I am so sorry for the delay of this post!

Belated merry christmas everyone! And so grateful that our major outing turn out fine even though it drizzled a little=)

Last saturday my group went to visit Mdm Chua, Mdm Ho and Mr Chiu. I swept the floor at Mdm Chua's house and found it quite dusty becasue she said she won't clean or sweep the floor herself. She will mostly spend her day at the centre during weekdays. Also she keep saying that she is very fortunate to live in this estate because there are volunteers like us who will visit her. She said she gets agitated rather easily and will feel like crying for no apparent reason. We feel sad to see her like this. Hope that our presence did bring a tinge of joy to her!=)

Next we visited Mdm Ho and I also swept the floor. She told us about her gradchildren and god-children. She treated one of our volunteers to a bao and another to the chee chong fun that they got from the church.

Last but not least we visited Mr Chiu. He received a very interesting electrical appliance which can help to wash his butt. But we did not know how to fix it to his toilet bowl and to prevent us from spoiling his toilet bowl, we gave up the idea of fixing for him. Zhenxiu bought 3 more cds to add to his collection. It's a pity that it is a karaoke cd so he cannot listen to cd at home since he does not have a vcd player. Maybe if we can, we can try to get a cheap vcd player for him?

Yup that's all. Looking forward to the next visit!=)

Sheng Xian

My first experience with T.H.E

Last Saturday was a special day for me because it marks my first volunteering experience with T.H.E.! I was assigned to be in the same group as Yinmin, Criss, Pheng Heong and Jeremy that morning. :D

We started off our day by visiting Mdm Cheong. Upon arriving, I noticed the cute lady in the house walking towards us. But the rest laughed and joked about Mdm Cheong being a “Commando”. I was taken aback by Mdm Cheong’s superb memory as she could easily recall who she had seen before and pointed out that I am the newcomer! HAHA. As usual, Mdm Cheong delegated task for each of us. After completing our “missions”, we settled now and had a good chat with Mdm Cheong. I was touched and amazed by Mdm Cheong’s positivity towards life as she talks about how she actively tries to stay healthy by exercising frequently and how she tries to活到老，学到老. I was surprised that Mdm Cheong actually knows so many languages! That morning she demonstrated Chinese, English, Teo chew, Hokkien and even Malay! I’m ashamed that I’m struggling with Hokkien even though it’s my dialect. Goshh. :X

After which, we visited Mdm Tan. She is a petite elderly who greeted us with her lovely smile. We helped Mdm Tan cleaned her house and checked her mails that morning. During our conversation with Mdm Tan, she told us that she plans to stop accepting meals provided by the Buddhist Society as she heard from her friends that the CC may be catering daily meals for the elderly. Moreover, the volunteers from the Buddhist society have been interviewing her frequently, asking her about how many children she has and how much money they give her monthly. Mdm Tan was worried that this may implicate her children. As such, she is hoping that the CC would be catering food for the elderly so that she can stop accepting meals provided by the Buddhist Society. We might want to take note of this matter during our next visit to Mdm Tan’s house. Also, Mdm Tan was telling us that she enjoys the food provided during the occasional buffets organized by the CC. However, she has stopped attending such activities due to her failing eyesight. She can’t exactly see what food she was taking and was afraid of asking the other elderly for fear of troubling them. This broke my heart upon hearing that. I am really amazed by Mdm Tan’s courage towards life. Regardless of the difficulties she is facing, Mdm Tan is always bearing a smile on her face.

Lastly, we visited Mdm Chow Moi’s house. Mdm Chow Moi greeted us with her wide smile. We didn’t have time to clean up Mdm Chow Moi’s house today due to the shortage of time. During our conversation with her, she noted Pheng Heong as the giggling boy. HAHA. As Pheng Heong and Mdm Chow Moi tease each other, we noticed that Mdm Chow Moi has been coughing quite badly. We asked her if she has sought a doctor but she said it would be a waste of money. As such, she is only taking 枇杷膏to relieve her cough.

