Overwhelmed with enthusiasm, smiles, and gratitude

Enthusiasm. It was really a wonderful experience last saturday to begin with. Totally overwhelmed by the elders' enthusiasm for the event. Their radiant smiles, warm greetings, and jovial laughter did hyped up the whole atmosphere thoroughout the entire event. Not forgetting the volunteers as well, the responses were spontaneous and totally awesome I would say.

Smiles. I could not recall a moment that I had failed to capture the smiles on the faces of the elderly. They were always there; ever ready for my camera to flash at. Never daunted by the humidity and the blazing sun, elderly and volunteers should be applauded for their perseverance in completing the walk.

Gratitute. Having said that, though many were tired after the walk, their spirits did not seem to dampen at all. Smiles, slight nods, and waving goodbyes were their forms of expression of gratitude to us; and arguably the most sincere and heart felt. Last by not least, I am really grateful for the volunteers who came down last saturday, and to my friends in Touch Seniors as well, thanks for making it possible and successful!

-All the best for your revision!- -ken-

Henderson Waves Outing

Hello to all !!! Last saturday was a good day for a walk in the park and CSC did just that, bringing the elderly from Henderson Waves to HortPark.

The whole journey covered many slopes but we can see that the elderly were generally very happy and enjoyed the whole process. As for myself, I was taking care of the old lady who was more than 80 years. Whoa, that is an impressive age, and I wonder what I'll be when I'm her age ( i.e. if I have the fortune of living to that ripe old age. )

From the conversation, I can tell that she is very proud of her grandchildren, one of which is going to graduate from some overseas uni this year. This set me thinking, our grandparents are actually proud of our achievements, even though a uni degree may be something that we take for granted. Hence, we ought to be grateful for whatever we have, especially when our family are rooting and supporting us without expecting any payback.

I think most people nowadays are not very close to their grandparents. This is sad, as they are a vast source of knowledge and experience. True, they may not have studied much, but they know how to appreciate kindness which greatly touched me. When the volunteers offered them cakes and biscuits, they insisted to share them with us, even though we declined profusely. And from their expression and gestures, it is apparent that they are very happy and grateful about the whole trip.

Initially, I had apprehensions about how to break the ice and talk to them. But I soon realised what matters is not the language, but the heart and thought that matters. As long as we are sincere about making their day, we will naturally click and the conversation will just flow. And it definitely helps that the walk goes through nature which makes everyone feels light-hearted with the fresh air and nice scenery surrounding us.

Lastly, I would like to end this post with this video. This is a Hokkien song by this Taiwanese singer: 蕭煌奇. This song was written for his grandmother whom he was very close to and which he was overseas when she died, hence he couldn't appear by her deathbed.

Enjoy the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an8kaGjzeKs&feature=PlayList&p=2035EFC9FE564410&playnext_from=PL&playnext=6&index=5

Signed:

Huixiang

Hello all!
Last sat (20/3/10) visit was really an enjoyable experience! Even though it was pouring and I am sure some of us really wanted to sleep for a while more, many volunteers still turned up for TOUCH =) And as usual, I was in the Hokkien group together with boon yong, boon peng and chen hua. We went to mdm tan's house first and did some simple chores like mopping the floor and cleaning the windows. Due to failing vision, Mdm Tan doesn really take part in outings because she would need someone to guide her. However, her house is really neat and clean. After chatting with her for a while, we moved on to Mr Chiu's house. There was a group of volunteers from VJC who were going around the houses to provide some basic health check-up that day as well so Mr Chiu was waiting for them to arrive. He didn need us to do any cleaning so we simply sat down and listened to the radio with him. I think he was listening to some oldies though I am not sure which channel was it. Chen hua helped him to tune to other channel (should be FM 93.3 if i am not wrong) and it was playing some SHE song (zhenxiu's ringtone, LOL). Mr Chiu told us he still prefers listening to oldies and chinese pop song (eg. jay chou) doesn really suit him. After staying for a while more, we went on to Mdm Ho's house. Mdm Ho injured her knee that morning so she couldn really move about. The guys helped to clean the windows and mopped the floor while the girls did some lighter chores like wiping the tables. After which, we sat down and helped ourselves to the new yr goodies ^^ I think we helped to finish the fishball crackers and some springrolls. Mdm Ho was still as jovial even though she was in pain and I always enjoyed talking to her =).

