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

One Day In July

The first elderly my group visited was Mdm Low. Since she only came under our care recently, I shall talk more about her.

Mdm Low is rather weak. The first time I met Mdm Low was on the day we celebrated Chinese New Year. Wynne and I went to her place to deliver some canned food and an angbao. She never lock her door and the main door is always slightly ajar. I guess the reason is for the convenience of volunteers to enter her house as she is pretty much bedridden.

On that day, we knocked on her door and peer through the gap in the door. She could only acknowledge with the horn (as you can see in the picture) because she has some breathing problems.

On this visit, she did not want us to clean her house as she said that her son will do it when he comes to visit her. So we sat down to talk as she ate her lunch. She ate very slowly as she needs to catch her breath. We don't quite know what to talk but thankfully Eng Wee can communicate with her well in Teochew. We chatted for a while before leaving her to finish her lunch.

Next we visited Mdm Chow Moi. As usual, she was looking out of her windows to past the time. She was in good spirit. I realised that she was previously a 红头巾, or female construction worker. I guess that explains why she still looks strong and healthy despite being 91 years old. I think the way that Mdm Chow Moi take things in her stride and stay positive and contented in life deserves our respect.

Next was Mdm Tan. You can really feel her warmth when she smile and said "来咯!" as she opened the door. We helped her to thread some needles. It is easy to find something to talk with Mdm Tan and she enjoys talking to us. Her poor eyesight prevents her from going down often to talk with other residents. I think she only talks to us and her daughter. So I feel she looks forward to our visit as a time when she has someone to talk to. She seems a bit disappointed whenever we need to leave.

The last elderly we visited was Mdm Ho. Mdm Ho had just returned home after being hospitalised for pain in her legs. She said it was due to a suppressed nerve. She seemed less comfortable than usual. The treatment requires her to take a lot of medicine. Her daughter is living with her at the moment to take care of her. There is nothing we can really do to alleviate her pain. I hope she will be in a better shape the next time we visit her.

That was it for the day. Different elderly, different personalities and different circumstances they are in. There is only so much we can do as volunteers but it is definitely better than not doing anything.

Ying Cong

Ethelonter External Hunt

Hi ya peepur :) It has been months I never blog. That is berry bad. *guilty* I miss eberione, especially the elderly badly. Again my bad, sorry peeps :(

On 29th June, Ethelonter VIII had our external hunt! Mii and my fellow lovuli YAMATO councillors and freshies had visited Mdm Chua. Awww, TOUCH center has almost done with the renovations and its now much spacious! With TVss, Karaoke equipment etc. *bounce bounce ball* I feel so so happy for the elderly and they keep praising how TOUCH does a great job in taking care of their welfare :)

Na ge uncle, whom I can’t remember his surname jio me for karaoke some more nyehehehehehe. Saw aunties for eg Mdm Cheong and the super cute auntie who brought along goggles when we went to ECP the other day. :D Mdm Cheong told me 'gam loi mou lei tam o ga' in Cantonese (means you never come and visit me for so long ady), I told her I have to work, and she even asked me to take good care of myself. That's berry sweeeet of her :')

Let’s move on to the visit at Mdm Chua's home. She happily greeted us when she opened the door. She was surprised to see so many of us, freshies and me and my MKC and yian and darren, make up a total of 14 persons. As usual, she insisted us to sit on the chair or sofa, if dun mind can sit on her bed. She does not allow us to sit on the floor.

My aweeeeeesome freshies are great in chatting with her. :D They asked her about her life, her previous jobs, her children and her grandchildren. While sharing with us her life before believing in God, she suddenly burst into tears. I guessed most of us were shocked. Our soon-to-be volunteers did a great job comforted her. She told us that she was too touched and happy to see so many of us visiting her and chat with her. She said that, she is so blessed that in her golden age, there are still people who are willing to listen to her, help her with her house chores and do not turn her cold shoulder when she needs help.

We chatted for almost an hour! Although some of the freshies cannot really speak or understand neither Cantonese nor hokkien, they tried their best to translate what she said to each other, and peepur, that's berry heartwarming. *clap clap* I wanna tell you guys and girls that, you all have really brighten up her day, and she really appreciate it a lot. I am certain our freshies have gained a great experience as well :) right?

We greeted Mdm Chua goodbye by cheering our 'good good cheer' while surrounding her. She was really really happy and she thought it is someone's birthday! Hahahahahaha. Compliments given to our girl freshies who suggested this, and also everyone, who tried their very best to understand her. And you see, just a simple act of yours- to care, can really carve smiles on the elderly face. :)

Thanks Darren and Yian who have made good explanation to us too!! :D Hope to see more people join T.H.E seniors!!

Love,

WanJun

Visit 18th June

Hello all!

A few of us went down earlier that day to Mdm Ho's place as she told us 2 weeks ago to clean her house at 10am so that she could prepare the curry chicken after that. However, we were really surprised when she was not home and we thought that she was at the market at first. It was only when we saw Mdm Cheong that we were told that she was admitted to the hospital last Thursday.

I visited her on Tuesday and found out that she was admitted because of pain in her legs and she couldn't really walk. Other than that, she was basically her usual self which was good (: She also said that she had already bought all the ingredients and will make us the curry chicken when she is better!

Please contact me for the ward and bed details if you'll like to visit her at TTSH.

Okay, back to the visit, we also visited Mdm Cheong and did housework for her as usual. She gave us each a packet of drink afterwards for our hard work! We also cleaned Mr Tan's place and aired his house as he likes to keep the windows closed. We chatted with him about his recent trip to Universal Studios and he seemed to have enjoyed himself a lot. Lastly, we visited Mdm Chow Moi who refused to let us do any housework and insisted that we just sit down and chat with her.

It was a good visit this week except for the unfortunate news about Mdm Ho, but here's hoping she gets better soon (:

-Darren

Visit on 4th June

We visited Mr Chiu that day. His house was under "renovation". A mining company had liaised with the centre and helped to re-paint a few of the houses in the area. They have also helped them change some of their furniture. So, we can only help Mr Chiu shift his things out to the corridor and chat with him outside of his house. Looking forward to see his newly "renovated" house soon. It is sad that while we have already thought of repainting his house for him before this actually happens, we are a step too late. Nevertheless we are happy for him.

Derrick

4th June Visit - Team Hokkien

Mdm Lim

• She said she caught a cold two days ago, was feeling feverish with body-ache
• Doctor initially suspected the cold was because of dengue, based on symptoms
• She claimed that she didn't kena any mosquito bites
  
• She suspected the cold was because of her showering late at night
• She feels quite tired, complains of twitching eyes, but is recovering from her fever after taking medication
• She is also feeling anxious about her coming X-ray scan this coming Monday
  

Mdm Chua

• Tends to repeat specific statements several times during conversation
• E.g. offered to treat us to coffee, complained of too many stuff in her house, commented that she speaks too loudly and Mdm Lim speaks too softly
  
• Totally indulged in the professional massaging techniques of Missy YY
  

Mdm Tan

• Told us about her recent hospital visit
• Complained that the nurse was not good at extracting blood from her
• Poor blood extraction skills resulted in her sustaining bruises in several regions of her arm
• Complained that another nurse confused her by saying that she may be suffering from stroke, rather than flu

Mdm Ho

• Shared with us photos of her Australian buddies, old house, Hokkaido trip and her precious 18-year-old sweet photos
• Offered to buy us lunch but we declined
• We bought chicken+duck rice and ate with her
• Want to treat us to her savory chicken curry on 18th June!