I had an enjoyable and enlightening experience interacting with the elderly at T.H.E. I have learnt so much from the elderly I visited. I’m surprised by their spontaneity and their strong will towards life. These are lessons that we can’t learn from books and school. My experience with the elderly last Saturday morning certainly motivates me to quickly brush up my Hokkien. There is so much that I would like to learn about them. I am looking forward to the good memories and laughter to come! I am praying hard that it won’t rain tomorrow. I am certain that tomorrow’s major event would be filled with love and fun! :D Aja Aja Fighting! ^^

lots of love,
Carline :)

3 Dec 2011 Visit

Hey! Sorry for posting so late. Had to settle other things :/

Anyway, Jian Ting (I may have typed her name wrongly, do help me edit it Im wrong), Guowei, Eng Wee and myself visited Mdm Lim, Mdm Tan and Mr Chiu.

We went to visit Mdm Lim first. We didn't need to do any housework so we just sat there and talk to her. She was telling us that she quite frequently get breathless and her heart will beat very fast. Then she will need to take medicine to calm these symptoms down and if she take 3 tablets already and the symptoms still dont stop then she will need to go down to see the doctor. Because of this condition, she was feeling quite depressed and was saying that if she passes on then so be it... better than having to suffer through this :/ She also said that sometimes her legs will feel very weak and will give way so she need to walk around with a walking stick. And because of her spinal cord sticking out, she has to sit up to sleep instead of lie down. Her visitation reports show that we never really visit her either cause she's not at home or not feeling well. If any of us get to visit her again do try to cheer her up :D :D and also check on her condition :D:D

At Mdm Tan's house we help her do housework - clean the windows, sweep the floor and mop the floor. Her eyesight as usual not very good. She told us that she ask her friend to help her buy those packet coffees from the supermarket. She said that she every morning also need to drink coffee.

Finally, we visited Mr Chiu's house. No cleaning was needed. He was reading chinese newspaper before we arrived. He showed us songs lyrics of an event he attended organised by the CC if im not wrong. There were quite alot of people that participated in the event. I think it was something like there were a some people who had to go up on stage to sing the songs that were on the song lyrics paper he showed us.

Yep that's about it. Sorry can't really remember everything we talked about with the elderly. If i miss out anything do add in! :D

Cheers,
Yixiu

3 Dec Visit! :)

Heyhey! Sorry for the late post oops!
My group consisting of wynne, zhenxiu and ying cong went to visit Mdm Chua and Mdm Cheong on saturday.

Mdm Chua was a little emo that day, as she was having a headache too. She tends to be very forgetful, and I realized her bedsheet hasn’t been changed for some time although she always said that she’ll change it the following day. Maybe we could help her with it if it hasn’t been changed by the time we next visit her. Mdm Chua also insisted on treating us to coffee, so maybe we should arrange hers to be the last slot, so we can bring her down for coffee next time. We did the usual cleaning, and settled down to watch the tv, which was airing the show about celebrity dads learning how to take care of their kids. Mdm Chua told us that in the past, only the woman in the house takes care of the kids, while the man goes out to work and earn $$ for the family. Guys must learn from these celebrity dads k! :)

We then proceeded to Mdm Cheong’s house. We could smell the aroma of the jin zhen hua liang teh she was boiling from the doorstep. She was very cheerful that day and looked really pretty in her flowery blouse. :) After splitting the work among us and having done them all, we settled down to chat. Mdm Cheong told us that she is trying to learn to speak Chinese, so she kept trying to identify objects using Chinese. I really take my hat off to Mdm Cheong’s 活到老学到老 spirit. Meanwhile, Wynne had a good sleep in the beach chair while Mdm Chua looked on and laughed. Hehe.

Yea that’s about it for last sat’s visit. See you guys and the elderly soon! And please help publicize about our MAJOR OUTING on 20th Dec and get your friends to join us too, it'll be fun! :D

yinmin

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

Yo! Jeremy here. 3rd visit on 1st October 2011 (children's day hahaha), 2nd time blogging. Quite a late entry so sorry about that. Here we go.

There were some activities at the void deck like a fortnight ago. This time it was an event held by the Boys and Girls Brigade. A few school children were teaching the elderly how to make balloon sculptures. Many smiles on their faces!

First, we visited Mdm Chua's place. After we cleaned her flat, we sat down and chatted with her. She was a jovial and friendly lady. Sad thing was that she tends to forget and asked some questions over and over again, for example asking us if we want coffee, and where was our next destination. Furthermore, she doesn't go outdoors often as she may forget her way home. This is one of the horrible things that old age can do to us when we grow older. Before we left, we took a group photo together.