I think that's all for last week's visit and hope to see you guys next sat for our major outing!! And let's hope for good weather =)

-yewchin

Hi, long time since i wrote a blog. in fact, this is my second time ba.
anyway, i go straight into my experience at Touch. Although i have been in touch for some time but last sat was the first time joining the Canto group and it is because i come late (as usual) and end up calling shi tian up to find out when they are. in total, we visit 3-4 houses and i now set a new record in the worst cleaner list, haha. i cannot really say anything about the elderly because i dun understand what is going on as i dun know canto. but in overall, it is quite fun and stunning when the elderly end up siting out at the corner door while we clean the house, actually we were expecting her to just sit at the living room so it look like some drama show where the mother-in-law was being chase out like that.
=)

Confirmed design / Outing on the 3rd April.

this is how the design would look like evenutally printed on our shirts..can't do shading/toning cause it would cost more and probably the effect wun be that good as well...so yup..hope u guys still like the shirt! -bo bian also rite?cause buy le..- lol..
-ken-


Hello volunteers,
We are bringing the elderly out on a morning exercise/walk!

Date: 3rd April
Time: 8+am to 1pm
Location: From Henderson Waves to HortPark
Light refreshments/Breakfast will be provided.
Please go to the following link and fill in the form for your attendance!
RSVP here!

We are bringing around 80-90 seniors, hence we will need alot of volunteers! Do get your friends if they are interested too! (: More details will be posted nearer to the date~

Thankyou!
Regards,
T.H.E. Seniors Committee 09/10

CSC shirt_sizes!

Hi guys,
Just kindly go onto this link and indicate your shirt sizes.
IF you wan to purchase more than one shirt, just kindly put the quantity beside your name

(i.e Ken (2))

http://www.doodle.com/mb7a7xrqeh9eumk3

Try to indicate your sizes monday, latest.
If you have any problems accessing it, do drop me an email or sms me at 94592914.
Have a lovely weekend!

-Sorry forgot to tell u guys that $12 per shirt...-
Cheers,
Ken

(attached are the back and front pics that we are using)

Hi ppl.. =)

Before going further into the post, I think I need to start with a self intro before arousing qns marks over readers' head. I'm Wendy, a new volunteer but not from NUS and a friend of Margaret.

Pardon if my post is too boring as the posts u guys blogged is too interesting so I'm stressed. Haha.

This is the first time I did volunteer work and I was half unclear how this volunteer outing works. The day started with me tagging along in the Eng-Chi group and we make visits to Mr Tan and Mdm Ho's place.

Stepping in to Mr Tan's place, my first thought was he speaks English well so there's no problem communicating except that he may be hard at hearing at times. He was easy going, we did only simple chores such as cleaning and sweeping. However, we realised his fan is going at such a slow speed during a hot weather so we decided to take it out and clean as well as trying to fix it. Though I know we are trying to be smart only. Haha. So obviously we failed to repair it. =( We can only keep reminding him to open the windows more so that he feel cooler before we leave his house.

Visit to Mdm Ho's place was interesting. The first impression she gave me was fierce. Haha. After we done with the things she want us to help in, I see another side of her. She is so "hao ke" (chi)!! Treating everyone so nicely, taking all the cny goodies out for us to eat. After some time, the rest of you join us and I FOUND OUT A RUMOUR about my friend. Haha. *sry margaret* Though is only a short interaction with you guys, but witnessing the humour and laughter u all shared, that makes a wonderful experience for me. Nice experience with friendly elderly, warm experience with you guys, GREAT DAY!

Shall see u guys soon. All the best for studies. =)

-Wendy-