my friends, my loves

Joleen, Kiah Yeen and I first went to visit Mdm T as our allocated elderlies werent at home/busy. The special part is that i havent visited mdm T in like maybe a year? cos im canto-speaking and i cant really communicate with her. but the thing is i missed her quite a bit and last saturday, i had just requested KS to put my in the group that visit her when possible. although i wasnt allocated due to lack of manpower, i still ended up there anw! :P

when we reached, we did some v basic chores like sweeping and mopping. i was very impressed when she mentioned that she did not clean the floor as she knew we would drop by. cos, the floor is very clean! haha i dont vacuum my floor for 2 days i start to feel the dirt etc alr. so it was quite unbelievable. later on another group came and so we sat down around her to talk for a bit. 

although i couldnt contribute much, i really liked her. i rmbr the first visit i had in september 2012, i visited her too! she is such a cute character awwww. the way she smiles, the chuckle, the little shyness. the way she speaks somehow has a calming effect on me, slowing down everything and i feel, safe. just glad to be in the room at that moment, knowing that she really wants the best for us all. i did notice that her energy level is not as high as previously. btw, im working on my hokkien so slowly but surely i'd do better next time (: thanks all for bearing with my questions about the dialect hehe (:

next up was mdm W. her arrowheads were growing well! okay not that well, but quite fast already i guess. i saw the start when it was just a "fruit" submerged in water, to now when the shoots are all well developed. mdm W says that these two years her arrowheads had not grown too prettily :/

last week another group came to celebrate her bday and so i asked her about it, she also talked abt how her 4 gen family of 14 people went to a restaurant near bras besah for her bday dinner last sunday! so haps right haha. it must have been a joyous occasion (: she talked about food a lot, as usual, and that she is happy just that it is her son's treat. she just eat whatever is served and take whatever angbao is given to her hahha. i'm especially touched when i see the spark the true cheeky smile in her eyes when she talks about it. for then i know it is heartfelt, it is very real, very honest. my heart just melts when i see that in our lovely elderlies eyes.

so maybe some of us are more shy, some of us talk very loudly as though we have no fear, but maybe we all have our insecurities and differences. but just as with other friends, i encourage you to look into their eyes when you talk. i think eyes dont lie. and when there is a connection, you may come to realise that we arent that different after all. for that moment, we share a brief period as one entity when we know that we are just there for one other. we matter to one another.

perhaps this is the connection that keeps people going, that draws some people back to where we meet every saturday (:

also, KS mentioned that she wanted me to share with everyone why i come back after graduation, and clement said during debrief that he thinks i could enjoy my weekend rather than be here. Actually, im no saint at all. im human like everyone else, and the reason im here is exactly that - to enjoy myself. i really like this place because i have friends here, both young and old. the young ones who are really inspiring in their very own way, and great company to have. the old ones, who have grown to be nth other than just my friends. we have really interesting characters, but at the end of the day we come here to serve a common purpose, to maximise the number of smiley faces there is in kallang. that simple, that beautiful. 

where else can i find the classic example i raise, that is i find it very interesting to see youngsters near 20 years of age gathering around in a void deck and talking about a few old people, how their lives are. where else can i see a few young chaps talking to uncle and auntie about which news broadcaster is prettier? 

and since the nagging had already gone on for so long, lemme just post a random point to think about. when you come on saturdays, dont think they are beneficiaries, dont think you are a volunteer. just treat it as your friends, and you have come by to talk cock sing song catch up about life. that is exactly how i feel and that is exactly the perspective i wish you could explore on your own. i believe you would like that feeling.

full time engineer,

Kai Him.