My First Visit :)

After the visit, I was really glad and thankful that I made the choice in joining this programme because of the fun and meaningful time I had as well as all the lovely members and elderly that I met!

As it was my first visit here, I was initially nervous and apprehensive because of meeting new people and also being unable to speak any dialect properly (I can only understand Hokkien). However, during the visit, communicating with the elderly isn't really that hard as long as you put your heart and soul into it. And I really had a wonderful time chatting with Mdm H. and reminiscing the past with her as well as taking selfies with Mdm C. in order to entertain her! What I learnt from the visit was that we seem to take things for granted, be it family time with our loved ones or being able to have smartphones that can take photos from the front camera. This visit was an eye-opener for me in the sense that it made me appreciate the things around me and to treasure my family more. Talking with Mdm H. about her siblings and husband who had passed away just makes one remember how short life can be and how much we can each achieve when we truly live. Also, the short time we spent with the elderly, doing household chores for them, and just being a listening ear to them were just some of the simple things that helped brighten their day and also the heartwarming moments for me that day.

All in all, I hope that through this programme, the little things we do will help to make the lives of these seniors easier and also happier in the process!

Hello, I am a final year engineering student. I joined T.H.E.S not too long ago in Feb 2014. You might be wondering what on earth is this year 4 student thinking.  I spent most of my first 2 years in NUS buried in books. Studied in the morning, studied at night, studied during the weekdays and studied during the weekends. I never really put much thought into what I was doing except that I wanted to graduate with a decent honors.  In my final year at NUS, I had the luxury of time to think and reflect on the things I have done over the past 4 years, things which made me feel accomplished or perhaps even small little things which are memorable enough for me to remember when I eventually graduate. Sadly there isn’t much to begin with.

I chanced upon this anecdote and I think it will serve as a timely reminder to many. 4 years passes more quickly than you think. #truestory

Because time is indeed the most priceless donation anyone can give. You might think how can an hour or two a week make any difference to an elderly? Like the legendary Steve Jobs once said

"You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path."

I am not saying that you should be expecting something in return when you volunteer. But you never know the difference an hour or two of company could make to someone who treasures time more dearly than we do.

Teerapong

5th April: My 3rd Visit

On the 5th of april, as mentioned elsewhere in the other entries, it was raining in the morning. Thankful that the rain died down a bit towards the later part of the morning!

This was only my 3rd time visiting the elderly of the kallang bahru region, and this time I got to know Mdm. C.S.K.! Contrary to my previous visits, Mdm. C. was proficient only in the Cantonese dialect - while I was more fluent in Hokkien! Thus, I was thankful that Shuang Shuang was had a great command of the Canton dialect, and she managed to have frutiful conversations with Mdm. C..

Mdm. C. turned out to be rather talky and friendly, just like the previous elderlys I have met in my first two visits. Most memorably, she was so enthusiastic to show us her photo albums and she shared very openly about her past and her present. Really grateful that she was open to tell me all these though it was only my first time seeing her. Turns out she has quite a social life! With many programmes lined up throughout the day.

On a sidenote, I also managed to meet Mr. T. whilst he was with some of the other volunteers. Had a very fruitful conversation with him about God, and was glad that he had such a welcoming disposition to hear and converse with me. It was a fruitful time spent indeed!

-Weifeng

Um hi, this is really way overdue and my dearest pubbie Victoria is gonna kill me, but better late than never right? XD

Recently I was asked to reflect about my experience with THES as chairperson and as a volunteer. The first thing that came to my mind was that going for visits every Saturday feels like going back to my second home and meeting my second family. The way the elderly recognise me, greet me cheerfully and tease me, the friendly way in which volunteers banter, the familiar sights, sounds and smells that greet me every Saturday morning, everything about Geylang Bahru just feels so warm and welcoming. Now it feels like my week isn't complete if I don't head to Geylang Bahru for my weekly retreat. I've learnt so much over the past two years from the elderly and volunteers, and I wouldn't swap this experience for anything else.

Over the past two years, I've really learnt a lot about interacting with the elderly, catering activities to the the elderly's abilities and helping them to participate in our activities despite their poorer motor skills. For this week's official visit (I mean 22 March), we had a friendly competition, where the elderly had to decorate a card containing volunteer reflections. When we did this with Mdm C.M., we were initially a little lost with regards to how to communicate with her what we had to do (because for those of you who know me, my Hokkien is just really really bad, and Mdm C.M. can't really hear very clearly sometimes so even Sheng Xian and Wee Chong, who are better Hokkien speakers than I am, had difficulty communicating the instructions to her). Finally, I found an origami tutorial online on how to fold a paper heart, and we folded that and let Mdm C.M. stick it onto the paper. Even though she was hesitant to participate at first, I think she was quite amazed by the origami (we even made a small little paper hat for her, photo in the FB group!), and that we weren't just doing our own stuff with her watching on from the sidelines, which helps to make the activity more meaningful for her. I think this served as a good reminder for all of us that while we may have some special activities or 'missions' that have to be completed during visits, what's more important is that these activities should be a means of facilitating interaction with the elderly as an end, and they shouldn't be the main focus.

