Orientation visit 2 (15 Sept 2012): Group 2 (Mdm Tan Ah Kim)

My first blog post was about Mdm Tan and fates has it my second post is about her again! In my group there is me, 4 new volunteers and 2 senior, senior, senior volunteers, namely Darren and Shi Tien. Most of us cannot speak Hokkien, although some of us can understand Hokkien, we had difficulties expressing ourselves.

For those who have been to Mdm Tan’s apartment, you know that her house is CLEAN…! Hence, doing household chores is not an issue. It is after the chores, when we sit down and try to converse with her, that we had the most difficulties. There were many moments of silence and awkwardness. Darren was always pushed to help us translate our questions to Hokkien (poor guy). He had a really good piece of advice for volunteers: if you don’t practice your dialect, you’ll never improve. So, for volunteers who understands and speaks even a little, tiny bit of dialect, please don’t be shy and try to converse with our elderlies. All of you are an asset to T.H.E.Seniors.    

Even though Mdm Tan was not highly educated, we can tell that she is wise. We noticed that her calendar was still at 9 September when actually the date should be 15 September. So we asked her why. She explained that because of her eyesight problem she can’t differentiate colours well. She came up with a method to track the dates by only tearing the calendar pages every Sunday, each time she’ll tear off a whole week, leaving Sunday’s date for her to count what Monday, Tuesday… is. This example demonstrates how adaptable the older generations can be. Life’s journey may be full of obstacles, they don’t give up, rather they find ways to overcome them and move on. It’s a simple philosophy that many of the younger generations don’t understand.

After our visits, we had our briefing session, facilitated by a few guiding points, our “small” Chairperson came up with a “big” question, “Why am I here?” If you think about it, this question is somewhat similar to: “Why do I exist in this world?”  Are you here to earn big bucks, to lead luxurious lives? Or are you here to discover something, create something that will change the world? The latter is difficult for anyone to achieve. Instead, why not focus on the more feasible?

Doing something simple, like what we do at T.H.E.Seniors is much more practical and meaningful. You could spend your whole life chasing “achievements” “glories” but you’ll miss out on the most valuable thing in life --- relationship. Should we sacrifice relationships for the sake of tangible pursuits? Many a times, we would pass by our estates and see elderlies by themselves, sitting alone, staring into blank spaces, we may pity them but that’s all. Many of us would walk away. However, at T.H.E.Seniors we have an opportunity to take action, stop pitying and start helping. Our efforts may be minimal but compared to doing nothing, it seems so much more.     

Chun Hai