Next up we visited Mdm Tan. I remember that during my first visit, she was the first senior I visited. Her house was clean and tidy so we chatted with her. She has cataracts, so some parts of her vision is blurred. She was also camera sensitive when we took a photo with her. When we were taking her shots, she would wear her trademark glasses and smile to the camera.

That wraps up the visit on Children's day. See you guys soon next week!

-Jeremy :D

Hello! This time it's Pheng Heong bringing you the exciting happenings from the Chinese dialect group.

Our last visit on 1st Oct kicked off with a birthday celebration for Mr Chiu. He'll be 74 years old this coming Sat, quite the young one huh (: Mr Chiu loves singing. He even wrote a song himself! He was too shy to sing it at first, saying it's too 肉麻 (mushy), but his inner showman couldn't resist in the end.

His songbook

Charming the girls. Guys, you know what to do! (:

He had a lot of wishes... Pic from our Facebook Group

Next we went to Mdm Ho's house where the mood wasn't quite as jovial. Apparently she's been troubled by bedbugs recently. The guys dusted out her mattress and made sparing use of insecticide as a temporary measure, on top of our usual housekeeping.

Mdm Ho is one well-travelled and chatty lady, and shares with us stories of her visits to countries like Hokkaido, Japan. She must really have been something to be seeing the world back in those days. If she's in the mood she'd show us photos, and tell us about "wa ey da por lang" (literally "my man" in Hokkien).

But that day Mdm Ho was a little more pessimistic. You know, when it was her time to go, that kind of stuff. It's inevitable that the elderly will have these thoughts, and consoling them beyond the usual "Choi!" and "Take each day as it comes" remains an art for me.

Cheer up, Mdm Ho!
We'll see you again on our next visit on the 15th.

All the best to people who still have their mid-term exams!

Pheng Heong

On the 17th September 2011 was my third visit so far yet to my surprise the number of people who attended was much lesser than the previous one lols!! As usual we were split into 3 main speaking groups namely the eng/mandarin , hokkien and cantonese groups thereafter proceed to the respective units.
As we made our way to the units , we came across a crowd of elderly queuing up to get their food and many of them waved and greeted us with smiles.Thinking about it , it was quite enjoyable to hang out and mingle with the lot when we are elderly like them in a few decades.
It was a joke when all the units we went the elderly were not at home !! We wanted to chill somewhere and I went down the stairs from the 11th floor , thereafter to realise Mdm Tan was takin the lift when I was walking down the stairs. And yea the first unit we visited was Mdm Tan's house , as usual the house was already tidied and clean but we still continued the normal household clean-up. After that we sat down and chat with her and as usual the 'high' Wyne did most of the talking. Mdm Tan randomly wanted a photo of her taken previously in the pretext for informal use. But to me I guessed she wanna keep a photo for her "sheng hou shi" , for a moment we had the same kind of feeling too. Indeed life is unpredictable we should live life to the fullest and always be as cheerful as Mdm Tan. Before we went off we took some pictures with her and hopefully the happy moments with us will remain with her and keep her moving on.
The next unit we visited is an epic one that is Mdm Choi who had 'selective hearing'. She always claimed that her hearing is deteriorating but I gave her the benefit of doubt. But it is interesting though for she can filter those she dont wanna hear and listened to those she liked. But u might be surprised to see that she can actually eat quite a big chunk of the mooncake without denture on ... We also chat with her and helped her with some household chores. Oh ye she was lamenting her television broke down when Wyne switched it on and realised the tv set was actually still working just that Mdm Choi switch to a blank channel. Haha !! Elderly are sometimes quite interesting when u saw the flabbergasted looks on their face filled with innocence when u solved something which they can't. We left shortly after proceeding to Mdm Cheong's house.
Wah.. this Mdm Cheong was really hard to tackle with , she was like giving us a list on the do's and don'ts and what to do for her household chores. We even went to the extent of helping her to wipe the pipes. But afterall I found her amiable and amusing when we conversed with her. I was nearly tricked by Wyne into placing her chairs next to her bed ( chairs touching bed frame ) but luckily Li Young cautioned me not to do that. I heard that previously she was somehow unhappy when someone did that claiming that dust would accumulate on it. Therefore we had to ask her what to do first before we actually started the work distribution. Before we left we gave her a mooncake and took some pictures with her.
This visit gave me an insight to the different personalities of the elderly and better understanding of the inner world of them. My day ended with making the smiles on them bringing joy to them as well as to me : )


Shawn

On 17^th September it marks my second visit with T.H.E. Seniors, and I am really looking forward to it. We got an additional task today, and that is to distribute the mooncakes to the elderly and take photo of them with the mooncakes. Anyway, this is my first time blogging, so here it goes.

