Visit to Uncle Lee! ^^

Hello everybody!! :D

On Saturday, we (me, 小 Jos and Shurui) visited Uncle Lee. As usual, he was very happy to see us (especially we are all girls, hahahah), so he asked us to try his bee hoon while we chat with him. I think Uncle Lee is one of the few elderly that can speak good Chinese  so there is no difficulty in communicating with him actually.

But as everyone know, Uncle lee is learning how to text sms, so we kinda teach him how to use the punctuation and emoticon. well, it was meant to help him to express himself better but he picked up the use of exclamation mark and angry face very fast for the special intention.*smirk* From there we realise that when he say ‘恭喜发财', '新年快乐' and '事事如意’ etc. in normal days he actually mean something else, hahaha. i find this really cute!! This is Lee style of  “骂” 人!!

However, there are also other things that leaves me a deep impression. During the conversation, he asked us how many years are we left in T.H.E Seniors, we told him this is just our first year so we still have a long long way to go. Then uncle lee said usually when volunteers graduated, they seldom come and visit him other than the few exceptions.

I feel rather sad for this as he is actually counting down the days that we can accompany him. People come people go, I wonder how the elderly cope with the feeling of sending off the older batch that has already build up years of relationship, and welcome a new batching of people that is going to accompany them for a new journey.This is a cycle that will probably go on and on and what we can do as new people is perhaps bringing them more joy and happiness, so as to let them know that there will always be a group of people who cares about them. ^^

-Luting :)

Hello everyone!

Can't believe this is actually my first time blogging when I've gone for quite a fair amount of visits already heh :)

So anyway, my group, consisting of Rui Fang, Valerie and myself, were supposed to visit Mdm Lim. By the way, just gotta mention that there was just something so touching about seeing 40 volunteers with the same passion turning up on a rainy Saturday morning, regardless of how far Kallang is from their homes (it's crazy far from my place hahahaha) to visit the elderly.

Ok back to the visit. So I say we were 'supposed' to go and visit Mdm Lim, because eventually we never did. WE COULDN'T FIND HER :( I understand another group faced the same issue a few weeks back? So for those who may not be familiar with all of our elderly yet (don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to know them soon enough if you're a new volunteer!) or are reading this blog for the first time cos you clicked some links and eventually ended up here (but I hope after reading all the posts you'll be encouraged to come join us!), Mdm Lim is one of our more mobile ah mas, so she's all over the place. She doesn't like staying at home cos she says it can get very stuffy, and so she likes to sit at the void deck cos she says it's more windy downstairs. She usually sits there the entire day, from the time when we gather before the visits till after we leave. But this time she wasn't there. Apparently she was sick/injured and so she stayed home, but when we went to her place, her door was closed, and no matter how we knocked, pressed the doorbell (which I suspect isn't working) and called out to her, the door didn't open. Then we went downstairs to search for her at the void deck, the next block, and even the coffeeshop where Mr Tay always has his buttercino. But we still couldn't find her. After going back up to her place to check again, we decided that maybe she was sleeping and couldn't hear us calling and knocking on the door, or maybe she'd gone out with her friends, and thus we went to join Mr Tay and Li Jia's group at the coffeeshop!

I've visited Mr Tay many times already, however it was Valerie's and Rui Fang's first time visiting him, and seeing for themselves the legendary buttercino, of which they'd previously only heard of. We did the usual stuff with Mr Tay - get him his buttercino, open the letter box for him and help him buy stuff (this time it was assorted canned drinks to prepare for the coming CNY).

But this time Mr Tay seemed especially depressed. It's not my first time seeing him so upset, and every time he's like that, we'd just try to take his mind off his pains and talk to him about happier things, like the antics he pulled off when he was schooling (he said he once peed in his teacher's cup and the teacher unknowingly drank the pee), his karate skills (he refused to comment on whether guys or girls were better) and other things. This time round, Li Jia suggested we sing CNY songs for him since CNY's approaching, and we got him to sing Gong Xi Gong Xi with us :)

In times like this, I always wonder if there's anything more that we can do for him. Personally, I always find it the hardest to say goodbye to Mr Tay (not that it's not hard to say goodbye to the other elderly) because he always seems so sad to see us go (Mdm Tan as well). For elderly like Mr Tay and Mdm Tan who can't really see well, us volunteers may be one of the only contacts they have with the outside world since they don't really get visitors and can't go out without assistance. Mr Tay says he'd love to drink his buttercino more than once a week, but I think it's more about going out and us spending time with him that he would want to have more of. I guess this is one of the reasons why I decided to visit the elderly more often, besides just the official visits. To us, giving up Saturday mornings which we'd otherwise spend sleeping or slacking may not seem like much, but I believe our small actions really mean a lot to the elderly.

