12th Nov visit

Hello all! Pai seh ah, exam period then I mug until forget to blog. Haha.

Anyways, we visited Mr Tan! It was the first time I visited his place since I joined and I was excited so I took a picture of it. Haha. He would be on his way out more often than not when we wanted to visit him. So for those of you who weren't lucky enough, here's a picture of us in his house!



I came only for the later part so I wasn't too sure what happened earlier but I heard them discussing about the European debt crisis so I guess Mr Tan is quite an interesting elderly. And I arrived late, so they're just done with the cleaning up. Haha.


Mdm Ho

And so I jumped group and joined the group visiting Mdm Ho. Her legs are slightly better already I guess, but she looks skinner compared to the past so she needs to eat more. But anyways, we moved her sofa down to the void deck because she doesn't want it anymore. It's a good thing I guess, no sofa means lesser place for the bedbugs to breed because the bedbugs situation seems quite bad at her place. As usual, we helped her to clean the floors and fans and to beat the carpets. There's quite a lot of hair stuck to the carpets so maybe we'll need a vacuum cleaner to remove them or something like that.

Anyways, we created quite a mess trying to operate the washing machine because she only wanted us to remove the curtains and put it into the washing machine but we thought she wanted us to wash the curtains for her. First, we had difficulty figuring out how to add detergent into the washing machine, which took us some time. Second, we didn't know that we have to put the water outlet pipe into the toilet so the waste water ended up flooding the kitchen. Lucky for us, we managed to clean up the mess before she realises. Haha!

That's all from me and good luck for all your exams, though it's a bit late! =P

Yi An

Newbie in the house yo! Anyway, 12th November comprised of visits to Mdm Tan and Mdm Cheong.

Mdm Tan seemed like a really cheerful lady. Bright smile and all. The first thing we did at Mdm Tan’s place was to do the routine clean up- sweeping and mopping of the floor, and cleaning of the windows. Next up, we helped check the bag of canned foods at her place; whether they were expired etc. In addition, we had a difficult and somewhat hilarious attempt to explain the different canned foods to her in dialect e.g. instant or required cooking, and what they were. After which, we sat around and had a little chat with her. Being terrible in dialect, I just sat in the circle and listened. I understood (partially) but I could not participate in any way. Language barrier; I need to work on my dialect and overcome that. First up on my to-do list after exams! We had also found expired medication on her shelf, to which one of the eye drops had an expiry date in 2009. Therefore, I personally feel that the checking of medication expiration should be a key agenda when doing house visits. We definitely do not want medication which was intended to improve their conditions to turn around and end up aggravating their conditions, do we?

Next up, we made our way to Mdm Cheong’s place. She seemed like quite an energetic lady, given that she was active in helping out in the housework which we were performing for her. Apart from the usual clean up, Mdm Cheong requested that we cleaned the back of her television which was somewhat her mini storage area and it was collecting dust. After the clean-up of her place, Mdm Cheong was so kind to offer us drinks! While sitting around chatting, she showed us photos of the chalet she had recently attended which was a 2 day stay as she explained. She seemed quite excited when she took out the programme booklet and showed it to us, and in her attempt to introduce some of the people in the pictures to us. Seeing that such events bring so much joy to individuals like Mdm Cheong, I believe that the upcoming visit to Botanic Gardens for Christmas would be a visit that many of the elderly would look forward to. However, we should consider factors like walking durations for future outings as Mdm Tan from our first visit of the day had raised this concern because she said that her legs were weak and feared that the outing would be too physically strenuous.

Anyway, exams are coming! Good luck and mug hard to all! Till we meet again for the next visit.

Regards,
Kelly

Good to be back!

It's been quite some time since I last visited the elderly..well at least I'm done with all those assignments for now..and exams are really around the corner!