My group first visited Mdm Chua, where we get down to the usual routine of cleaning her window, floor, and fulfilling any other requests she had for us, while the others sat down and accompanied her for a chat. Seeing the conversation with her reminded me of what age can do to us (which is quite saddening). Though Mdm Chua is still looking energetic and jovial, her memory just wasn't as good as it used to be. Our conversation with her was sometime kept in a loop, where she will keep asking the same few questions, for example, “How do we know her home number?”, “Did she said the wrong number just now?”. But the group (yinmin, sheng xian) attended to whatever she ask with patience, and they bring liveliness to the same few conversation. I think this is really important as it will help her stay mentally and socially active. :)

Before leaving her home, our leader, mingyuan, suggested to take a group photo with her, and upon knowing we want to take a photo, Mdm Chua went to the back and comb her hair, and put on her spectacles as she wanted to look good in the photo. It all ends well seeing Mdm Chua is still so cheerful and happy.

After leaving Mdm Chua house, we then went on to Mr. Tan apartment, whom wasn't around, and thus, we headed to Mr. Chiu house to meet up with the other group. So we had around 12 people in Mr. Chiu house, where we sat down to chat with him, providing multiple pairs of “listening ears” too. As the conversation goes on, we found out that he bought new Karaoke VCDs, but didn't actually have any media player able to play it.

Well, the time had come for all the visits to end, and we had the usual debrief and sharing between groups, before finally parting out way. Though the turnout wasn't anything like my first visit, but it was still a really fun and refreshing experience, helping others and interacting with the elderly.

- Eng Soon

Hello everyone! 17th September was my second visit (I'm a freshie writing first time in this blog!) with T.H.E. Seniors.

Was looking forward to this one after attending the first visit a fortnight ago, as every visit would bring about a new experience. We were then split into smaller groups, namely the English/Mandarin speaking, Hokkien speaking and Cantonese speaking to facilitate with communicating with the old folks.

As we were making our way to the flats, a huge crowd of the elderly were queuing up to collect their food from the sponsoring vendors at the void deck. When they saw us, they smiled and waved at us and we did the same to them too. Can tell that they were really happy to see us around. I also saw Mdm Cheong, the lady who I visited last week (but I don't think she remembers me hahaha). As usual she would help some of her neighbours to collect their food as they are unable to do so on their own due to physical disabilities. We can tell that although these folks are living on their own, they will still look out for one and other, which is a heart-warming sight.

My group of 8 first visited Mdm Ho, 88. She was one of those whom Mdm Cheong helped collect food for. Her knees are showing signs of deformity and has difficulty moving around. She mentioned that she has to go for check ups at Tan Tock Seng hospitals occasionally. Her doctors advised her to undergo surgery but she refused to do so. A common understanding of the elderly is that when they are told to undergo surgery they will choose not to do so. Is is because of the high costs of doing so and they are not able to afford? Or the pain and after effects the surgery may bring about?

So after some basic introduction, we got down to business and started cleaning her flat, and 2 other friends helped her to buy her dinner at the hawker centre. Her request was to help clean the underside of her bed. There were a lot of dust accumulated there, and even dead cockroaches where swept out. It was understandable as Mdm Ho, being physically disabled, would not be able to reach for those inaccessible areas. Cockroaches wise, she was living on the second floor, so that increases the likelihood of these bugs 'visiting' her. She even have to place an insecticide on standby. So maybe we can highlight to the relevant authorities regarding the standard of cleanliness which gives rise to the number of cockroaches in the estate.

Once we're done with basic cleaning of her home, we sat down and chatted with Mdm Ho. While most of the time she speaks in Hokkien, she can also speak Mandarin and some English to the foreign volunteers who were with us. Then we found out from her that she is now a great-grandmother, and her grandchildren are about the age of 30-40. Her husband passed away recently. After talking to her, I think that she is generally optimistic in life and was really happy to have us around. Before leaving, we presented her with the mooncakes from PRIMA DELI and took a group photo together.