Swee Fen brought up a very interesting point - our current batch of volunteers visit quite regularly so the elderly are getting quite used to us going to visit them every week, instead of once every two weeks, but what happens if the next batch of volunteers don't visit as often? Will the elderly be disappointed because we brought their hopes up?

As I mentioned above, it was so touching to see so many volunteers turn up for this visit. Let's all remember our passion and keep up the visits! Many thanks to all the volunteers who come week in week out, tirelessly spending time with the elderly! I'm sure we can all derive strength and energy from the smiles on their faces :)

- Jeraldine :)

Hi everyone! My group visited Madam Ho yesterday. I remember she was the very first elderly I met when I joined THES about a month ago.

When I arrived (late :p), most of the work has already been done. I helped to clean the mirror. She’s quite particular about the cleaning marks left on the mirror, so she will direct me where to wipe. Got help from Yu Lin because I couldn’t understand her instructions in hokkien. After that we sat down and chatted with her. Thankfully she’s multilingual because Mohammed and I couldn’t understand hokkien. I could tell that she put in lots of effort trying to engage us in the conversation because she switched between chinese, hokkien, malay, cantonese and english so that we all could understand. Amazing right?! She said that she can speak seven kinds of dialects/language but not hakka. Really hope that next time she can teach us some new skills (:

Mdm Ho told us that yesterday, 19 Jan is her birthday! And she mentioned that one of the volunteers agreed to buy her a cake, but…. did not turn up :X

Before leaving, we changed her bedsheet and sprayed baygon at the corners of the bedframe. While doing so, two of her relatives came by to visit her. They were very happy to see us helping Mdm Ho with the housework. They asked where are we from, how often do we visit the elderlys, do we get points for volunteering, etc. They kept on thanking us and really appreciated our help.

It was quite a fruitful day, and I’m really glad I went down for the visit despite the nice weather to sleep in. 

Cheerios, 

Vanessa

The learning journey back at home (:

Hello everyone (:

Still remember the first time I went for THE visit 1.5 yrs ago with friends, inspiring seniors and welcoming elderly.

Always looking forward to Saturdays.

Hope the new volunteers feel the same way and keep coming back (:

Was very heartening to see so many volunteers today.

Looking forward to similar 熱鬧 days in future (:

And thus, today we only visited one elderly per group.

My group went to Mr Ong.

8^th storey BLK 63 uncle who preferred to be known as ‘ah pek’ was visiting Mr ong too!

Mr ong is a very clean and tidy man. However, he has difficulties with bending to reach the ground.

Thus, we helped out with cleaning the floor under the beds, which was very dusty, and mopping the whole place as well.

Had a chat with Mr Ong and understood some background of his taxi driver past as well as his operation in February to correct the cheekbone/jaw positioning which is hindering his right eye from opening properly.

We also asked about the shows he liked to watch as we tuned in to a documentary of dinosaurs.

The way he asked whether it was real or fake was quite cute, especially when another scene showed a comparison of a real ostrich to the CGI T-Rex.

Such interaction has been missed, and was refreshing for me.

Been missing visits due to being away for Love Export and thereby also missing Major Outing. (sad die me)

Been interacting with children too much haha.

I guess what was learnt in Cambodia can be applied to what we do here locally.

The importance of appreciating what we have and to always be thankful for what life has given us. I believe the elderly often show us how important that is as well. Their relatively simpler lives with that bit of extra color we try to add has always left them thankful for us. However, we are more indebted for the invaluable life lessons we take away from every visit, from their experiences, their wisdom, or just the simple appreciation of happiness in simplicity.  Appreciation of simplicity and being content can define happiness.

