13 oct visit
Hi, Kai Him here and today, 13th October 2012 it was my second time volunteering with you guys. Today my group (Yi An, Louise, Valerie, Clement) and I went to visit Mr Tay and Mdm Cheng. Mdm Cheng is a new addition to the elderly that we visit.
I visited Mr Tay on the last visit as well, and I felt that he was much happier today! As usual, we went to his place and he will do his standard moves:
Mdm Cheng lives further away and we had to walk a bit. Mdm Cheng is fluent in mandarin, cantonese and probably hokkien too! She told us she learnt mandarin from watching TV! She is wheelchair bound and stays indoors mostly, except when her friend comes around to bring her to the hawker center for food. I would believe that if we visit her the next time we can try our best to bring her down too. She said that her house is quite clean and I think our volunteers can just help out with a little bit of housework the next time round. Clean the windows or something. She rents a room out as well. I think the important part is that we talk to her. She says it herself that she is very lonely after her husband departed from this world a few years back. As she mentioned about her husband, she could not control her emotions and tears began to well up in her red swollen eyes. I didnt know what to do or say but at the point of time, I understood her. She just wanted company, and whoever saw this scene would surely want to be her friend. I want to be back for her.
And as usual, the comm will be asking for people to blog about the visit after the day, and once again most people were reluctant or hesitant about doing it. Me too. I wasn't passionate enough to raise my hand and say I will do that. I guess we are all lazy to do so, or too busy in our own opinion? But as my group and I were trying to play a game to decide who shall do the blogging, I suddenly saw how wrong this was, and i felt bad, maybe even disgusted by myself. Blogging about the visit should not be a punishment, for the loser of the game to settle it. And so, I said I would volunteer to do so, and hoped the rest would volunteer once in a while in the following weeks.
For me, I feel that it is really not so much important how much you write or what you write, but to give you a chance to type things out and rethink of the significance and effect the visits might have on you. It is especially useful for the new volunteers like me, as this gives us a good chance to look back and to find and explore further insights and feelings and thoughts that we might not discover had we not reviewed it. I hope we can all give it a chance and who knows? We might discover something new about ourselves that we never knew existed.
Lastly, if you are still reading this, I would like to say that I had been very impressed by the energy, the vibe and positivity that many of you guys possess. And I'm truly grateful for that. Be it the older experienced volunteers, the newer ones or even the elderly, I have enjoyed the energy from you guys totally. Positivity is very contagious and I feel that we should all keep it up, as we interact with each other and with the elderly, this energy can spread or even go a long way to making someone's day, just as you guys have made mine.
Saturday mornings, catching up with friends, with elderly, befriending new ones. Life is awesome, isn't it. (:
I visited Mr Tay on the last visit as well, and I felt that he was much happier today! As usual, we went to his place and he will do his standard moves:
- Ask if we have eaten.
- Offer us can drinks.
- Repeat 1 and 2 indefinitely.
- Ask if we brought him newspapers.
- Go drink kopi!
Mdm Cheng lives further away and we had to walk a bit. Mdm Cheng is fluent in mandarin, cantonese and probably hokkien too! She told us she learnt mandarin from watching TV! She is wheelchair bound and stays indoors mostly, except when her friend comes around to bring her to the hawker center for food. I would believe that if we visit her the next time we can try our best to bring her down too. She said that her house is quite clean and I think our volunteers can just help out with a little bit of housework the next time round. Clean the windows or something. She rents a room out as well. I think the important part is that we talk to her. She says it herself that she is very lonely after her husband departed from this world a few years back. As she mentioned about her husband, she could not control her emotions and tears began to well up in her red swollen eyes. I didnt know what to do or say but at the point of time, I understood her. She just wanted company, and whoever saw this scene would surely want to be her friend. I want to be back for her.
And as usual, the comm will be asking for people to blog about the visit after the day, and once again most people were reluctant or hesitant about doing it. Me too. I wasn't passionate enough to raise my hand and say I will do that. I guess we are all lazy to do so, or too busy in our own opinion? But as my group and I were trying to play a game to decide who shall do the blogging, I suddenly saw how wrong this was, and i felt bad, maybe even disgusted by myself. Blogging about the visit should not be a punishment, for the loser of the game to settle it. And so, I said I would volunteer to do so, and hoped the rest would volunteer once in a while in the following weeks.
For me, I feel that it is really not so much important how much you write or what you write, but to give you a chance to type things out and rethink of the significance and effect the visits might have on you. It is especially useful for the new volunteers like me, as this gives us a good chance to look back and to find and explore further insights and feelings and thoughts that we might not discover had we not reviewed it. I hope we can all give it a chance and who knows? We might discover something new about ourselves that we never knew existed.
Lastly, if you are still reading this, I would like to say that I had been very impressed by the energy, the vibe and positivity that many of you guys possess. And I'm truly grateful for that. Be it the older experienced volunteers, the newer ones or even the elderly, I have enjoyed the energy from you guys totally. Positivity is very contagious and I feel that we should all keep it up, as we interact with each other and with the elderly, this energy can spread or even go a long way to making someone's day, just as you guys have made mine.
