority as most of the beneficiaries can understand Chinese. Mr Tan, could only speak english, always looking so blur and lonely, and needed help from volunteers (good that our volunteers can speak good english. haha). Though having difficulties joining in the celebrations and fun, Mr Tan ALWAYS turn up for our celebrations, knowing we have put in a lot of effort! Thanks Johnny!

[Rong Sheng helping Mr Tan during Christmas celebration!]

- when Yi An and I went to knock on his door (about a month ago) , he actually said to Yi An "Pardon? Are you speaking English?" . Seriously, I burst out laughing on the spot! HAHA. Mr Tan's command of english language is really powerful. He uses words like "pardon, excuse me" when I only "HAR? SIMI? OI! SIAM LEH!"

I guess volunteers who have visited Mr Tan before must be sad to know he is now no longer there waiting for us anymore. No more Japanese language, no more massive cleaning, no more free English and Japanese tuition.

To be honest, when I just received the news from Yi An, I felt quite useless. He might have fell at home and we werent there to help him. If... only if we were there with him, we could have sent him to the hospital immediately and nth like this gonna happen. For a moment I felt useless in T.H.E.Seniors.. Then I talked to a close friend of mine, kinda figured out that at least... we have at least brought joy and memories to Mr Tan and ourselves.

Yes Johnny! Enjoy your life up there! I guess its cooling there and you dont have to cut holes in your shirt anymore! And probably you will meet some of your army boys there, and you can repeat your army stories for a thousand times! And if one day, I see a black line across the sky, that must be your famous slippers trail! :)

Mr Tan, we will miss you!

Wynne (my name is not Winnie okay! Mr Tan please dont get my name wrong again!)

Visit 2011/08/20

Hi peeps! Long time no see (to oldies like wynne, zhen xiu, hui ting, shi tien etc. Etcs you know who you are!) and a BIG HELLO to those who have no idea who I am. My name's Rong Sheng!! Anyway, it's been a LONG LONG TIME since I've went for visitation and I'm really happy to see all you guys and the elders again!

The first house we went to was Mdm Cheong. .Since we had a lot of "workers" around, we finished up the work pretty quickylt. Anyway, we've only cleaned half the living for her cos she insisted that we can clean the other half for her next session. After that, we just sat down and chatted with her a little.

It was very heartening to see her still so cheerful and really 中气十足 lor~!! As we all know, it can be a jittery job cleaning Mdm Cheong's house cos she has very high QC standards that keep us all on our toes!

Second stop was Mdm Chua's house. We didn't really clean a lot for her house cos she said some other group of people have already helped her done it. Basically we just chatted with her most of the time. We talked a little about the presidential election and just checked with her whether she knows the location and if she received her voting card (or whether that piece of paper is called~~). But she seemed to mix up this election with the MP election cos she keep saying that PAP will win! We tried to explain to her the difference and who are the candidates but in the end she still said: Aiya anyhow vote PAP will still win one....(Us: .....).

Also we checked with her if she knows when to take her meds for her high cholesterol cos she says recently her memory is failing her.

Alrighty!! I know i'm boring all of you with words and no pictures so i shall stop here for this post!! Hope to see you guys next visit!!

Cheers

Rong

Orientation Visit 2011

This is the first visit of this academic year and it is also the orientation visit for newcomers. It is great to see almost 30 volunteers turn up for the visit with a mixture of both seniors and newcomers.

The first elderly my group visited was Mr Chiu. Mr Chiu was initially having lunch but he started to chat with us. He told us that he has the ability to see supernatural beings. In one occasion during a 歌台 (getai), show put up during hungry ghost festivals, he said one of them came to talk to him. They were discussing the show but after the show finished, he was followed back home. Thankfully, he was no longer stalked after he passed by a temple. Ever since that incident, he has not been to getai.