As what our fellow volunteers always reflect upon, we always have something to learn as we continue on our volunteering journey.

Apart from giving back to the community, it is also about developing ourselves as individuals, and seemingly having more to gain then any beneficiary we might come in contact with.

And of course, with this blog or any sharing session we may have, volunteering requires reflection and introspection.

As boss 940 always says, we should always remember the purpose of what we do, hold on to the reasons of why we are volunteering.

Reflection is the first step to self development.

Check out our very own VM Ms Teo, with a maid at home but working hard at cleaning the floor (:

 Stepping out of our comfort zones has often been the way to grow.

As the semester kicks off, hope that all fellow volunteers continue to enjoy doing what we do, learning together as a family.

Hope that new members can join us in this fruitful journey in THES, where not only we get to make a difference to others, but also to ourselves deep within.

Wheeee all the best to everyone for the new semester!

THES huat ar!! (:

- Crissonified

我接着写

What's up everyone! Let's just say that I'm not just addicted to reading T.H.E.S blog, but also blogging here too. It is really therapeutic hahaha try it and you'll know why ;) It's another relatively long post of mine, don't worry, this time got photos. And MV.

Despite the endless heavy rain that started since midnight, we had a huge volunteer turnout today, hitting figures of around 40. People can just choose to sleep comfortably at home in the cooling weather on a Saturday morning, but they gave up the chance to do so, just to spend meaningful time with our lovely seniors. It was really fantastic (Kok Seng already used awesome and Chun Hai used heartening in their posts, so I have to use another superlative hahaha) to see everyone week in week out, as well as new faces popping up :)

My group members (Ying Cong, Swee Fen, Weilie, Ren Bin, Yong Jian, Jack, Xue Ting, and 本大爷) visited our commander Mdm Cheong today. For me, I haven't visited Mdm Cheong for a while apart from seeing her at the void deck during previous visits. Initially it was only Swee Fen, Ren Bin and I, but the rest joined because their senior wasn't around at that time. So it was really crowded with 8 people in Mdm Cheong's place.

As usual, Mdm Cheong would allocate tasks and chores for us to do. 8 people on the job was overkill and we were fast and efficient, so after cleaning her house we sat down and chatted with her. We talked about the upcoming CNY, CSC Day IX (Mdm Cheong is coming to NUS yay!), and jokes/riddles.

My riddle: 从前有一只鸡. 鸡的后面是什么?
Answer: 虫. ((虫)前有一只鸡)

(Sadly Mdm Cheong didn't really like the joke :( )

Mdm Cheong's riddle: 雨衣 包 木 包 三层肉 包 米. 猜一种食物
Answer: Go ask her yourself. My answer was chee cheong fun but it was wrong lolol

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned I wanted to see Mdm Cheong's wedding photos, and my wish was granted!

Photos of Mdm Cheong showing us photos:

Mdm Cheong and Swee Fen!

Mdm Cheong and her golden ticket to CSC Day IX!

Mdm Cheong showing us her wedding photos!

And the most photogenic senior award goes to...

And so I thought: photos are really important to the elderly. They capture significant moments of their lives, as well as their pretty/handsome smiles, showing that they are enjoying what they are doing at that time. Although they cannot accurately tell you when they were taken, they can still remind themselves of the things they did in their time and at present and can share stories that each photo depict :)

In a gloomy rainy weather, we talked about everything under the sun, in Mdm Cheong's cosy home. Full of warmth. 外面天气虽冷, 但感觉依然温馨.

***

Every adventure has its spin off!

Just to share a bit. Today, as part of my CSC Day IX OC commitments, I went to Mindsville for the first time after today's elderly visit. Thanks to Jocelyn for leading me there! :D She KO-ed on the bus for a while because of Mdm Chow's alcohol LOL Please get well soon boss :)

Background story: I went for last year's heritage tour with Mindsville at Singapore River and met their residents for the first time. It was a really fun outing and it changed my perspectives towards the intellectually disabled. They are normal people just like us, just that they require more care and attention. And on some alternate Saturdays I went to BHID, so I got some if not few experience interacting with ID residents.

