Home visit on 26th June 2010

I was away for several weeks as i was busy with my special project. This is the first vist i had after such a long time. Jerome and I was late therefore we ended up helping Chen Hua to distribute rice and canned food to the residence. We don't usually get to help up with distributing of food in fact this is my first attempt. Then, we went to Mdm Poh's house to help her up with some household chores. I wasn't very fluent in Hokkein but i was able to understand some of the things she said. I helped her to clean the shelf that she is unable to reach. There is a layer of dirt accummulated on top of the shelf in the kitchen. I only managed to clean part of the shelf as we are rushing to visit another elderly's home. Before we left, Mdm Poh showed us a photo album which contains her past photos. I was amazed that she had visited Tokyo before. She is really friendly and even treated us to a drink for our hard work. We went to Mdm Tan's house and her house is really clean therefore we ended up listening and accompanying her. She told us a lot of things, her thoughts and some personal experience. She was not hopeful in relying on her children anymore but she takes every day as a day of bonus. She was very easy going with what she had. I started to realise that what she said does make sense as this happens to everyone when they grow old. Afterall she is wishing for a simple and happy life. And i believe is what most of us had wanted in the end.

Yours Sincerely,
TingTing

Elderly visit on 19th June 2010

It was my second visit as a volunteer- came slightly late and thus ended up in the Cantonese speaking group although I don't speak any cantonese! First house was Mdm Lee- she just underwent cataract surgery and was recovering. We helped her clean up her house and also chit chatted with her- mostly huiting because she only spoke cantonese. She felt quite tired so she requested us to leave after we had finished cleaning up. Next house was Mdm Tan- she spoke cantonese, hokkien and chinese. She was in good spirits and took out her old photos and shared with us some of her history. She insisted that we allow her to treat us to drinks, so we went downstairs to chitchat. I felt happy that our simple act of house cleaning and visits could bring so much joy into the lives of these elderly folk.

Bernard

Mdm Chua - Volunteer at work

Hi volunteers,

In case some of you do not know, Mdm Chua is an elderly volunteer (:

Take a look at this article posted in Touch Community Services' website.

http://www.tcs.org.sg/make_a_difference/volunteer_at_work.html

Source: http://www.tcs.org.sg/make_a_difference/volunteer_at_work.html

Once a Client, Now a Volunteer

Mdm Chua

Once a client, now a volunteer! Mdm Chua was living with partial vision and dependent on others for two decades. In 1999, the TOUCH Seniors Activity Centre (TSAC), a social and recreation centre for the elderly in Geylang Bahru, extended a helping hand to her. On the advice of a staff from the centre, she went for an eye operation in 2001. After removing the cataract, Mdm Chua decided that it was time for her to help others in need, especially the elderly. She became a volunteer with TSAC.

Mdm Chua went through months of training at TSAC in Geylang Bahru. The 80-year old now buys and delivers food to the frail elderly staying near the Centre, visits them in hospital when they fall sick and checks on them regularly to ensure that they are fine.

Her transformation – from client to a volunteer – is remarkable. Mdm Chua’s story touched many hearts and was even featured on television and in the newspapers. Help us help more people like Mdm Chua - a life touched is a life changed.

-Margaret

Hey everyone,

I am Guohao, a new member to this club. I am glad to be part of this club to spread the joy and love to old folks; while doing so, we are contented and happy ourselves, too, for being able to share the joy with other participating members.

19th June was my second day of volunteer work with the club. Through my brief encounters with these old residents, I am reminded of the nostalgic moments I shared with my late grandpa when I was young. I was barely primary three when he was still around. He spoke mainly in Henghua, a variation of the more common dialect Hokkien.

A quiet man with a wry sense of humour , he took particular joy in making fun of me since I could not discern what he said when he spoke. Mr Tan, a resident from block 61, mirrored my grandpa in some ways.

Quiet as he was, he would not hesitate to tell tales of his past. Age and years of illness had tormented him, but could not steal away the fact he was once an avid marathoner, body builder, brave world war 2 fighter against the japanese and in every sense, a proud Singaporean.

