Last Visit of the Semester!

Hello all! It’s me!

This shall be my 2nd time blogging! =D

I realized the 1st time I blogged was around this time too! Therefore, I’ve scheduled my post to be exactly the same date as last year! Maybe I should be an annual blogger. Wahaha…

Seriously, I was so lost in almost everything I was doing today! Maybe I’m always so blur… =X

After my super confused attempt of splitting the volunteers into 3 groups & sending them off to visit the respective elderly, my group went over to knock on Kam Por’s door. We were surprised that she said there was no need for us to visit her because our facilitators of the visit, Yew Chin & Jia Ming, had asked her before that & she said okay. Anyway she said her son was coming to visit her, so she didn’t need us to help her clean her house.

So we went to visit Mdm Lim Chuay instead. As usual, she was very cheerful! She actually remembered me after seeing me in my TOUCH shirt. At first, she didn’t want us to help her with any cleaning and only want us to chat with her. However, we told her that we would only be visiting again 1 month later, which is in December due to our exams, she let us help her clean her windows and chairs for her.

During our cleaning, Mdm Lim Chuay keep insisting us to grab a can drink for working so hard. At one point of time, she even wanted to open the can drink for us! She’s so nice!

After the cleaning, we talked to her for awhile. Before we left, I told her not to miss us, and she laughed! Haha…

After that, we went to visit Mdm Chow Moi. Okay, I was complaining throughout the whole visit. Oops! But that was because my group only had 4 girls – Huiting, Yew Chin, Jia Ming and me! And Jia Ming had to leave halfway while we were visiting Mdm Chow Moi. The guys insisted it was me who arranged all the guys to be in the other 2 groups. I did, because I thought Mr Tan’s house always need much cleaning, and there was some changes in between. But I didn’t expect those who came later all went to join the other 2 groups except our group! Haha…

And there was this “bomb” which I didn’t expect! Usually Mdm Chow Moi didn’t want us to clean her house and insists that it is enough that we sit down & chat with her. But during this visit, when Huiting asked her, surprisingly she was willing to give in & let us clean her windows! It was a cumulative effect of not letting us clean her house you know! When we cleaned her windows, it was like springcleaning! Mdm Chow Moi was still insisting that they were not dirty, but they were, EXTREMELY! When I took off her piece of cloth that she used it to block the sunlight going through the window, it was super dusty! It was really SUPER DUSTY, and she still insisted it was not! But she let us wash it in the end.

After Jia Ming had to leave, we had to call for reinforcement. Margaret & Rong Sheng came to help us. Mdm Chow Moi still insisted her house was not dirty, but there was dirt when Margaret swept the floor. In the end, Margaret mopped the floor for her as well. Most of us were done more or less & sat down to chat with Mdm Chow Moi, while Margaret was still mopping the floor. Rong Sheng was very evil, because he kept calling Margaret, “Maria.” Haha…

It was very hilarious to listen to Huiting talk to Mdm Chow Moi. As Mdm Chow Moi is hard of hearing, we have to talk very loudly to her. Huiting was very naggy & the way she talked to Mdm Chow Moi was almost like arguing with her! So it was really very funny listening to both of them! At times, Mdm Chow Moi was just laughing at Huiting. Haha… We had a great time laughing. But it is good because Huiting is applying what she had learnt from the workshop. Haha…

After the visit, we had our usual debrief. We had an introduction of our committee! I seriously think they are more enthusiastic than me & have been doing a great job in their own roles even though they are new! Thanks for everything! =D

Anyway, I’m really very sorry about the miscommunication and missed out visiting the Chinese-speaking Mr Tan! =( I really feel bad about it. Thanks for those who went up to apologize to him while the other few of us went to visit Mr Chiu to pass him the lyrics that Peijie had compiled for him.

I think I’ll miss T.H.E. Seniors very much! I won’t be able to pay a visit until 26/12/2009 as I’ll be having a course on the next official visit on 12/12/2009. And my last exam paper will fall on 05/12/2009 if we’re going to have an unofficial visit. So sad can! That’s like 1 ½ months for me later! T.T

Lastly, I would like to wish everyone good luck for their upcoming exams! =P Jiayou Jiayou!

Zhenxiu =P

MAF behind the scene

hello guys. my turn to blog. well. seems like everyone loves to blog about the event. OKAY. i'll do smth different....BEHIND THE SCENE!


okay. as you can see. the 2 hot babes there are the programmers of the day!





We met for the first time. and spent the night
together.... planning the event. *shy*




After much thinking... we finally came up with a proper plan.