Well that kinda sums up what I wanted to share :) I promise not to lag so much in posting in the future! Finally, just a small encouragement to all you volunteers reading this! I know things are getting crazy, with deadlines and CAs piling up, and finals drawing near. But just remember that if you ever need a break from all this craziness, Geylang Bahru and all our elderly will be waiting for you! See you all at our second home!

Love,
Jerry <3 p="">

Rainy but eventful!

Even though it was raining during this week's official visit, that did not stop me from going to visit our elderly today. As Yin Min was busy with her Paint-A-Home commitments, Mei Na and I went ahead to visit Mr L. first. As with my past visit, Mr L. is a very nice and friendly man whom usually does not want us to help him do some basic household chores but would rather have us chat with him. Having said this, I felt a pang of guilt seeing that his floor was quite dirty and insisted on helping him at least sweep the floor, which he eventually obliged. Even after I've finished sweeping, I came to realize that his kitchen area was also quite dirty, but he really didn't want to trouble us, saying that a cleaner will come every Monday to help him with the chores. Even though that is the case, perhaps future volunteers might want to take note on the overall cleanliness of his house because a once-a-week cleaning is certainly not enough.

Afterwards we visited Mdm K. She was just as chatty as the previous times I've met her, but certainly not in a very good mood. As she only recently discharged from hospital due to her digestion problems, she was very moody from being not able to eat whatever she wants. She also did not eat the last couple of days and only managed to consume some porridge on the morning of our visit. Frankly speaking, I was quite astounded by what she'd said, as I probably wouldn't have been able to go without food for more than a day. Because of her not being well, she wasn't able to celebrate her grandson's birthday. In spite of everything, I could see she was glad to be able to see us and appreciated us coming to visit her. She even gave me a hug before I left! =D The best part was when we were just about to leave, she requested us to tell Yin Min that she misses her and wants to see her. As we were making our way back to the meeting point, Yin Min promptly appeared, and Mdm K.'s wish was immediately fulfilled! What a miraculous day indeed.

Andy Koh

5th Mar: Second Visit!

It was my second time visiting the elderly under T.H.E.S. yesterday! I was grouped with Clement and Kok Seng and we were assigned to visit Mr W. followed by Mr T.

We first bought Mr W his breakfast and bread at his request! Had a short chat with him at the door and he updated us on his health condition and visits to the hospital before he had to go and rest. Although it was only for a short while, it felt nice to provide a listening ear and show concern in whatever little ways we could. Also it was a good chance for me to get to know a new elderly uncle under this program haha.

Next, we went to fetch Mr T and brought him down for his usual coffee time at the kopitiam. My ability to speak Hokkien is horrible so most of the time I was only able to listen to him talk but could barely even respond to him :( Nonetheless it was really encouraging and nice being around Mr T because he’s such a cheerful and lively uncle! He was probably in a good mood yesterday and I really enjoyed listening to the stories he shared with us.

One thing I noticed about Mr T is his ability to remember and recognize many of the volunteers with the nicknames he gave for almost everyone of us! And it wasn’t just about remembering their nicknames but he’ll also make references to which home countries some volunteers are from, how many months they have before graduation and where they are working after graduation. I just think it’s really cute that he can remember so many of us because even our own volunteers weren't able to remember and identify everyone whom he talked about hahaha. And it says a lot about how he really appreciates us for what we do, and how much us volunteers mean to him because otherwise I think he wouldn't bother remembering these little details about us.

Another thing that struck me while listening to Mr T is the importance of not overpromising stuff to these elderly. While Mr T was talking about some of the volunteers, he also shared about the things certain volunteer(s) promised him that he was clearly looking forward to. As much as I know it might be instinctive at times or that it’s a good way to make them happy and more hopeful, I just feel that anything we promise (with or w/out much thought) may actually mean much more to the elderly than we think. I also hope that whatever Mr T's looking forward to will really come true so that he won't be kept waiting or left feeling disappointed at the end.

Okay yup that’s about all for today’s visit. As for what I learnt so far from the visits, I think that I really need to brush up on my Hokkien so I will stop feeling so verbally handicapped in future visits haha, and I also look forward to knowing more of the elderly especially the Chinese-speaking ones so I can chat with them about more things instead of just saying “mm”, “ah”, “eh sai”. ^^

- Ying Jun

First visit!

First volunteering trip since I entered Uni. To briefly summarise the visit, I was grouped together with KahSuan and Pong. We brought him out and spent most of the time interacting with him at the coffeeshop. My group mates were able to converse in the dialect so the session could go well.

What this whole experience exposed me to, is the need to be sensitive and gentle in the approach, yet not letting it stiffen the atmosphere- which to me is a skill requiring careful threading between boundaries.

But on overall, it is def great to provide an Elderly some company on a sat morning, albeit the elderly and us being in different stages of life.