We then visited Mr Chiu, 75. He was very jovial and bubbly, always smiling. When asked if his house was needed to be cleaned, he declined and so we sat down and chit chatted with him. As like Mdm Ho, we presented Mr Chiu with mooncakes and took a photo together. Initially clad with just a pair of shorts, he specially wore a nice looking shirt with printing that looked similar to the SIA flight attendant's uniform just to take the photo. Mr Chiu loves to sing karaoke with his friends and in fact sings pretty well too, when he sanged a part of a song to us. He shown us some VCDs of Chinese oldies that he brought from Chinatown. However, he did not have a VCD player and his normal CD player was incapable of playing that. Apparently the VCDs were produced in a set of series, ie the ones he owned are volumes 11 and 12. So maybe next time we should look for a VCD player for him so that he can sing to his favourite music, as well as volumes of Chinese oldies, not restricting to the older volumes of the VCDs he owned.

That sums up the visits this week. Enjoyed myself thoroughly and I hope the rest who attended did too. The next visit will be in a fortnight's time on 1st October, the old Children's Day hahaha. Definitely looking forward to it!

- Jeremy :D

Orientation Visit Two

Okay, so it was my very first visit with T.H.E.seniors and the turnout was apparently a lot larger than usual. Most of the people who turned up were freshies, like me. We took a bus down to TOUCH Seniors Activity Centre where we met the rest of the group. After some encouragement from enthusiastic and cheery seniors, we arranged ourselves in a huge circle and began the self-introductions by stating our name, which school/faculty we belonged to and something interesting about ourselves. Somehow, most of the interesting information about ourselves had to do with our ability or inability to play the guitar and whether or not our flipflops were new. I digress.

Anyway, after we got the names of the elderly all sorted out, we split into 6 groups of 5-6 people each. My group visited Mdm Tan, an 80 year old woman and has really poor eyesight. Apparently, when she looks at us all she sees are dark black shadows. I don't know about you, but for me, imagining 6 fuzzy shadows trailing into your house is just beyond scary, much less having those shadows move around, clean your house and start talking to you.

Mdm Tan's house was really quite clean to begin with, so our tasks were pretty simple and straightforward. We helped to mop her not-very-dirty floor and clean her windows with damp rags. It didn't take very long. Those of us who didn't have any real chores to perform sat on her bed and spoke to her while helping her to poke threads of different colours through the eyelets of needles. After about half an hour or so, we were all crowded around this friendly old woman, listening to her tell us her stories in Hokkien while those fluent enough at the dialect kept the conversation going.

I'm sure many members here would already know Mdm Tan, but I'll still write a little about what she told us about herself. She has many grandchildren, and yet they only see her once a year during Chinese New Year. It was heartbreaking, really, to listen to her say that having such a large family was meaningless because she lived alone and apart from them. Even though she mentioned that her son buys her mooncakes during the Mid Autumn Festival and her daughter-in-law buys her clothes (in particular a shiny purple blouse she was wearing that day), I think anyone would have been able to tell that all she wanted was their company. I do remember seeing her face light up when the topic was eventually steered towards yummy rice dumplings, though :)

We then went on to Mdm Ho's house, which was crowded as could be with all 32 of us (including her) squeezed into her tiny studio apartment. Mdm Ho spoke mainly in Hokkien and Cantonese, with the occasional English phrases. It was really funny when she spoke in Cantonese to someone who didn't understand a word of the dialect, then attempted to do it again and again.

We then bade farewell and ended this orientation visit with a debrief session, and several group photos ;)

-Kerryn

We had our second orientation visit last saturday and I was in-charged of facilitation. Just want to say that it feels weird that Mr Tan is no longer around and I do not have to go and knock on his door to ask what time he is free for us to visit him. Yup.

So after facilitation I went to meet of the volunteers and I was so surprised to see so many volunteers!!! But it's a good thing to see some many new volunteers who are interested to join us=) When I reached they had already started introducing themselves and after which we were split in several groups. My group went to Mdm Choi Moi's house. As usual she prefer us to sit down and chit-chat with her because she insisted that her house was not dirty. She is her usual cheerful self and talks very loudly becasue of her poor hearing.