So we started the day with the most popular game 'BINGO!'.. we tried to be a little creative by changing the name to 'TOUCH'... and we never expect to translate touch into chinese. so... dont blame huiting for translating it into 'QUI AI' .

(it should be 'CHU AI' by the way)


The celebration continued with our ball ball forfeit or reward game and pictionary (well. pictionary wasnt quite successful)...






NEVERTHELESS. our participants (ah gong ah mah) are still very happy! =D



I dont really know how to blog. so yea. not much info i can write. SORRY!

oh yea. guys. pls provide feedback for the event. so we can improve on future activities. thks!





..................
Wynne! =)
A+ artwork.

MId Autumn Pics!

Here are some of the photos that were taken on 24/10/09

(looks like Mdm Ho is enjoying the massage given by her 'godson' Chen Hua!)












(Rong Sheng helping Mr Tan in the game of Bingo)



















(Mdm Tan 喜怒哀乐 - 喜)















(Mdm Tan 喜怒哀乐 - 怒 - why do she seem like she is still smiling?)










Special Thanks to the programmers Hui Ting and Wynne and most importantly those who have participated in it! - rest of the pictures will soon be subsequently uploaded to the picture album..do check it out!



-ken-

24/10/2009 Mid Autumn Celebration!

Hi everyone!
First of all, a Happy Belated Mid-Autumn Festival! (since this is the theme for today's celebration!)

Anyway, we arrived at the center at around 10.30 am only to find most of the elderly not there yet cos they were queuing for free 'baos' (Dotz..Haha..). Then when the elders came in, we started with the game bingo. We later on heard that this game was actually one of their favorites and can have over 90 elders playing at one time! In the end, most of the elders managed to complete the 5 lines needed almost all of them received the small gifts that were prepared for them. (special thanks to the volunteer, HT, from 'Qiu2 Ai4' community service for preparing the bingo cards and Magarat for the moon cakes!)

After that, we also played a game that involves passing around a ball made of layers of newspaper with music. Then when the music stops, the person with the ball needs to either do a performance or enjoy a gift. Some of the elders were quite shy but others like Mr Chew and another elder( Sorry, i forgot her name!) were quite spontaneous when asked to do the little forfeits. Mr Tan who was sitting beside me also 'kana' once, but luckily it was a prize instead of a performance! You can see that some of the elders were more active but some were not. I think sometimes more attention needs to be given to those who are less expressive and tend to be more quiet to make sure that they too are able to enjoy the activities. For Mr Tan's example, he is unable to see clearly. So for the Bingo game, I had to help him locate the numbers and tell him the basic rules cos he does not understand the instructions. I also feel quite bad cos in the last game (the Win, Lose or Draw game), he also could not participate actively due to his poor eyesight :( We then ended the games at around 12.30 cos some of the elders need to go off to another outing (Sometimes, I have to admit, their Saturdays are even more fun-filled then mine!!)

After the celebration, we also had a 'course' on volunteering work conducted by .........( I'm really bad with names..sorry!!!). The information given were really practical and though it may sound obvious on hindsight, those are really some of the mistakes we make when we interact with our elders. I think these constant reminders are useful for our later interaction with the elders. We also got to learn how to use the wheelchair and how to get up and down ramps. Though there were a little bumps here and there but generally all of us did quite well considering its our first time!

All in all, I think today was really a fun day where there was alot of laughing and joking around, both with our elders and among ourselves. It definitely was one of the most meaningful Mid-Autumn Celebration I had for a long time!(since last time mid-autumn festival to me means burning lanterns and candles to create really big fires at the playground..haha)
Lastly, to end, I would like to wish Cheng-hua and Shi Tien a Happy Birthday!!
See ya guys soon!
Rong

Oct 17 Visit!!!

pai seh, almost forgot to write the blog!

anyway, what did we do on that day ah?...Let me recall

hmm, those who were in my group are bo jie, ks, ken, darren, huiting, wind?...did i miss anyone?

the first elderly whom we visited was Mr Tan PS (or you can call him Sergeant Tan)

We did the usual trail- and window-cleaning for him!

He is looking well and healthy, and its amazing and rare to hear him speak Hokkien!

We also joked a bit with him, telling him that ken is from india, wind from thailand, and huiting from hongkong... but we felt bad in the end, and told him the truth that we are all locals (except bojie)

Then we made our way to Mdm Ho's place! Ziping & his girl, and Amelia were there already!

Mdm Ho treated us to some really delious home-fried prawn crackers....wah....mouth-watering liaoz...

we shared the whole "canister" of crackers...and finished it up clean (...the finisher was bo jie...~applause~)...

oh no, I forgot what conversations we had over there...