Mr Chiu also sang for us. He took out his file of lyrics and starting singing some songs. Here is the evidence:

Next up was Mdm Ho's house. We talked about the upcoming presidential election and she said that she has already decided who to vote for. She also mentioned that recently a doctor told her she has some kidney problems and recommended her to drink more water. Mdm Ho also showed the newcomers some old photos.

As for me, I hoped everyone have enjoyed themselves and I look forward to seeing the elderly and more newcomers in the next visit.

Ying Cong

Orientation Visit 2011

Hi Everyone!

T.H.E. Seniors Orientation Visit will be held on 20th August and 3rd September. For newcomers, please meet at 10.00am at Kallang MRT station. For seniors, please be at TOUCH at 10.30am.

See ya there!

what a lovely post below there((: with pretty pics n video.

hoho. but not my turn.

Home Sweet Home 1: Mdm Tan Ah Kim

She was just as fine. Super like her clean clean house. She didn know we will pop by that sat morning n does the sweeping herself. her floor clean clean, but can find evidence aka the grass grass dropping out from the broomstick. anyhow, we did the mopping (:

年轻时养孩子。

年老时养医生。

so true. it says that when one's young, u use hard earn money to feed your kiddos. when grow old, the money earned is used to feed the doctors. This is the second time i heard, once when i worked in tan tock seng hospital. Quite an interesting quote.

Home Sweet Home 2: Mdm Chua

grew depress as time goes by. emoemo elmo. was wondering how to cheer her up. Is there any way to help her? she don't sound as cheerful as before. Is that the path which elderly will eventually be lead to when they grew older?

almost everytime we go visit her, she feels giddy else headache. quite worry for her.

she mentioned herself missing her favourite bedsheet which cost her 100 plus bucks during the time she bought it. she was advised to throw that bedsheet away, coz don't know is that a cause to the itchiness she encounter when she slp. now she missing her bedsheet.

Thats for all.

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Alright, Today's National Day. Below is a not very well taken firework shot by me during a preview last sat. but i tot it's quite colorful. hope to bring some colors to all.

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY((:

-Pei Jen

*pics may not be correctly displayed so click on them to see the whole picture

Hi kids, me again so pardon my lousy ang mo. School is starting soon so this is the last visit for AY10/11. AY10/11 wasn't the best of all time but at the same time it wasn't too bad i guess, so hopefully AY11/12 will be much much better.

2 new volunteers joined us today, Yixiu and Shuyi. I joined the English/Chinese group along with ZhenXiu, EngWee, YiXiu and JianTing.

Cut the emo and self-reflecting crap, so pit stop 1: Mr Tan

His place was surprisingly clean when i arrived, no residual Mothballs stenches or traces of black marks on the floor. Since i wasn't there from the start, I'm guessing that it is either that there was another group of volunteers that cleaned his house a few days earlier or that our group did an extremely great job. Haha. Either way, the important thing is Mr Tan has a clean home to live in.

Inevitably in deep gratitude for our work, Mr Tan sang us a Japanese song that he learned a long time ago!

Also, he went into a patriotic berserk! Haha! He started to frantically wave the Singapore flag! Wah, super scary i tell you. No shit.

So after we managed to calm his patriotism, we took some peaceful shots.

Pit stop 2: Mr Chiu

Ai ya, it was a pity i forgot to take pictures at his place. Mr Chiu's place looked the same when we entered, but on a closer glance we realised that many of the furniture are new! According to him, Richard and a few others who interviewed him found his furniture too old so they decided to replace them.

We left his place slightly earlier because Mdm Ho requested for EngWee to paint the hinges of her garbage chute as the rusts were flaking off and resulted in a mess below the chute.

Pit stop 3: Mdm Ho

As usual, we swept, mopped and beat the carpets. Equally as usual, the guys did most of the work while the ladies sat down. Don't say i lie ah, i got evidence. Haha!

See, i don't lie one.

Haha, that's all from me. Have a great semester and AY ahead!

Yi An