18th Aug visit

Hello everyone!

Yi’an here! Last week (18^th August 2012) my group visited Mr Chiu and Mr Tan. We had a fun time at Mr Chiu’s house as he’s a rather jovial person. Camy found traces of evidence of him smoking and he said that he only smokes when he goes to the toilet to do his business! His floor was dusty due to the ashes from the burnt joss sticks and we cleaned it up for him. Our team also continued covering the ant holes to prevent the insects from entering his house. He showed us a flyer of an event organized by the community center, which was a walk at Marina Bay the following week and also shared the tv shows he faithfully tunes in to; such as 黄金年华. He appeared to be in good health although he needs the exercise!

Next up was to Mr Tan’s house. Mrs Tan was not in as she went out to collect medicine for her chronic illness. She went out around 7am and only returned after 4-5hours when we were almost done with the cleaning of the house. During our stay there, Mr Tan shared stories of Singapore’s past during the Japanese occupation. He related the story of his friend’s father who managed to escape death miraculously in the Japanese’s attempt to kill any of those who had received good education. The motive behind their actions was to thwart any congregation of those who had the potential to mastermind revolts against them. By right, all of them had to have wires pierced through their palms so that none of them could escape. But he secretly pretended to do so, when in actual fact he placed the wires in between his fingers and when the Japanese started shooting, he pretended to collapse and die, only to crawl out after they cleared away.

Such stories of Singapore’s past brought me chills and also gratefulness that our generation escaped living in such hard times. While Singapore is no longer as it was, there’s often a general consensus that youths like us aren’t aware of the past which I agree with. People of the older generation remember stories which go about untold and unheard, and I find it such a pity that part of our history is being eroded away quietly as time passes by. As much as the primary objective of our volunteering is to help our Seniors at TOUCH, I do find ourselves in a position where we too are contributing to society. We’re giving a helping hand to those that are in precarious positions of coping with ageing and health issues, it’s something that policies might overlook and networks might miss. I hope everyone realizes that they’re not just a nobody in this volunteering outlet; each and every one of us is important, so I thank you for coming down every/alternate week to THE and I hope to see you guys each/every week too. T.H.E JIAYOU! ^.^

p.s: sorry my posts are forever so wordy! But if you read through everything, THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Yi’an