I think we helped Amelia ask Mdm Ho some of her uni assignment qns... so that module sure will get 'A' lor..

And then...mdm Ho wants to cook for us again...this time probably before Xmas! yoo-hoo!

ok, that's all.

sleepy liao

goodnite everyone

~~~~hua ge

A Pleasant Visit

On 12 Sept 2009, we (one of the Hokkien grps) visited 2 elderly. They are Beautiful Granny (sorry i'm not too sure of her name, will find out upon the next next visit :D) and Mdm Tan.

Firstly, we went to Beautiful Granny's house. We helped to do some housechores for her. After all the cleaning, we sat down and had a chat with her. At the same time, she also took out a few photo albums and we all started happily looking at the photos and listening to Beautiful Granny reminiscing about the past. However, when we saw a photo of her son and asked about him, Beautiful Granny felt sad and troubled. She grumbled that her son does not visit her at all. After that, we tried to change the topic and asked where does she usually go and what activity does she usually like to do. After a short sharing session with Beautiful Granny, we realised that she is not as happy as she appeared to be. She confessed that she was just trying to put on a smile for us. She has been feeling depressed, moody and looks troubled. We also found out that Beautiful Granny does not like to go out but staying alone at home also makes her feels moody. There were many times when she just felt totally at loss. I hope that maybe through an outing organise by CSC, we will be able to bring Beautiful Granny out for a walk. Let her be able to enjoy the warmth and happy atmosphere created by us! Hopefully, through an or a few outings, she would gradually change her negative perception and starts to go out more often and participate actively in activities organise by the community centre. :D

Then, we went on to Mdm Tan's house. I have met Mdm Tan during the first visit so was happy to be able to meet her again. Just like the first visit, Mdm Tan is always so friendly, cheerful and she's really cute! :D She was really eager to share her stories and things she had encountered for the past few weeks. Of course, we enjoyed listening to her stories and had a great laugh at some of the interesting issues that she had shared with us! Ever since the first visit, she has been troubling with her housing issue. She is not able to understand the letter sent by HDB. Furthermore, she has difficulty seeing clearly, thus, unable to travel far alone. But we have take note of the problem she's facing and report to the person-in-charge. Hopefully, this issue can be settled as soon as possible. We also realised that Mdm Tan has a very happening life, she has many invitations to different events and celebrations. She looks forward to each and every event. However, as she's unable to see clearly, she's not clear of the date, venue and time. Thus, we read out the details to her and she has a better idea of the events. Although Mdm Tan is unable see clearly, she still live to the fullest of her life and never shuts herself away from the society or any help render to her. This is a positive attitude which I admired of her.

Overall, we really had a pleasant time with Beautiful Granny and Mdm Tan. We hope that through the subsequent visits, we will be able to get to know more elderly and try our best to help them in whatever problems they might be facing. :)



Boon Peng :)

Virgin Entry

This is my second visit with Touch Seniors.

I guess being in the Canto group really makes me feel appreciative that I am a Cantonese and I’m glad it helps me a lot during the visit. The day started with the few of us traveling to Block 62, 11th floor to Madam Choi Moi’s home where it was actually my second visit there. I always remember Madam Choi Moi as a humble lady who has a lot of laughter on her face, she giggle like a child every now and then. But sometimes, when you actually take notice of her, you would begin to feel the vulnerability she held towards her hearing which she felt that she is deaf but interestingly, most of the time she could respond to our question. She really has a booming voice and sometimes I wonder what’s the secret behind that voice.

The second visit was at Madam Tham Po (Ok, I’m not so sure how to spell her name) who lives on Block 61, 6th floor. The moment we stepped into her flat, we were overwhelmed by the sticky floor which we knew needed some serious mopping (Woo hoo! My first experience with house-cleaning). She talks a lot about her leg problem which created much inconvenience with her movement. She gives me the feeling that she wanted to go to many places but she just couldn’t. She told us that she fell down in her home recently, and in the process she banged her hand against one of the wall, leading to a serious blue-black on one of the finger. I’m not exactly sure how rubbing her finger with saliva (which she claimed is therapeutic) could help much, but I’m rather concerned about it. Hopefully we can make a trip down the next visit to see how she is doing so far.

Some of us have grandparents, but many times I believed we are all so caught up with life and work we barely take the time to truly know each other. I always feel the need to never take things for granted, at the end of the day we should take some time to reflect what is really precious to us, and put some sincere effort to saying “Thank you” or “How are you doing?” Life is simply not just only about ourselves and how we feel.

I will always remember the smile behind the frail faces of Madamn Choi Moi and Madamn Tham Po which are filled with so much words unspoken.

James