5th Dec Visit - Mr. O and (impromptuly) Mdm. C!

Hi guys, thanks for reading this! It's been quite a while since I blogged as well haha. Anyway, on 5th Dec, after the end of my exams for the semester, I popped by to visit our seniors as per usual.

Lynn and I were assigned to visit Mr. O, and after heading up to his home - we realized he was not at home. It was an interesting moment, as it was instinctively apparent that he was - since his doors were closed and no slippers were outside his door. Sometimes, after extended periods of interaction with someone, you'll be rather in-tune with his/her living habits. Instead, we headed downstairs to find him. After that effort turned out to be futile, we went to the Seniors Activity Centre at the void deck. It was an impressive sight, as many volunteers were present to provide servicing to wheelchairs for the elderlies living in the vicinity. There were rows of wheelchairs lined up along the corridor in front of the centre, with the volunteers spread out across the corridor - hard-at-work oiling and doing repairing work. Lynn and I headed in to accompany mdm. C as she waited for her wheelchair to be done.

It has indeed been a while since I saw mdm. C, and for a short moment, it seemed to me that she has lost a fair bit of weight. Nonetheless, she remained chatty and we kept up with efforts of other volunteers in polishing her English vocabulary - teaching her basic words such as "table" and "chair". It was quite a privilege to sit and interact with mdm. C, whilst chatting up the other elderlies who were waiting as well. Subsequently, it was good that Charmaine, Vigilia and Jonathan came by, as mr. O was back home by then. After bidding farewell, Lynn and I headed up to visit mr. O.

Turns-out, it was a rather heartening opportunity for me personally. Previously, mr. O used to frequent his old haunt of Toa Payoh in his free-time. However, after an operation months ago, he has stopped venturing beyond the Geylang Bahru due to some latent fears/concerns of falling. It was great to know that he had begun finding the confidence and security to head back  to Toa Payoh, enjoying his favorite dishes and 'surveying' the grounds.

In conclusion, it was a glad and meaningful experience (as usual!), and it is great to see the small little triumphs and breakthroughs attained by both mdm. C and mr. O. Changes do not always have to be exceptionally grandiose to be impressive and noteworthy. Thankful that both of them have allowed the other volunteers and I to witness these small steps of growth in their lives!

5th Dec 2015, Visit to Mr and Mrs L

Hey guys, this is my very first time writing on this blog. Hopefully, there will be more entries to come in the future hahaha.

During last Saturday’s visit, Wee Chong, Hui Jia and I visited Mr and Mrs L. This was my first time visiting them and I was very excited as it had been quite some time since my last visit. Mrs L was very welcoming as we stepped into the house. Mr L was lying down on the bed watching tv. In my mind, I was wondering whether we would be a “hindrance” as our presence will definitely divert Mr L’s attention away from the show he was watching.

However, my fears were soon allayed as Mr L sat up on his bed and started chatting with us. He was very passionate in sharing with us his getai stories, the stars he used to manage when he was still working in the getai industry. Mrs L will occasionally rebuke his comments in a very gentle manner, by telling us that Mr L knows the stars but the stars do not know him. This went on back and forth for quite some time.

Upon seeing the beautiful wedding photo on the cupboard, Hui Jia began to ask them about their love life. Mrs L was rather shy to share such stories. On the contrary, Mr L was very cheeky and rather open about it. He would constantly tease Mrs L by singing a few lines, which are directed towards her. Mrs L being bashful in nature, kept on “um chio.” It was amusing and endearing to watch this love affair unfolding right in front of us hahaha.

Mrs L’s love for Mr L is unconditional. From our interaction with both of them, we can tell that Mrs L is a silent worker and a fighter. She takes very good care of Mr L and is willing to go the extra mile for him, without any complaint. Whenever Mrs L goes to work on the weekdays, she will bring Mr L to a nursing home. After her work, she will fetch Mr L home from the nursing home.

Due to the health conditions of Mr L, he has very strict diet restrictions. For the past weeks, Mrs L has been going around Singapore looking for briyani rice so that she can cook for Mr L, as it is healthier and has lower sugar content. She told us that she had been chased away countless of times as she does not know how to converse in English or Malay with the stallholders. Touched by her love for Mr L, the three of us requested for a small sample of the briyani rice so that we can help her find it.

It is very heartwarming to see the unwavering love between Mr and Mrs L. I really admire Mrs L’s resilience in taking great care of Mr L. It is definitely not an easy task, given her age. As cliché as it may sound, real love, at all times, is indeed truly selfless.