I must say she is really a very carefree old lady. When we ask her if she thinks about her past, she said there is no use for thinking of the past. When we asked her what she like to eat, she say she like to eat everything. When we ask her what songs she like to listen, she said she had no preference too. Because her theory is that people will go mad if they think too much. So she prefer not to think about anything. Maybe that's her secret of for still being so healthy at the age of 91.

She love to watch people from her window. Her job in the past is similar to that of a sum siew woman, which might explain how come she is still so fit at the age of 91. But she said she is getting forgetful. She will tend to on her water tap and leave it running without remebering to turn it off. Which according to her, the reason behind her high water bill every month :O She also don't like to close her window even though it is raining becasue she don't want the house to be stuffy. She is really a very cheerful and friendly old lady and I'm sure other than myself, the new volunteers also enjoyed interacting with her. Our new volunteers spoke cantonese to her and she responded spontaneously=) Last but not least, we went to Mdm Ho's house before we ended our visit with the usual debreif session=)

Sheng Xian

Orientation Visit 2 :)

Saturday was our second orientation visit and we had a record-breaking volunteer count of 42! :O We did a round of self-introduction and split ourselves into 7 groups (i think) instead of the usual 3 groups as there were so many of us. My group visited Mdm Low. Just an introduction to Mdm Low, she is a very frail elderly who is quite shy. As she has some breathing difficulties (asthma), she usually takes some time before responding to our questions (so I had to make a mental note to pause for a moment before asking her more questions).

When we reached, Mdm Low was sitting on a chair with her back facing us. She kept saying “Uncle!” when we tried asking if we could go in (any idea why? :|), but we just entered anyway. Her flat was quite messy with clothes and things lying around. After settling her down to eat her lunch (fried kway teow, which was left at her door by some kind soul who collected it for her downstairs), we got to cleaning up the place- sweeping and mopping the floor, cleaning the windows and surfaces. We managed to find a super dusty vacuum cleaner, and used it to clean the area around her bed which was collecting a lot of dust and not very hygienic for her sleeping there. We also chanced upon her unusual 'pet' which she kept in a bottle- cockroach!! Not sure how it landed up in the bottle, but yea there it was.

I guess as she was just discharged from hospital last week, she was not really in the mood for talking much, and we only managed to ask her simple questions which she replied mostly either by nodding or shaking her head. However, she made us all laugh when she played with the horn on her bed and gave us a round of high-fives as we left.

We then proceeded to our last stopover at Mdm Ho’s house which was overcrowded with 31 of us! The evidence can be found on our facebook group haha, so do check out our facebook group "T.H.E. Seniors" k. Yup, that’s all for now. Hope to see everyone next visit! :D

My First Visit with T.H.E Seniors!

Hello everyone!

Firstly, I'm really sorry this post is coming in one week late! >< Secondly, I'm here to share abt my experience last Sat morn! (Yes, I'm a freshman! So it was Orientation Visit 1 for all of us freshmen last Sat!)

I was rather apprehensive in the morning when I was heading down to Kallang station where we were supposed to meet. This was cause I was going ALONE for my FIRST visit! Yikes! However, when I got there, I met a few other Year 1 students who came alone too! (haha so much for worrying.) We introduced ourselves and the mood quickly changed from awkwardness to friendliness. (:

When majority of the student volunteers arrived, a grp of us bused down to the place. We were met by many others who were there earlier than us. I was nicely surprised by the crowd I saw as I was kind of expecting only a small group! :/ haha anyway after splitting ourselves into 3 grps, English/Chinese, Hokkien and Cantonese, we headed to the homes of the elderly!!!

I joined the Hokkien grp despite my poor limited knowledge of Hokkien. (Actually, I'm a Teochew-nang, not a Hokkien-lang, but I can understand the dialect! just not speak it ://) Yes, haha the first home we visited belonged to a gentle and sweet-looking ahma called Mdm Tan. From the seniors, I learnt that Mdm Tan's eyesight is poor. Yet, she still welcomed all of us into her home jovially. We quickly set ourselves at work, sweeping/mopping the floor, wiping the window grills/panes, washing her fan, etc. There were 10 of us so the cleaning up of her alr very clean house was done in no time! haha the rest of the time was spent talking to her, or rather, listening to her talk! ^^ Wow she really likes to talk! She kept saying she's vey "hua1 hi4" that there're so many of us to talk to her. She shared abt herself- the no. of children and grandchildren she has... then she shared abt her past- how she had to go all around the kampong area looking for her 6 children after work everyday... THEN she shared abt her pastpast!- how her father worked so hard as a farmer to support the family... woah haha ;D

After that, we went to the home of Mdm Chow Moi! oh my she really speaks (and laugh) very loudly! But that's due to her poor hearing. We didnt clean her house. She insisted we "zeh zeh" and talk to her. Actually, we spent most of the time laughing with her and at her cuteness! :D I was indeed very delighted at the sight of her, even at the age of 90, laughing so heartily.