And so when I arrived, I saw some familiar faces from last year. I wonder if they remember me after a long while, but I don't need anyone to remember me hahaha. I just like to help.

Activities at Mindsville are as such. Fun Fit 1 was an art and craft session, and today we made mini windmills! Wished I took photos of them, they were really nice and well crafted. Fun Fit 2 was station games, and we brought our CSC Day props over for the residents to play. Could tell that they really had a lot of fun with our games. Last but not least, we had a mass dance session. We first taught the residents our Jipaban song, then they performed to us their unique Mindsville dance. IT WAS AWESOME. We danced around together, and this is how we communicate with each other.

People normally form stereotypes of the intellectually disabled. This is because they have low awareness and do not come into contact usually with the ID, thus they shun them. As mentioned earlier, the ID are just like us normal human beings. They have a different way of expressing their inner thoughts and feelings, thus we need to be patient and try our best to understand them and befriend them.

I strongly encourage everyone to RVP hop! Go enhance your volunteering experience haha. CSC Outreach 2 is coming soon, and we are featuring Mindsville and BHID, the ID sector RVPs. Go see see look look! Of course there are child/youth RVPs, go explore them! :)

***

Yes. Saturdays keep me sane from the insane school life.
- 本大爷 Jeremy:D

Visit to Mr Tan

Today's a wet, wet Saturday but it has not dampen the spirits of volunteerism! It's heartening to see such a huge volunteer turnout today.

My group went to visit Mr Tan. As Mrs Tan went to the Guanyin Temple at Bugis with her friend, so Mr Tan is by himself for the afternoon. Mrs Tan cleans the apartment regularly so Mr Tan don't need our help with the chores. Instead, he requested our help to put up some Chinese New Year decorations. Asked about how he spends Chinese New Year, Mr Tan told us he'll usually visit his elder brother. And when we asked if he has ever traveled, he said rarely, only to KL where Mrs Tan's elder brother lives. Mr Tan seldom talks about his family or mentions his relatives, so it's really nice that he feels comfortable enough to tell us these.

As we continued to chat, Mr Tan asked about the CSC Day celebration which will be held in NUS. Having mentioned NUS, Mr Tan made a remark on the law professor who is on trial. Mr Tan then expressed his opinions regarding "good" and "bad" persons. Saying that, in the past, people are afraid of men who's fierce-looking and tattooed that are "bad". But now, it's men who's decent in appearance, highly educated that we should keep a look out for. Good and bad is never as clear cut and easy to differentiate. As the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Mr Tan continues and said, "this is just who we (humans) are." Hence, I wonder: “人之初，性本善” 还是 “性本恶？” What do all of you think?

Chun Hai



 

Rainy visit, Raining Love!

To the person who is reading this post right now, Hi!!

For today's (19 Jan 13) visit, I am heartened to see that there are many volunteers joining us, both new and old. It is really awesome to see so many volunteers coming down on a rainy saturday, and hope that you guys will continue to come for the visits in the future:) As there are around 30 volunteers today, each group was assigned to visit only one elderly (instead of the usual two). My group, which consist of woon yong and I, visited Mr Lin.

When we reached his place, we noticed that the area needed cleaning and we helped out by sweeping and mopping the floor. After which, we sat down and chatted with him. In the midst of the conversation, we discovered that there are a lot of rations piling up at his place, and we offered to help him tidy up. We even joked that he can open a provision shop with the amount of stock he has! (look at the attached pic)

He said that he will give some of it to the cleaners at his block as he is unable to consume everything. We also reminded him to check the expiry date before consuming the food to ensure that it is safe for consumption. Overall, it was a meaningful visit and I get to know more about Mr Lin as it is my first time visiting him:)

Last but not least, thanks to all the volunteers for spreading the love on this rainy saturday!! This song (Rainie & Love...) is for you guys... [crediting Jeremy for the idea of ending off with a MV:)]

Cheers
Kok Seng

大姐大

 HELLO! Just wanna add some photos to the blog! here's introducing mdm cheng, aka 大姐大!

for those who havent got a chance to see her yet, she's a very cute elderly very similar to mdm lim. she's wheelchair-bound, but she can manoeuvre about freely around the house. can ask her if she wants to go for a walk downstairs if y'all visit her next time. oh she's super hip too, with her sunglasses and mobile that beeps in the middle of conversations haha. totally fits her name right? alright, till next time! :)

yinmin

Fantastic 4 (Pte Lte)

KaBoOM!