It's heart-warming to see the 'lao jiaos' and at the same time, abit 'alienated' to see new freshies as well (laughs). But it's really good to see more people joining the seniors. And this time, more guys than females! Definitely have to give credit to the new committee for the successful publicity! (heard that most of the 'gong lau' came from Yi An who sacrificed his 'se xiang'..Well done 'tong zhi'! (Salute!no wonder you been hitting the gym to buff up)..Okie enough of the crap...

Visited Mr Tan of blk 62 today and asked about the bedbug situation in his house. Conditions have improved, however only slightly. He is still able to catch some of them at night, crawling underneath his pillow etc. Anyone knows how to tackle the problem of bedbug? Does spraying of insecticides help? or are there something that we can do to help? feel free to share! Got to chat with him more today and realize that he is very knowledgeable in current affairs (i.e. European debt crisis etc) and he likes singing! So do chat with him more on these topics while you watch the TV with him.

Next we visited Mdm Choi Moi. Jovial as usual, I hardly remember any instances that she ain't smiling! However, my 'dan tian' is not strong enough to sustain a long convo with her (cause she is hard on hearing and most of the time we had to raise our voice to talk to her. And if she still can't make out what we said, we had to repeat it again and again..). Was working on a project for my prof earlier on the elder's attitude towards assistive technologies (i.e. usage of hearing aid and walking cane etc) and it kind of struck me why she does not put her hearing aid even though she has one. Citing that it is troublesome and not comfortable, she doesn't use it. I guess lots of other elderly also think that way. Perhaps we should try to encourage them to use these AT, as the more that they don't use it, their conditions would deteriorate way much faster...

Lastly, visited Mdm Ho. The other group of people helped threw away her sofa under the request of Mdm Ho's daughter. Guess the sofa is also kind of old and I think it's wise to throw it away to help alleviate the bedbug problem in her home as well (of course, the sofa is kind of spoilt as well, given its long serving services to withstand the pressure exerted by particularly zhen xiu la, Wynne la, every visitation. Haha). Mdm Ho is still in and out of the hospital for her leg problems but her mental status is all well and good!

All right, that's all the update for now. Nice to meet all the new people! (I will ask the names next time la..haha.. I old already, lazy to memorize names). All the best for the exams peeps!

Ken Chandrakumar s/o Muthusamy Pillai Narendran - gosh it's damn hard to remember this la!

Some pictures that overdued =P

Free shot from Mdm Chow Moi

Photo of shot presentation

Mdm Choi Moi's new hearing aid

Group photo at Mdm Tan's place

Yi An

As usual we were divided into groups but today instead of 3 we formed 2 groups instead as some elderly were either unwell or not around at home. Thereafter we proceed to the new elderly hse , Anthony's unit. I must say he is the most amusing joker I ever encountered so. Before we went into his unit , his neighbour who is a divorcee auntie kept telling us to visit him often so that he wont be tad lonely. At that moment we were feeling awkward for some reason haha ... Anthony didnt required any form of tidying and cleaning of his house so we sat around him and chat with him. Oh btw , he is an english-speaking elderly so whoever doesnt understand dialects can visit him ! There he goes telling us his stories of his past experience in Saudi Arabia such as his diet,his encounter with the women there etc. And he made dis statement that amuses us when he mentioned the ladies there cmi and the others are left for ya guys to find out.Btw all his storylines are somehow similar to what we had seen in the dramas and I bet all would enjoyed it. To end it off the visit to his unit, we revealed a big secret that his neighbour might be carrying a torch for him ..Omg Lols !!

Next we made our way down to Mdm Chua's hse.This is the first time I went to her hse.Initially she wanted us to just chat with her but Yinmin and Wei Jiang took the initiatives to sweep her house though while we were like slackers dots..Wei Jiang even went to the extent of wiping the floor instead of mobbing the floor , something that must be complimented . Mdm Chua wanted to treat us lunch at the coffeeshop and she unknowingly kept repeating it. Although she was abit 'lo so' , she didnt meant it and was quite cute in a certain way I guess. She also kept talking about her grand-daughter and this was when Wynne interrupted and asked Mdm Chua to intro her to us. We were taken by surprise and we knew tad was a joke. And so the whole conversation revolved around these 2 topics , the treat and her grand-daughter mainly.