All in all, I'm glad to have plucked up the courage and joined T.H.E Seniors last Saturday morn visiting the homes of these two elderly ladies! haha yay! I've come to the end of my rather loooong post! Thank you all and I'm looking forward to my next visit! ^^

Regards,

Carina!

Johnny Tan

"eh, Richard just informed me that Mr Tan Po Seng just passed away, maybe he fell in the house" text message from Yi An.

Seriously. I was totally shocked. No, Im still in shock now. Mr Tan.... though kinda old, but he is one of the healthier beneficiaries we know of. Few weeks ago he just sang Japanese song for us, and waved the Singapore flag happily! And now... he is gone.

Remember how Mr Tan used to repeat his stories? He worked in a Japanese Tobacco Coy when he was young, so had to learn Jap language. And he had travelled to China before, with his good friend whom isa teacher. And many more stories.... I used to tell this joke to the freshies whenever we are heading to Mr Tan house " Mr Tan confirm tell you guys these stuff later... I used to work in Japanese company, then I learnt Jap... etc", and it ALWAYS happen as expected.

[Stolen these photos from facebook. The caption was "Mr Tan telling his army stories again"]

I thought ... I could have told the same joke last Saturday during Orientation visit 1.

On a more personal level, I have some interesting experiences with Mr Tan which accumulated throughout the past 2 full years of volunteering at T.H.E. Seniors.

- He once cut holes in his shirt (the tummy area.. like really big to see tummy) so its more cooling. So cute right! haha

- Volunteers were always so "afraid" to clean his house cos of the slippers trail! But we were always there cos we love to talk to him!

[ lifting his leg high up like a young boy!]

- When I was in Year 1, I helped Mr Tan to get an english name! He wanted Michael at first, but found it too common, so he decided on Johnny finally! I thought its just some random conversation we have with the elderly (and ya, given the memory disk space of most beneficiaries, they would probably forget the crap I said in each visit), but he actually remembered it! The following visit when I called him Johnny he responded! And he kinda love that name, and continued using it!

- How he appreciates the gifts we gave to him during festive seasons. like the Christmas hat, the part hat! he kept them with him and hang up high high!

[we found this in mr tan place weeks after the celebration. he got it washed!]

- Being in T.H.E.Seniors for so many years. I always feel kinda guilty towards Mr Tan. During festive seasons, we have to host celebrations in C

hinese as majority as most of the beneficiaries can understand Chinese. Mr Tan, could only speak english, always looking so blur and lonely, and needed help from volunteers (good that our volunteers can speak good english. haha). Though having difficulties joining in the celebrations and fun, Mr Tan ALWAYS turn up for our celebrations, knowing we have put in a lot of effort! Thanks Johnny!

[Rong Sheng helping Mr Tan during Christmas celebration!]

- when Yi An and I went to knock on his door (about a month ago) , he actually said to Yi An "Pardon? Are you speaking English?" . Seriously, I burst out laughing on the spot! HAHA. Mr Tan's command of english language is really powerful. He uses words like "pardon, excuse me" when I only "HAR? SIMI? OI! SIAM LEH!"

I guess volunteers who have visited Mr Tan before must be sad to know he is now no longer there waiting for us anymore. No more Japanese language, no more massive cleaning, no more free English and Japanese tuition.

To be honest, when I just received the news from Yi An, I felt quite useless. He might have fell at home and we werent there to help him. If... only if we were there with him, we could have sent him to the hospital immediately and nth like this gonna happen. For a moment I felt useless in T.H.E.Seniors.. Then I talked to a close friend of mine, kinda figured out that at least... we have at least brought joy and memories to Mr Tan and ourselves.