Swee Fen, Hao Ping, Xuan Kai and I Conquered the WORLD

Our first visit was to Mr Tan's house. There werent any chores for us to do (WHEW, ah u know im kidding, i love chores!) so we ended up skiving on his floor. Mr Tan shared many of his past experiences during the WWII, some gruesome, others hilarious. These sharings made me ponder about the value of lives, the importance of caring for the ones around you, especially your loved ones. My thoughts were interrupted when HAHA Mrs Tan returned with a hand drill!!!!!!!! And tada, Task 1: Drill a mirror onto the wall. The boys quickly got into action while the girls stared in wonderment. Sadly, none of us knew how to drill the nails into the wall. I guess its partly due to the incomplete set of drilling tools. So KIV people visiting Mr and Mrs Tan the next session: make sure you know how to drill! Challenge issued.

12.30PM... we scrambled to Mdm Cheong's house...

At Mdm Cheong's house, we mopped cleaned swiped wiped to reveal squeaky clean sparkly white tiles :) A hearty conversation with Mdm Cheong that we, the fantastic 4, enjoyed. We joked, teased, joked and teased one another. It was also the time when WOohoo Swee Fen showcased her great canto skills. hahah the rest of the fantastic 4 just stared in awe, well some managed to decode the canto.. Others..
Time spent with Mdm Cheong was short, but i guess we all agreed that it was meaningful.


Louise

Hello everyone. Yesterday was my first official visit to the elderly and it was great starting the new year doing something meaningful.

Mdm Tan was our first elderly of the day and she was coughing quite badly while inviting us into her house. We sat down and chatted with her and she was very friendly with us. However, due to my terrible hokkien, i could only understand what she was saying but was unable to hold a proper conversation with her. Hopefully my hokkien will improve. We also helped clean up her house although it was already relatively clean. 

Mdm Tan is super cute. When jokingly asked what her age was, she wittily replied in hokkien "18 years old. Tombalek" (Translated to be 18 years old. Opposite.) and broke out into her cute little laughter. Sometimes she would tell us random stories and laugh it off, but we could tell that in her heart, she was actually quite sad about it. At times, she also appeared to be thinking about something unhappy. I think sometimes these elderly just need someone to be there to listen to them, comfort them, and keep them company. Our visitations can act as a form of distraction from their unhappy thoughts and keep them positive and optimistic. We could definitely hear a pinch of sadness in her voice when Mdm Tan said bye to us. Its amazing how just a short visit can make their day and we hope to visit her again.

Next, we visited Mdm Cheng. Despite being on a wheelchair, she welcomed us in with a smile. Mdm Cheng speaks Cantonese and a little chinese which makes it slightly easier to converse with her. The guys helped clean her house while the rest of us chatted with her. Mdm Cheng was also super cool. Halfway through the conversation, her handphone suddenly rang and she took it out of her pocket #likeaboss. We also took a picture of her with her shades on and doing the infamous rock hand \m/. 

Halfway through, she lamented about how she sometimes felt useless as she is wheelchair bound and could not engage in many activities. We tried to reassure her that she is definitely not useless. I guess this is what many elderly think of themselves, that they are useless and unimportant people of society, and hopefully our regular visitations will remind them that they are still important people for us to spend our Saturday mornings with them. Oh and on a side note, Mdm Cheng likes to drink white coffee! She says its supposedly thicker? And this is where Jocelyn's bimboness shone through. "White coffee is white right?" Haha pretty sure its not. 

All in all, it was a heartwarming experience for me and i hope it was for everyone else. Have a great year ahead(:

Joleen

6 Jan '13

A New Year, A First Visit.