To end our day we proceeded to the last unit , Mdm Tan's hse. This was where the other group joined us shortly after we done all the cleaning up. Everyone was chatting among themselves while some sat around Mdm Tan to chat with her. Follow up on this can juz refer to Ying Cong's post haha to avoid repeating the same stuff again.

Our day ended by normal debriefing and having lunch together at the market. Today we created smiles once again on the beneficiaries and hopefully this will keep them going on cheerfully in their lives : )

Shawn

Visit on 29 Oct

Hi Everyone

Having missed the past few visits, it is good to be back. It was also nice to see some new faces (ok, maybe it's because I have been away). Anyway, we were divided into 2 groups and the first my group went to was Mdm Ho's house. Mdm Ho seems to be getting less mobile. Besides that, her house was struck with bedbugs. So we helped her to change her mattress cover. She made a concoction of some powder and dettol to apply to her bed frame. She seems to be getting less cheerful. I think getting hospitalised a few months back has made her feel more vulnerable.

Next we went to Mr Tan's house. Again, his house was struck with bedbugs. Mr Tan did not need us to clean his house but we helped him to tilt his cupboards as he suspected that the bedbugs hid at the foot of the cupboards. Because of the bedbugs, Mr Tan discarded his bed and Mrs Tan and him sleep on the floor now.

We were then supposed to go to Mdm Chow Moi's house but she wasn't around. So we joined the other group at Mdm Tan's house instead. Didn't do anything there as the other group had already cleaned her house so we just sat and chit chat.

Having kena bedbugs before, I know it's really troublesome. Hopefully the bedbugs will all go away as soon as possible and I hope it won't turn the volunteers away. Just make sure check your stuffs, your clothes and wash yourselves up and it should be fine :) That's it! Jia you for all those who have projects/assignments/tests due in the next few weeks!

Ying Cong

Hello! This is Shi Tien, my 2nd time blogging in my 3 years (old liao~).

This time round I joined the Canto group although I dont know how to speak canto, I can listen to it prety well!! But we got a pro-canto speaker in our group, so all speaking will be done by her and I shall do all the housechores:D

Mdm Cheong's house is the 1st place we visited. For those who never visited Mdm Cheong at all, you will miss out her "command" skills. As usual of what she will do, Mdm Cheong likes to be organize and then "command" us to do some chores. As for me, I am the window cleaner that day!! After the cleaning, we sat down and prepared to have a chat with her. And then, without us realizing, Mdm Cheong got hold of a kitchen knive and like going to "kill" someone, argh.....!! Haha:D I am just kidding, Mdm Cheong only wanted to open the packet drinks and treat us to it. So, seeing Mdm Cheong holding a weapon, everyone becomes obedient and get a drink. So, we continue with some little chats with Mdm Cheong and she is going for a camp (wow! strong and healthy). Mdm Cheong, have fun there!!

Next, we went to Mdm Chow's house. I have visited her several times since I joined T.H.E. She is a very cheerful person and always carry a smile with her at all times! And as usual, i hardly got the chance to clean her house as she doesn't require us to clean. So, everyone sat down and have a chat with her! Since Mdm Chow is a canto speaking person, we let our pro-canto speaker, Wan Jun, to sit beside her to chat. That day, Wan Jun literally becomes Mdm Chow's granddaughter as our dear Wan Jun keeps lying on Mdm Chow's legs (and Mdm Chow keeps patting her!). Mdm Chow also tried to tie Wan Jun's hair several time but not very successful. Oh ya, Mdm Chow dont like to be massage as she dont like to be tickled, so it ended up having Mdm Chow massaging Wan Jun!!! Next time, we should help Mdm Chow to overcome her fear of getting massage :D

Yup, that's all for the visit that day! Another meaningful and unforgettable visit! See ya everyone soon at the next visit =)

Shi Tien