Yes Johnny! Enjoy your life up there! I guess its cooling there and you dont have to cut holes in your shirt anymore! And probably you will meet some of your army boys there, and you can repeat your army stories for a thousand times! And if one day, I see a black line across the sky, that must be your famous slippers trail! :)

Mr Tan, we will miss you!

Wynne (my name is not Winnie okay! Mr Tan please dont get my name wrong again!)

Visit 2011/08/20

Hi peeps! Long time no see (to oldies like wynne, zhen xiu, hui ting, shi tien etc. Etcs you know who you are!) and a BIG HELLO to those who have no idea who I am. My name's Rong Sheng!! Anyway, it's been a LONG LONG TIME since I've went for visitation and I'm really happy to see all you guys and the elders again!

The first house we went to was Mdm Cheong. .Since we had a lot of "workers" around, we finished up the work pretty quickylt. Anyway, we've only cleaned half the living for her cos she insisted that we can clean the other half for her next session. After that, we just sat down and chatted with her a little.

It was very heartening to see her still so cheerful and really 中气十足 lor~!! As we all know, it can be a jittery job cleaning Mdm Cheong's house cos she has very high QC standards that keep us all on our toes!

Second stop was Mdm Chua's house. We didn't really clean a lot for her house cos she said some other group of people have already helped her done it. Basically we just chatted with her most of the time. We talked a little about the presidential election and just checked with her whether she knows the location and if she received her voting card (or whether that piece of paper is called~~). But she seemed to mix up this election with the MP election cos she keep saying that PAP will win! We tried to explain to her the difference and who are the candidates but in the end she still said: Aiya anyhow vote PAP will still win one....(Us: .....).

Also we checked with her if she knows when to take her meds for her high cholesterol cos she says recently her memory is failing her.

Alrighty!! I know i'm boring all of you with words and no pictures so i shall stop here for this post!! Hope to see you guys next visit!!

Cheers

Rong

Orientation Visit 2011

This is the first visit of this academic year and it is also the orientation visit for newcomers. It is great to see almost 30 volunteers turn up for the visit with a mixture of both seniors and newcomers.

The first elderly my group visited was Mr Chiu. Mr Chiu was initially having lunch but he started to chat with us. He told us that he has the ability to see supernatural beings. In one occasion during a 歌台 (getai), show put up during hungry ghost festivals, he said one of them came to talk to him. They were discussing the show but after the show finished, he was followed back home. Thankfully, he was no longer stalked after he passed by a temple. Ever since that incident, he has not been to getai.

Mr Chiu also sang for us. He took out his file of lyrics and starting singing some songs. Here is the evidence:

Next up was Mdm Ho's house. We talked about the upcoming presidential election and she said that she has already decided who to vote for. She also mentioned that recently a doctor told her she has some kidney problems and recommended her to drink more water. Mdm Ho also showed the newcomers some old photos.

As for me, I hoped everyone have enjoyed themselves and I look forward to seeing the elderly and more newcomers in the next visit.

Ying Cong

Orientation Visit 2011

This is the first visit of this academic year and it is also the orientation visit for newcomers. It is great to see almost 30 volunteers turn up for the visit with a mixture of both seniors and newcomers.

The first elderly my group visited was Mr Chiu. Mr Chiu was initially having lunch but he started to chat with us. He told us that he has the ability to see supernatural beings. In one occasion during a 歌台 (getai), show put up during hungry ghost festivals, he said one of them came to talk to him. They were discussing the show but after the show finished, he was followed back home. Thankfully, he was no longer stalked after he passed by a temple. Ever since that incident, he has not been to getai.

Mr Chiu also sang for us. He took out his file of lyrics and starting singing some songs. Here is the evidence:

Next up was Mdm Ho's house. We talked about the upcoming presidential election and she said that she has already decided who to vote for. She also mentioned that recently a doctor told her she has some kidney problems and recommended her to drink more water. Mdm Ho also showed the newcomers some old photos.

As for me, I hoped everyone have enjoyed themselves and I look forward to seeing the elderly and more newcomers in the next visit.

Ying Cong

Orientation Visit 2011

Hi Everyone!

T.H.E. Seniors Orientation Visit will be held on 20th August and 3rd September. For newcomers, please meet at 10.00am at Kallang MRT station. For seniors, please be at TOUCH at 10.30am.

See ya there!

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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