My first time at T.H.E.S started off to a visit to Mdm Ho’s house. At first, my groupmates said that they are not really well-versed in dialect, but when we reached Mdm Ho’s house, I was surprised by their dialect language capability. This is probably due to the training given to them before I came, hehehe. Anyway, when I reached Mdm Ho’s house, I don't know what to say as I am not really Hokkien trained. Fortunately, Mdm Ho said she knows a bit of everything :D I was glad that I got to chat with Mdm Ho quite a bit, because she is really funny at times, for example some of the nicknames she gave to the volunteers who helped her years ago. We even witness her mosquito catching skills- While talking with us, she suddenly slam the table and all of us got stunned, and she said “mosquito…”, and we all broke into laughter. Funny moments aside, we helped her to clean her house, she lived alone and her leg couldn’t walk well, so we helped her to basically, sweep and mop the floor. And we also realize that Mdm Ho has a particular way the carpet should be arranged! I tried to picture it in my mind, but I can’t really tell the difference though :P Mdm Ho seemed happy to have us here, and she wanted us to call her “Po-po” instead of Mdm Ho, we all have one more grandma :D However, soon enough, time is soon up and we have to leave for our second visit.

Our second visit was to Mr Tay's house. Looks like he always has a Saturday coffee session, so we went to his house and accompany him down for his buttercino.

(Warning: Please do not read the following content if you are eating.)

According to Mr Tay, buttercino helps to smoothen our digestive tracks, he even used the analogy of how a machine needs oil to function. So this means you can do your big business better. Hahaha! Next up, Mr Tay talked about how he was a naughty boy when he was in Primary school, all his naughty deeds etc. I took a long time to formulate dialect sentences in my mind, so I only spoke little. Kudos to my groupmates who helped me understood his stories. We also took a photo with him, while taking picture, Mr Tay suddenly sneeze! I am not sure if we got a candid shot of him sneezing, hahaha! Then, it was almost time and we accompany him back to his house. He kept thanking us and said he enjoyed Saturday sessions.

This visit allowed me to gain knowledge about the needs of the elderly in Singapore. After all, we humans are social creatures, so are elderly, they need company too. It was a good to have this fruitful experience.

P.S. Thank you for the foods at the appreciation party. They were all nice! Esp. Shepherd’s Pie!

Kiah Yeen
6^th Jan 2013

 

Many firsts in 2013

And the 250th blog post goes to... 本大爷 hahahaha (Sadly there's not going to be any photos in this landmark post, can go Facebook see)

What's up everyone. Happy 2013! Earlier today we had our first official visit of the year, and just as the title mentioned, there's many firsts for me and possibly some of my group members (Zhenxiu, Pei Jie, Li Jia, Vanessa, Sheng Xian, Cheng Wei, Chun Hai and me) today. Most notably, today's visit was my first time not having to worry about using my cui hokkien to talk to the elderly as both whom I visited can speak Mandarin lol!

FIRST up we visited Mr Lin. I think this was only my second or third visit with Mr Lin, and my impression of him changed drastically after today. 

I remembered my first visit to his place, not sure if I had blogged about it before. Months earlier during that particular visit, Mr Lin was reluctant to let us in and wasn't very keen on chatting with us. His place that time was really really dirty and he kept a lot of expired canned food, including rice that was infested with weevils. I had to clean the area below the stove, it was difficult work and we found a dead lizard in there... That was how bad it was. 

Today, it felt really different. Mr Lin's home is now properly maintained and only minimal cleaning was required. Most of his furniture are new and the whole place feels more like a proper home to live in. And he was in a very good mood to chat with us today. He mentioned that he will be going back to his hometown in Indonesia during the CNY period and he is looking forward to it. His hometown's name is... Pontianak #truestory. Didn't know how it came about but yeah. And he taught us some basic Bahasa Indon but this joker here couldn't remember what he had learnt :(

I thought Mr Lin has really opened up to us. Compared to before, he is more receptive and welcoming, and is happy to have a good chat with us. I believe in one way or another we as volunteers have helped him to warm up with us, and he really enjoys our company. Thus, we should keep up the good work and continue to be good ah dis and ah meis to our ah gongs and ah mahs!

Next up, we visited Mr Ong. It was my FIRST time visiting him; we've always heard stories from other friends who visited him: the senior who just got discharged after being hospitalised after 11 months; the senior who fell down and unable to get up on his own and had to be admitted again. So when we visited Mr Ong, a relative was with him. We sat around him and began to talk. Most of our topics revolved around his career as a cabbie before he went for the major operation, and some of us could really relate to it because our fathers are cabbies as well. Mr Ong even had a passenger who gave birth in his cab! We also talked about celebrity gossip as we watched tv programmes with him.