Saturday mornings, catching up with friends, with elderly, befriending new ones. Life is awesome, isn't it. (:
Reflections of a first-time volunteer
(naggy long-winded year 4 student alert)
Hi, I'm Kai Him and I first volunteered with T.H.E.seniors in Jan 2012 at the visit to botanical gardens. It was just a once off event but i thoroughly enjoyed myself that day, with the exteremely adorable group of aunties and uncles that I interacted with that day. I especially loved one or two of the most passionate aunties that really made my day, I felt a connection there as though I was her grandson or something. Just when i was supposed to be the one to make their day, they made mine. Perhaps this is the way that it should be, isn't it? I couldnt bear to leave them at the end of the day and seeing some of the photos we took that day on fb, I really missed them.
Then I thought, I want to see them again! or have a chance to interact with other elderly as well. Thus, I came to the orientation visit session on 29 september when jocelyn invited me. And that was my first day. Later on jocelyn sent me an sms for me to reflect upon some issues and I felt it was a brilliant idea. That led me to many other insights and I would like to just share a little with you all now.
I said that day, of my first visit:
"I don't really feel very accomplished but I was very happy to feel the positive energy from the volunteers and also how some of the older volunteers were able to click with the elderly better. I guess it takes time to get used to interacting with a different generation all together. I think I can be influenced easily by this kinda energy and enthusiasm so I was glad to be around today.
It was a good experience overall. I was with mdm tan and mr tay, who were living in very good conditions actually (than I expected and I was happy to see that). esp for mr tay who couldnt see but managed to keep his place so tidy and clean!! it was a bit sad to hear some of their problems, with health, kids, money etc. I used to think that people who can help should help those most deeply in need of help, donate money, take care of them etc. but recently I have had new thoughts, that I'm glad to see people helping out the other ppl who are not the least priviledged but still have their own problems because I believe we can make a difference to them too. like how mr tay was saying he is tight on budgets but I feel that giving him company is no less or even more impt than helping him with his cash problems. they were like very thankful for us as well, but its sad that I didnt deserve much of that because I didnt help much at all. and I wished I could be of greater help.
I tried the coffee + butter that mr tay drinks everytime! he wants three slices but I tried with one only. haha I could not really appreciate the diff between that and normal kopi but it was quite memorable, never knew such a thing existed.
Both elderly speaks only hokkien and I had difficulty, because I couldnt understand. probably catch only 10-20% sigh. maybe it will be better for me to visit a cantonese speaking elderly instead! so the language barrier was very big and I couldnt really listen and reply. many times I feel so handicapped cos I have much to say or ask or wanna hear but I cant do so. had to rely on the two older volunteers who spoke hokkien.
Overall I am very happy to meet new people, be it elderly or volunteers, who had a positive vibe and energy that I felt strongly today. "
Hi, I'm Kai Him and I first volunteered with T.H.E.seniors in Jan 2012 at the visit to botanical gardens. It was just a once off event but i thoroughly enjoyed myself that day, with the exteremely adorable group of aunties and uncles that I interacted with that day. I especially loved one or two of the most passionate aunties that really made my day, I felt a connection there as though I was her grandson or something. Just when i was supposed to be the one to make their day, they made mine. Perhaps this is the way that it should be, isn't it? I couldnt bear to leave them at the end of the day and seeing some of the photos we took that day on fb, I really missed them.
Then I thought, I want to see them again! or have a chance to interact with other elderly as well. Thus, I came to the orientation visit session on 29 september when jocelyn invited me. And that was my first day. Later on jocelyn sent me an sms for me to reflect upon some issues and I felt it was a brilliant idea. That led me to many other insights and I would like to just share a little with you all now.
I said that day, of my first visit:
"I don't really feel very accomplished but I was very happy to feel the positive energy from the volunteers and also how some of the older volunteers were able to click with the elderly better. I guess it takes time to get used to interacting with a different generation all together. I think I can be influenced easily by this kinda energy and enthusiasm so I was glad to be around today.
It was a good experience overall. I was with mdm tan and mr tay, who were living in very good conditions actually (than I expected and I was happy to see that). esp for mr tay who couldnt see but managed to keep his place so tidy and clean!! it was a bit sad to hear some of their problems, with health, kids, money etc. I used to think that people who can help should help those most deeply in need of help, donate money, take care of them etc. but recently I have had new thoughts, that I'm glad to see people helping out the other ppl who are not the least priviledged but still have their own problems because I believe we can make a difference to them too. like how mr tay was saying he is tight on budgets but I feel that giving him company is no less or even more impt than helping him with his cash problems. they were like very thankful for us as well, but its sad that I didnt deserve much of that because I didnt help much at all. and I wished I could be of greater help.
I tried the coffee + butter that mr tay drinks everytime! he wants three slices but I tried with one only. haha I could not really appreciate the diff between that and normal kopi but it was quite memorable, never knew such a thing existed.
Both elderly speaks only hokkien and I had difficulty, because I couldnt understand. probably catch only 10-20% sigh. maybe it will be better for me to visit a cantonese speaking elderly instead! so the language barrier was very big and I couldnt really listen and reply. many times I feel so handicapped cos I have much to say or ask or wanna hear but I cant do so. had to rely on the two older volunteers who spoke hokkien.
Overall I am very happy to meet new people, be it elderly or volunteers, who had a positive vibe and energy that I felt strongly today. "