-Defa  :)

My visit on 3 October 2015

Hi guys! This is my 3rd session on 3 October, along with Vernon and Vina, we made two house visit to Mr and Mrs L as well as Mdm C. We visited Mr and Mrs L first and we were shocked when we saw Mrs L holding a plastic bag full of medicine. She explained that as they are old and full of different illness, they need to eat medicine to control their it. My initial thought was how does they remember which medicine they need to eat since most medicine requires different dosage and perhaps at different timing. I was also worried how they are able to afford so many medicine which I believe will be expensive. Fortunately, it seems that the government provides a sizeable amount of subsidies which helped them a lot. We talked to them about their health, medicine, health and about their past (like how they met each other and get married!). Mr L is wheelchair bounded and so Mrs L who is already near 70 years old still need to travel very far to work in order to support the family as well as her much older mother at around 90 years old. I admired her strength and determination!

After that, we visited Mdm C. She is near 90 years old but her mind is still pretty alert. Moreover, not only can she speak Dialect, she can also spend fluent Chinese and is currently learning basic English words from the volunteers. Mdm C now understands a few english words and is keen to learn more, this really shows the spirit of Lifelong Learning! She have difficulties walking and thus sit in a wheelchair. However, she told us that she will do basic exercise daily! She will do both hand and leg exercise in the morning so as to keep fit. From our conversation, I realised that she is elated to have people come by, talk to her or bring her around the nearby market and learning new English words. I think other than just basic necessity, people also requires companionship in order to live happily.

I believe we can all learn from the spirit shown by them. Personally, I learnt a lot from their stories and experiences they shared with me.

Thank you for reading.

- kevin

My second visit on 3/10/15

Hey guys! It's my first blog post here and I'm really thankful for this second round of wonderful visiting experience with both Vernon and Kevin. This time round, I'm glad to have made two visits in the morning, namely to Mr and Mrs Lim, as well as Mdm C places. Our first visit was to Mr and Mrs Lim's house, and to be honest, i was pretty worried as I was still new to this and was afraid that I'll have difficulty communicating with both Mr and Mrs L. However, Mrs L's gesture proved otherwise as she greeted us warmly upon our arrival! I was taken aback when I saw the big bag of medications that Mrs L had on her lap as she searched through the packets inside. The first thought that came to my mind was to think how arduous it would be for her to wake up to dosage and dosage of pills every single day..Mr and Mrs L then had us seated down and naturally the conversation started with the types of medication that she's taking. Mrs L shared how she have realised the importance of diet and reminded us to eat healthy as and when possible so that we won't face the same health issues in the future. As we went on to talk about food, Mr L got really interested and recommended us some of the good food around the estate, and what I found really cute was how Mr L repeatedly emphasised on the need to put vinegar when eating Lor Mee!!! We could tell Mr L really loves eating many of the local delights. However, it's pretty sad to see how he has to cut down on most of his food choices intake as he has a strict diet to follow due to his health condition. Mrs L have it all well taken care of as she shared with us how she usually take care of Mr L's meals everyday. She puts in time to prepare home cooked meals when time allows, just so Mr L gets the adequate amount of nutrients and vitamins. Seeing how much Mrs L has put all her love for Mr L into actions really warms my heart as I could see the amount of sacrifices that she has made just to make sure Mr L is in good hands, based solely on the one hour that we were with them. I guess this is what love has no boundaries really means. The fact being able to be someone you love through sickness and health, and doing anything for him wholeheartedly and expecting nothing in return.

After bidding goodbye to both Mr and Mrs L, we went on to our next visit to Mdm C's place. We helped ourselves into the house as Mdm C had difficulty moving around the house. Mdm C is another friendly lady as she immediately offered us seats right after we went in. Vernon then went on to ask if there's anything he could help her do and Mdm C was more than glad as she kindly accepted his offer. As Kevin and I sat down to talk to her, we learned how strong and independent Mdm C is as she shared stories of her past with us. Age may be catching up with her but Mdm C's great positivity and mental resilience has got to be one of the few that I've seen thus far. Despite all setbacks, Mdm C still finds joy in everything she does in her life, even simple pleasures such as taking a walk in her vicinity and visiting the morning markets in the weekend mornings. Hearing how Mdm C faces everyday positively got me thinking how we've greatly neglected some of the simplest pleasures in life and also how life can be easily fulfilling if we face everyday with an open heart and start cherishing what is given to us. Happy people wake up feeling grateful :) That's all I have for this week! Thank you for reading.

Cheers,
Vina

Visit to Mr and Mrs L and Mdm C!

      Hi everyone, it's been a long time since I last posted here! This week, along with Vina and Kevin, we visited Mr and Mrs L. We don't usually get to see Mrs L at home because she needs to work on saturdays occasionally, but this week she was at home. My first question for Mrs L was whether she wanted us to help her with her housework. I know that Mrs L is the main caregiver in the household due to Mr L's conditions, and she usually does the housework after she returned from work, so I thought it could be a good break for her if we do the housework for her instead on Saturdays. However, her response surprised me because she insisted that she can do the housework herself. So we sat down and began talking to her and Mr L. Through our conversations with Mrs L, I noticed that Mrs L is someone who have her complaints and I can sense the fatigue in their tone when she talks about her daily life. But despite all these, she told us that she wants to continue working although she is reaching the retirement age because she will feel very uneasy if she stops being active.

      When the going gets tough, the easy response for a lot of people, especially people of our generation (who grew up in an era where ideas like "You Only Live Once" and the pursue for "freedom", "choices" are overly romanticised at times) is to run away or blame someone else for our problems. We sometimes start thinking that life is the one that lets you down. Not for Mrs L. Maybe at times she will feel tired and weighed down by unexpected happenings or circumstances but the point is, she never stops facing them. I can almost hear Mrs L's mental attitude telling life to "Just Bring It!". And that is something we all can learn from Mrs L.

      After visiting Mr and Mrs L, we then moved on to visit Mdm C. Mdm C is another strong lady whom we can learn a lot from. For those of you who don't know, she was a Malaysian and due to some family issues, she packed her bag and took a train to Singapore alone. She was only around 20 years old at that time. She shared with us that she went back 12 years later to visit her family. But she returned not with the intention to go back to the comforts of her family, but purely out of concern and see if her family was doing well. She later came back to Singapore and carried on with her life here. Till today, even though Mdm C is wheelchair-bound, she never stops learning, and she is learning the English language from Kai Him, who appeared halfway through the visit to give Mdm C some fruits that he bought and also to give her a mini pop-quiz on English. For the record, Mdm C knows how to pronounce English words like "Handsome", "pretty", "watermelon" and alot more.

     After the visit, I also visited Mdm H at the nursing home. She is doing fine at the nursing home and still being the boss that she has always been despite being 90 years old this year. It's evident from the way she teased the nurses at the nursing home by asking random questions in English, One example would be how she hurled a random question "Saturday never go out ah?" to a young nurse who was just passing by. All these strong elderly ladies never fail to amaze me.

      As volunteers, we get to see a lot of people in need of help. The knee jerk reactions that people tend to have nowadays is to help them more with their housework; give out more welfare items; give more medical subsidies; give more money to these people; see the doctor, get more medicine and the list goes on and on. But I urge you to stop for a while and think about this, do they really need all these? Sometimes we forgot that maybe after all what a person really needs is just emotional support and most importantly, our dignity and sense of self-worth.

      A human (regardless of whether you are male/female/young/old/with physical or mental disability/poor/rich) is stronger than you think. And that applies to every single one of us too. No matter what you're going through now at work or in school, just remember to keep going :) Jia you everyone for the busy period ahead :)

-Vernon

nokia 6100

Uncle O tried to ask us if we could help to set his 6100 to chinese. This was because he was afraid that if he was in hospital, someone might lay their eyes and hands on his samsung smart phone while he was asleep. But eventually we did not change for him as that required the transfer of sim card etc that might not be easy to execute on his own for that matter.

That was the state of his mind at the moment. A few weeks after I last visited him, he looked notably more restless, tired today. His body had taken a toll no thanks to the surgery, treatment, and probably the most significantly - numerous blood samples nurses had to take from him daily. But i was glad that amongst all this he was still able to converse with us pretty well, energetic enough to chat and able to take care of himself on his own. He mentioned that he was able to eat well and had porridge plus chee cheong fun x2 this morning! it certainly was a bright spot out of this uncomfortable period for him.

Here's wishing him a speedy recovery!


kai him.

香港仔 times 500

婆婆!

香港仔!

Mdm L's sharp ears (@ 84!)enables her to have voice differentiation ability. 

I am happy not because i am remembered but that this proves that with time and heart, one is able to make a small little difference to someone else's life, and be a part of it. 

As my group and I greeted her from outside the gate, Mdm L was standing at her basin, taking her own time to wash up as she always does on her saturday routines. I can hear the joy in her voice. 

Isnt it beautiful to meet someone like this on a saturday morning? Many times we go to work like a zombie, go to LTs with a sian face. It always lights my day up when I meet a friend, or just any other human being, and detect a smile on their face knowing that they appreciate your presence. just that alone. This, i ought to improve on myself, to greet everyone with a wide smile :D

Rong Shan, Jocelyn and I began to start working on the chores for the day. Changing the bedsheets, washing bottles and cups, boiling water, sweeping and mopping the floor, cleaning the dusty fan. As usual, she shouted 香港仔! ........ 香港仔!......... 香港仔!..........香港仔!.......x 500, once whenever she wanted something haha.

It wasnt that difficult a task for able-bodied young men and women like us, but it wasnt that effortless either. But it felt rather happy to sweat a little bit doing some work for her!

Of course, how can a visit to her place be complete without free breakfast?? I wasnt very hungry, nor too interested in her beehoon/ lontong/ fried snacks. So the girls devoured those up. Mdm L repeated asked me to eat, to have a drink, of which I only took half a stick of you tiao and rejected the rest, citing my full breakfast as a reason (real reason btw). But she kept on asking again! Lucky the girls were good eaters today when wei feng wasnt in the house for this specialised task lol.

I am always happy to team up with newer volunteers on such visits. It reminds me of the first few sessions that i came for, the big change it had on my year 4 life then, and the subsequent 2-3 more years thus far. As i always recall and share with fellow buddies, the positive energy, joy, and moments shared on such sessions will always be remembered and impactful for the rest of my life. I am definitely not as nice as the seniors who guided me when i was new, but i hope i show the newer volunteers, in my own little ways that we can be friends with the elderly, that they are not the beneficieries that many thought they were at the beginning. I hope that with the jokes that i play on the elderly, they can start feeling more at ease and be open to engage them in conversations they have never thought they could and not just ask very politically correct questions. I hope that the tiny little bonds we have built with the elderly will be shown and felt in our gestures and mannerisms and interactions and perhaps one day inspire someone else to contribute to this lovely cause that most of us truly believe in. 

Most of all, I certainly hope that our diminishing (??) family can expand and continue to involve as many passionate students as possible.

Cheers,

香港仔 kai him 

03 10 2015 visit to Mr T

This post is the 3rd post of me writing about Mr T. To think about it, I have indeed visited Mr T for several times over the past 1 year.

Today, it was Vigilia and I visiting him and Gary joined us towards the end of the visit. Just like usual, we ran some errands for him and brought him down to the nearby coffee shop for his usual cup of buttered coffee.

However, he didn't seem to be feeling well today and was in a rather negative mood. He complained of something like a ear block that caused him to not hear well for the past 2 weeks and he wasn't feel well in his stomach too.

He was feeling rather sad and was indeed moody. We tried to persuade him to go visit the doctor, but he claimed that he did not want to trouble us too much and insisted that he does not want to seek medical attention.

However, when it comes to health-related affairs regarding others, he seemed to be rather concerned.  He will instead persuade others to go seek medical attention and recuperate appropriately. An example was he was talking about an elderly lady in her 60s who visits him every Monday was not feeling well and had to go for an eye check. When he was talking about that elderly lady, I can tell that he seemed rather concerned about the well-being of she. In-fact he even encouraged that elderly lady to go visit the doctor to get her eyes checked instead of visiting him on Monday.

From that, it proved that Mr T was indeed a person who put others ahead of himself and that is a rather positive attitude we can learn from him.

-Chew Jun Kai Joel

A visit to Mdm W on 3 Oct 15

Today's my second time visiting Mdm W. Unlike my first time visiting her, this time it's a smaller group (Just Wei Feng and I). It also meant that we would have to do the speaking instead of just being the listeners.

Mdm W is a cantonese-only speaking elderly and it is a bit of a challenge to me and Wei Feng. I am able to understand canto but not as good when it comes to speaking. I need that 0.5 second to process my thoughts before I speak. However, it got better after I spoke for a while; although some pronunciation is not so zhun. On a side note to Wei Feng, you may visit Mdm W more to pick up Canto. haha.

Mdm W is 88 years old this year and going strong. She is an independent person who takes care of herself and the up keeping of her house. Speaking to her was casual and easy. She is a person who expresses positivity and quickly builds rapport with students who visit her. To the rest of us who can't speak Canto, fret not, do visit her and try to speak to her in simple mandarin and you can slowly learn some Canto too.

Recently due to the haze, it has cut down the time Mdm W goes out to the street. She limits her travelling to buying groceries and collecting her packed lunch at the void deck. Hopefully the haze situation turns for the better for her and other elderlies to spend more time at the neighbourhood parks.

Good to see that Mdm W is doing well. Many thanks to her, our PG!

Cheers,
Jonathan Chew

My visit on 5 September

5 September 2015, another Saturday that I had to pull myself off my bed early in the morning to go for T.H.E.S regular house visit. I sounded unwillingly here, but given that I had to commute between Bedok and Kent Ridge every day, Saturday morning is such a good opportunity for me to laze on my bed or grab a few hours of sleep. Yet, I still pull myself off my bed, for I knew that I would be doing something good, and also learn things in the visit.

Enough with my futile attempt to sound noble. Unfortunately, I was late for the visit and when I reached Mdm C's house, whom I was allocated to that day, the volunteers (Clara, Valerie and Joselyn, I hope I got their names right) had done most of the household chores. As they had not mopped the floor, I volunteered to mop the floor for Mdm C while they (and also me after finished mopping the floor) engaged with Mdm C.

As Mdm C is a Cantonese senior, her Mandarin is tinged with Cantonese accent. In fact, sometimes she pronounced some of the Chinese words in Cantonese. It is interesting as it allowed me, someone who is still struggling to learn dialects, to pick up some Cantonese words. One thing I find commendable about her was her desire to learn Chinese and in fact, attempt to pronounce the words correctly. She told us that to learn a language, we just need to be daring to speak the language despite knowing that it may be wrong and others may laugh at the mispronunciation. It put me to shame as even though I was in T.H.E.S for quite some time, I still find it difficult to speak to the elderly in dialect (at least for now, I can understand simple Hokkien and Cantonese). It is something that I need to improve on and also one of the reasons that spur me to come for regular visits every week. if possible.      

As an active senior citizen, Mdm C also shared with us the different activities that she engaged in every day, such as the outings which were organized by organizations such as Lion Befrienders and community clubs. She enthusiastically took out her photo album and explained to us about these events. She also directed our attention to various mementos that were displayed around her house, such as the lantern that she made recently in an event and the photo frame that was made during T.H.E.S National day mini celebration.

During the conversation, she also mentioned about the senior volunteers who used to visit her in the past. Unfortunately, most of them were unable to visit her anymore as they had graduated and were working. However, I found it amazing that they have such a close connection with her, as she still remembers their names and showed us pictures of them making flower together using plastic bags. She also asked about this particular senior volunteer, who still come for regular visit frequently despite the fact that he has already entered the workforce. It is admirable for him to do as, especially when his workplace was very far away from his house (so much for me lamenting about going to school every day). Speaking about him, he is perhaps like a role model for me as there is so much to learn from him (partly because he is older than anyone of us :P). He engages with the elderly well and in fact, many of the elderly asked whether he is around. There was this one occasion whereby he brought a Samsui Hello Kitty for one of the elderlies, as she was a Samsui woman in the past. His kindness and passion is what I can learn from. Furthermore, talking to him also makes me reflect myself as a person. (There are many volunteers who are also passionate, just mentioning him because it happens that he was so popular this week as two elderlies were asking me if he was around.)    

These are perhaps the reasons that makes me looking forward to come for regular visits every week. Having conversations with the elderly is not only enriching, it is also relaxing and homely, which diverges my attention from my stressful schoolwork. Besides the seniors, the volunteers in T.H.E.S are also inspiring and encouraging :).

- Yen Sin -

Not a stranger

Hi everyone!

It's been long since I posted here (in fact I think that it's been long since anyone posted here hahaha) but it's okay coz I'm sure that there'll be more posts coming up soon!

For last week's visit (29/08/15), I was assigned to visit Mdm L with Weifeng but coz she only wanted us to visit her at 11am, we decided to visit Mdm C first! Usually we only visit Mdm C at 11.30am as her friend will bring her down for breakfast but that day she didn't felt like going down so we visited her at 10.30am instead. When we reached Mdm C's house, we helped her to change her bed sheet and the gas stove aluminium thingy... I don't know what is it called... After that we just sat down to talk to to her for awhile before leaving coz we were really running late and had to leave for Mdm L's house already (but Weechong and Bianche stayed to continue chatting with her)!! As usual, before we leave, Mdm C told us "有空来看我" ......

After that we quickly rushed over to Mdm L house and she was so anxious when we reached coz we only reach at 11.20am and she had to go down to wait for her church bus at 12 noon so she was very anxious and kept rushing us to do things throughout the whole visit HAHAHA... On the other hand, Weifeng and I kept telling her not to worry and we would be able to finish everything on time and bring her down on time one!! In the end we really managed to finish everything on time and we even had some time to eat with her!!

I always feel abit scared and intimidated when I visit Mdm L coz I'm the type that likes to do things slowly, quietly and take my own sweet time while Mdm L on the hand likes to keep talking and instructing us to do things and "supervising" us HAHAHA but weirdly, I like this feeling becoz this means that the elderly treat us like family and is not 客气 towards us at all! This is so much better than when the elderly is paiseh and don't dare to ask us to help them with things that they might need help with. This is the kind of 家人 feeling that I like in T.H.E.S! It's the feeling that we are no stranger to the elderly, we are the people that the elderly trust in helping them with doing things!

T.H.E.S is truly my second home.

On a side note, I really encourage all of you to read the old posts coz some are really interesting and inspiring. This was one that I found in an old post from an old volunteer:
"I guess everything can change in this world, but what remains are the memories, the warmth and the smiles.
It's great to see new volunteers come in as every year passes. 
A big thanks to all volunteers for always taking time to walk the road less travelled by and contribute to this common cause that we love."

With love,
Charmaineeeee

Thank You

Hello everyone! Isaac here! I guess some of you guys might not know me since I'm not from NUS. Or maybe I'm better known as Victoria's friend. Anyhow, I think this post is long overdue, sorry for the delay.

So 2 weeks ago, Victoria and I visited MDM C.Y.L. We brought her out to the nearby clinic for just a regular check-up. I was a little excited because that was a first time for me, but I could see she was almost just as excited as me just to go out. Due to her immobility, I got the chance to manoeuvre a wheelchair, which is not as easy as I thought.

Personally, I never really had any grandparents growing up. Being given this opportunity allows me to bond with the older generation, even though it might only be once every other weekend or so. So I'd like to take this post to thank all you guys for allowing me to join in for the past few months. It has been a fun and interesting experience making new friends, both young and younger.

-Isaac

Last Saturday Isaac and I were assigned to visit Mdm C.Y.L. We brought her to the nearby clinic for a routine check up. Although it was only a short trip out of the house, her excitement was palpable.

   

To me, home is the safe harbour one returns to after a long day outside. It is the place where dreams are built. But in Mdm C’s case, due to her immobility, home is the four walls that confine her. And only the weekends provide some respite from this confinement.

That being said, Mdm C is not socially isolated. She still has a clear mind and is very well informed about current affairs. This is something I’ve noticed in the elderly during my volunteering experiences. While many of them may be lacking in physical health, they always have a wealth of knowledge that they are ever so willing to share. 

-Victoria

Tribute to you

As i sat down and took a back seat today, i saw what I've not seen for a long time. Mdm H was happily chatting with Jonathan, face gleaming, smiles aplenty. Fewer scoldings today, but more gentle and motherly. She told him about her stories, asked about him and engaged in a good chat. He mopped the floor and did a great job, while i sat down shaking leg. The things that i usually do, someone else is doing now, and doing a great job.

That's the beauty of our organisation. one batch after another, one people after another, we devote our minutes and hours to a cause we believe in. We group together to talk about our elderly, but to be honest the reason why i am still active after nearly 2.5 years here is because of the people.

At the beginning, that's the main inspiration for me. The energy that the young ones around me had, and that that I inevitably caught from them as well. the friendships that we have built with one another to serve as an extra motivation for the work we do. The people with whom we clean windows, watch tv, speak broken hokkien and tackle awkward silences. It makes a big difference to the mood and the "feel".

I have been around long enough to have seen batch to batch to batch, and i do think a lot about how it felt last time. the different group of people brought about a different culture, different dynamics, different bonds forged thus different feelings. sometimes i miss seeing certain people, all the fun we had visiting together. today i wanna pay tribute to the interesting personalities i have met over this few years.


she was my greatest source of inspiration, i think i have never met anyone as nice and sincere as her, yet engaging and wanting to make a real difference. the way she talks to the students and elderly alike, the way she tries to encourage people to think about issues from different perspectives. and never left anyone out, always trying to engage the lonely sheep and lost souls.

i vividly recall how these 3 vocal noisy ladies were the ones who made fun of my seniority (and thus maturity okay) non stop, since probably the first few times. not that i mind it at all, it was great fun. having this group of noisy young energetic people around me on weekends was such a stark contrast to the mundane engineering life i had to live for most of the time. real human touch. of cos there are a few others who joined in the fun.

there's also a he who is so different when she is around, but together they always seem sweet and fun and happy to see us and the elderly.

a very noisy her with so many things to say. but truly a kind hearted soul, almost impossible today. i recall how she was struggling with a certain decision, but im glad she made the choice hers. making a difference to many lives around.

he who impressed me much, as he looked like someone who just plays around but i grew to hear his views and thoughts that turned out to be pretty mature. another side to someone was witnessed, showing that sometimes we cant judge too quickly at all.

someone really funny and is an auntie, also someone who puts in heart and treats others well. somehow i could talk to her easily from the start. she was a good opponent and we have had many interesting discussions since.

and the best friend i have made here. at the start by chance, and later on not so much so. really thankful to have had her with me on my many visits, having lots of fun in our interaction both personally and with the elderly. saturdays never felt happier, our pairing always felt right then, and i still hope and look fwd to someday when i can go visiting with my best partner again.

he whom i really felt his sincerity right from the first time we met, even though he can be full of nonsense as well. but perhaps no one more than me can testify that how much a joker looks on the outside may not reflect how real he truly is deep inside.


many many more really. can't name you all, but would like to once again say thank you  to have made the elderlies' days, and definitely many of my saturdays too. thanks for the effort, thanks for the inspiration, thanks for the memories (: whilst new faces stroll in by the weeks/years and the old ones leave one by one, i still hope, at the back of my mind, to turn the clock back once in a while.


regards,
kai him

A day with Mdm H on 28 Mar '15

Hello all, this is Jonathan Chew making the first post in T.H.E.seniors blog. On 28 Mar '15, I visited mdm H together with Kai Him. I have just come on board T.H.E.seniors since last Dec and it was my first visit to mdm H.

Upon entering her house, mdm H was greeted by a familiar friend, Kai Him, and a new friend, Jonathan. Mdm H then replied in her usual Canto conversation with Kai Him. However, interestingly, when she greeted me, she spoke in Teo Chew and I was rather surprised that she knew I’m Teo Chew. Probably, it’s just coincidence, haha.

We sat down and started chatting. Mdm H shared that she is able to converse in a number of languages, i.e. Mandarin, Hokkien, Teo Chew, Cantonese, Malay, and some English. She began switching from one language to another and I thought she’s rather impressive. Mdm H then continued speaking of her family, her husband, daughter, and grandchildren. She had special mention of her doctor grandson whom she is proud of. However, from her sharing, I could hear a grandma longing for her grandson, who is in his 40’s, to settle down. Perhaps, it is the wish of all parents and grandparents to see their child succeed with a family of their own.

Mdm H, at a senior age of about 90, has some difficulty on moving around and appreciates volunteers helping her on simple cleaning of her house. We could see smiles on her face while she watched us swept and mopped the floor. She even offered us to drinks and lunch to show her appreciation. I believe these small gestures of ours do cheer them up and let them know that there’s a group of students who cares and loves them.

I have enjoyed all my visits thus far and am looking forward to meeting and chitchatting with more elderlies!

- Jonathan Chew

our neighbourhood celebrity mdm w

It has been quite a long while since i blogged! and also a long while since we had active posting on this blog. For me, i really like this blog because one, it gives me a chance to think, share, reflect when im posting, and two it is pretty awesome most of the time reading how others feel about our visits. Sometimes we can find gems and common consensus and feelings amongst these words of each others'.

It has been 2/3 weeks so i can't really rmbr what we did during the visit, but i'd just share something more general then!

One of my favourite people is Mdm W, because she is not the emo naggy angsty kind of elderly hahaha. i mean yeah, she sure is picky and sometimes biased and strong headed, but she always behaves very cool and all, like a friend really. That week, she showed us the gifts that the SG50 ppl gave her! she was very happy and proud of it as always, as she told us about the various goodies she had gotten! her friend was in that time having a chat with her, so sometimes we just sat and watch them converse. it is always very amusing to see old people chat, especially with mdm w. the way she jokes and scolds ppl/ general ranting is quite funny. 死人头is my fav! lol. so she also told us about the video that she filmed! if you have not seen it yet, please check it out on youtube, the link is on our fb page.

i always cant help but smile when mdm w smiles. laughing at us sometimes, how childish we are, or the ridiculous things we say. sometimes she'd see that we are so cute and also laugh at (/with?) us. I think most of the time the non-canto speakers have a hard time at her place because they dont quite understand, but if you have not visited mdm w often do send in a request! i can be your translator and then maybe you'd start to understand why i enjoy going to her house so much (:


cheers, kai him.

Birthdayyy!!

Hi everyone, I'm here to blog again :) Btw I posted this on the wrong blog on Sunday so it's written from Sunday's point of view!

Yesterday, my group which consisted of Meina, Janice and I, was supposed to visit Mdm W and Mdm C.

However, we realised that there were actually secondary school Girls Brigade students in Mdm W house doing some spring cleaning for her so we decided that we shall just drop by to tell her that we will not visit her for this week and let her spend more time with the students. When we reached her house, we saw her sitting there like a queen and "kiao ka" some more and supervising the young and energetic girls while they do their chores LOL. As Janice was the only one who could speak abit of Canto, she was the one talking to Mdm W. So she informed Mdm W that we will not be visiting her. So Mdm W just kept waving bye to us while smiling happily (like she very 沉醉 in being a queen like that hahaha) Then Janice wanted to tell that we saw her photo at the MRT station there but she like not interested at all HAHAHA WHILE CONTINUING TO WAVE GOODBYE TO US (LIKE TELLING US TO FASTER GO LIKE THAT) HAHAHAHA Damn funny and I don't think anyone of us could forget that scene LOL.

Since we were not visiting Mdm W, we were then assigned to visit Mdm L to celebrate her belated birthday for her, along with the group that was assigned to visit her! So we went to buy a cake and quickly went up to Mdm L's house! When we reached her house, she happily showed us 3 photos that her daughter sent her from overseas as it was her birthday! She seem to be really happy and just nice since she mentioned her birthday, we told her that we had actually bought a cake to celebrate her birthday with her and she was really touched and grateful that we actually remembered her birthday and even bought her a cake to celebrate with her :')

Happiness :') May all your wishes come true!!

Selfieeee~

In the end we had to leave for Mdm C's house already so Meina and I walked across the street while happily discussing about Mdm L's enthusiastic behaviour and also kept looking at the photos and selfies we took and laughing at all the unglams hahaha (Janice left early coz she had something on so we went on to visit Mdm C!)

When we reached Mdm C's house, I happily called out to her before entering her house! Oh my, I miss her so muchhhhh~ When she saw us, she politely asked us if we could help her to change her bedsheet so we gladly did. 

Achievement unlocked sia! She remembers my name! Haha initially she remembered me as the girl who help her tie rubber band on her wheel chair/ the girl who speaks hokkien to her BUT NOW SHE REMEMBERS MY NAME!! Haha 

Coz the other time Janice Weechong and I visited her and helped her to put nail polish and we told her our names~ Janice is Huihui, I am Minmin and Weechong is Dongdong HAHAHA actually coz Weechong's chinese name is Weizong so I said that he is called "Zongzong" but Mdm C cannot pronounce so in the end become "Dongdong" HAHAHA so Mdm Cheng was telling me that she still remember our names so I was quite touched haha 

Then she asked me to help her with the tying of the rubber band thing again... Deja vu sia! Feels like the first time I visited her again coz that was the first thing that I helped her with on my very first time visiting her house!!!

After that Meina took out her photo albums and looked at them and we talked until it was the past the time to leave already :(

I used to get VERY sad as I leave the elderly's house. I enjoy talking to them during the 1 hour/ 2 hours and I believe that they feel the same way too. Every time as I leave the elderly's house, I start to think about what will happen to them during the other days of the week. Do they feel sad? Do they feel lonely? Will they miss us? I remember the very first time that I visited Mdm C, I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes when it was time to leave maybe coz of the stories and things that she told me and I really hoped that I could stay with her longer to keep her company. But then someone told me before that I shouldn't think so much and I shouldn't treat every Saturday's visit as visiting beneficiaries. Instead, I should treat it like visiting my friends instead! Nowadays as I leave the elderly's house, I still feel a teeny weeny bit of sadness as I leave their house. But then one thing I've learnt is to not think so much coz I think I'm now able to see them more as a friend instead of a beneficiary, and I'll just look forward to the next visit and treat it like a meet-up with a good friend~ 

Shall end off the post with some photos of/with Mdm C!

27/12/14 's visit

Weechong helping Mdm C~

Am I cool?? :D

Selfieeee~~

Yesterday's visit!

Selfie w/ the rainbow loom that I gave her :))

Charmaine~~

The Importance of Good Neighbours

Hi everyone, 大家好! I am Cheng Jie and it is my first time blogging here! Yesterday was the second time I participated in THES weekly visit. A note to all the kind-hearted souls out there who do not know me− I hope we will have a chance to work together and get to know each other better in future too!

I have always wanted to join Community Service Club to help those in need since matriculation; and it was through Joel that I first got to know about THES. I expressed my interest for this volunteering programme and eventually started my weekly visits in semester 2.

I was assigned to two elderly, Mr W and Mdm L for last week and this week respectively. Last week, I visited Mr W together with Joel and Chong Junn, and yesterday, I visited Mdm L with Kok Seng and Hui Jia. I am glad that both Mr W and Mdm L’s apartments were clean and in good condition. Unlike my past volunteering experience, I often encounter apartments that were filled with unwanted stuffs and infested with cockroaches and bed bugs. By having clean apartments, it would mean that we can spend less time doing household chores and more time to communicate with the elderly. It was through such communication time that we got to understand more about the elderly’s needs, thoughts and feelings – especially their hunger for companionship and a listening ear. As such, I believe that such communication sessions will help develop the bond between us.

During today’s visit, we helped Mdm L with some simple household chores. Meanwhile, we were also constantly chit chatting with her to ensure that she feels occupied and remained engaged with us. While cleaning, I noticed Mdm L’s uneasiness with her house’s dirtiness, particularly the large amount of lizard droppings on the walls. For this, I did some research and found some inexpensive solutions to get rid of lizards (http://sg.theasianparent.com/safe-ways-to-get-rid-of-lizards-at-home/), which the subsequent groups can try in order to help Mdm L.

We also got to know that Mdm L is actually a fan of MediaCorp artiste Xu Bin! She was very enthusiastic when talking about Xu Bin and repeatedly described him to be very handsome (帅)! She even requested us to print a photo of Xu Bin for her to admire! Surrounding the topic of handsome guys/pretty girls, Mdm L was further engaged by Hui Jia and Kok Seng, who showed her their ideal types for man/woman. We became so much closer than before and even ended with a selfie session. I could feel that she enjoyed the interacting sessions with us, especially since she was laughing out loud throughout. As for me, I definitely had a great time with the elderly and fellow volunteers too!

Lastly, through Mdm L's sharing, I realized the importance of neighbours. There was once Mdm L had a bad fall and her neighbour, sensing something amiss, came to her rescue. With increasing cases of neighbourhood dispute, it made me wonder that in today's society, how many of us would actually spare another thought for our neighbours (eg. Mdm L's neighbour) when necessary? It would surely be a better place to live in if neighbours start to interact with, care for and respect one another in order to foster bonds and rebuild the long-lost kampong spirit.

To end off, I would like to thank both Hui Jia and Kok Seng for the guidance today and Joel for introducing THES to me. I really enjoyed the weekly visits so far and will definitely continue doing so. I will also be looking forward to every Saturday− doing what I enjoy most to bring happiness to the elderly and get to know more awesome friends and elderly around. I gained a lot during the short 2hour’s visit that could never be taught in school. Hopefully, I could find some free time slots from my busy schedules to visit the elderly during other days as a friend after getting to know them better. Or perhaps, anyone of you that are visiting them on your own, don't BO JIO hor! xD

31 01 2015

Ng Cheng Jie