Volunteers who visited Mr Ong advised us to give him encouragement. It worked, and every time we talked about him recovering, I could tell from his expression that he is very determined. Rest assured to everyone, he's doing well :)

Today's visit further highlighted to me the powerful impact of us volunteers on our seniors.

Later today, we went to Yi'an's home for our volunteer appreciation party! Lots of thanks to our steady VM for the lovely location, delicious food and her hard work (and her crew hahaha). I acted as something like a facilitator for the sharing sessions and games. The programme flow was planned the midnight before, so I somewhat feel that it was incomplete (maybe because I was a facil for Symposium hahaha), but still feel thankful that many of us had learning points to take home, especially Chun Hai's 快乐学习 学习快乐. Simple word play with deep meanings.

The questions for the sharing session were: 1) New year resolution for self and T.H.E.S and 2) Good thing, bad thing, and improvement for T.H.E.S. 

For me: 1) To keep doing the things I love to do and improve on them; build on the missions concept for the past half AY and come up with more; 2) Enthu volunteers, but can do with more bonding! *hint hint*

Here's ending off the entry with a song like my previous entry. Maybe this will become a habit hahaha.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers,

Jeremy :D

5 Jan 2013.

Today, we are Jocelin, Kah Suan, Lu Ting, Woon Yong and I.

Mdm Chow greeted us with a smile at the door. She was warm and hospitable, as usual, always telling us to 'zeh lah zeh lah' (take a seat). Usually, she wouldn't want us to clean anything, but today somehow she relented, and told us that we could do as we please. So we did, and after that, there was a short period of time when I felt the awkward silences catching up real quick as viable conversation topics were running out. Fortunately, thanks to Woon Yong, we quickly discovered her love for photo-taking. Or rather, camwhoring.

On a very random note, other than her love for taking photos, she loves to watch people 'paktor'. She was shy when she told us about it, and we were all making fun of her.

She did all the cute poses without even hesitating. :D When we praised her for being pretty, she would rock back in laughter with hands cupped on her face, as if she was too eager to express her joy at someone's compliment, only to shy away realizing that everyone had witnessed her brief loss of composure.

She then showed us her photo albums. We pointed and asked who were the people beside her, and where was she, but she couldn't recall much. Then she pointed to one photo of her with many elderly folks, and casually remarked that everybody in the photo was dead. It seemed like a joke and everyone laughed, and she emphasized that she was stating a fact. Somehow I sensed a tinge of resignation; probably a little sigh at the reality of life. There was once I heard her sniff, and I wasn't sure whether it was her flu or it was her getting emotional as she flipped through the albums, but it got me thinking. Decades down the toad, with hairlines receding and limbs gone all jelly, we could be wearing the exact shoes of Mdm Chow - looking at photos of people whom we were once together with, and wondering how our life trajectories are all so different, and perhaps, finally understanding that no matter how powerful we are, we can never stop the march of time.

We then left for Mr Chiu.

Mr Chiu was still quite physically weak today because he had just returned home after his 'stint' at the hospital. Not being home in a couple of weeks meant that dirt and grime was pretty much everywhere. So we got to work immediately! This was the first time in my few visits that we had to some serious cleaning. The kitchen floors and the entire toilet were badly stained. After sweeping, wiping, water splashing (which made work kind of fun), scrubbing, mopping, we put back his furniture back to where it came from before settling down in the living room with him. It was really heartening to see how the ladies tried to take turns to keep a conversation going with him despite being fully occupied with work on hand.

There wasn't much time left for interaction after our cleaning ended, so we spent the remaining time listening to music and him humming to the tune of songs he liked. They even tried to teach him how to use the CD player, putting on a piece of paper a blown-up layout of the buttons on the player so that he could remember each of their functions. They then painstakingly walked him through every step from switching on the power to getting his song to play.

Personally, I didn't get a chance to really get to know Mr Chiu well, but I guess there is always a next time!

Jack
5 Jan 2013