People born under such war circumstances underwent many untold hardships and took pride in who they were, what they did and cherished what they owned. And for the stories I missed out from my grandpa, I would not want to miss out from these old residents who had tales of their own to share. And so, in that little cozy unit of Mr Tan, we recounted tales of his dashing and heroic days. He has also been given an English name by Wen Hui; Johnny.

To end this post, I will share a quote from the movie Ip Man 2. It is a value that strikes chord with lessons I picked from my late grandpa and from encounter with Mr Johnny Tan. It is nothing spectacular, but nonetheless deeply meaningful.

'人的地位有高低之分，但是人格不能有贵贱之别‘

Guohao :)
23/06/10

Hi everyone!

Since Vanessa and I are in the same group, I’ll share about our visit to kam po’s house and Van will share her thoughts on our visit to Madam Cheong’s house :)

We first visited kam po and helped her cleaned her house. She was in a pleasant and cheerful mood and invited us to sit down and talk to her. Unfortunately only Hui Ting in our group could speak Cantonese so she had to talk to kam po for most of our time there. The rest of us sat at one side and could only understand some parts. Hui Ting was telling kam po about her family’s wanton business and most of us could understand the word wanton so we guessed that they were talking about food and that’s about all since our understanding was minimal :) I guess I’ve got to learn Cantonese so I can better communicate with the elder generation. That’s all and here’s a quote to end off~ “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” By Edmund Everett Hale

Have a good day ahead!

:D

One of the elderly my group visited was Mdm cheong.
She is very nice and courteous. We helped her to clean her windows and mop the floor. We also tried to pick up a conversation with her. Then, she told us about her late daughter and even showed us pictures of her and her daughter. We were afraid that she would feel sad and start tearing when she started talking about her daughter and all the things she has done with her. However, she seemed to have accepted the fact that it has happened and moved on with life. Mdm cheong also commented that she is really happy living there as she has lots of friends to keep her company.

Life is short. let's treasure those around us and make the most out of the time we have.


“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw

see you all soon :D


Vanessa

Double experiences for me on the 22nd may. Being it is my first time being a facilitator, going around knocking the doors. And knowing more elderly from the canto group. Merely knocking the doors got me excited in the morning, because I have never been assigned such task. It’s an experience gained. And from it, I realize I should really go brush up my dialect so that I can communicate with those elderly as most of them speak dialect.

I’ve never been in the canto group before. Having watching some Hongkong dramas do help, sometimes one can get to learn and listen, and know what the conversation was about. We visited Madam Chua, coping with the language barrier over there was fine as she speaks Hokkien. As usual, helping her with housechores, sat down and talk to her. She’s very caring, keep asking us to drink water but we just keep rejecting. I can remember her keep saying she is “lo shuo”; naggy. I think when one ages, what she need is a company and a person to listen to her, one should bear with it when talking to any elderly. Heard from the senior volunteer that often she may look optimistic, but deep inside her heart, she’s still grieving and got upset easily especially when she is alone. She misses her husband a lot as she was rather attached with her husband when he is around. She spoke to us about her granddaughter and family. One will not feel good when she speaks about her grand-daughter. I guess no one would know what will happen next. Unpredictable. We should always live life to the fullest. (:

Second visiting to Madam Cheong, a pro supervisor, giving and guiding us the housechores to do. She will always treat the volunteers drinks after every visiting to her house. I remembered receiving packet drink from her. A small action like this is valueless; it’s her way of expressing ‘thank u’ to the volunteers. Appreciate it though it’s just a drink.

Third visiting, Madam is a very friendly cheerful elderly. When she gets shy, she will cover up her face with her hands. Quite adorable. Both Hui Ting and Wynne did the talking. It’s like canto vs hokkien. The conversation was funny with the mixture of canto and hokkien. She has poor listening, we need to speak to her in a louder volume. She may look petite, but she can speak really loud.

That's all for the visit!!(: Drink more water and take great care of ourselves ya. The weather is scorching hot...

Pei Jen(: