ZEST

Happy New Year...

2005-12-31T06:33:00.000-08:00

A happy new year to all who sees this...
this blog will now be inactive.

PW was a horrible experience.... learn to hate it.

weedee

MacRitchie visit! :)

2005-08-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

JASMINE
in primary school, whenever someone got a broken leg, we'd clamour to push the person around on her wheelchair. or use it to whizz down corridors. pushing it around seemed easy then.
well, not today. twenty minutes of pushing a wheelchair up and down uneven slopes is as freaky as anything; you could tip a person over if you didn't hold on tight enough. or at least, if you have zero arm strength like i do.
we were bringing the old folks to macritchie reservoir. for a walk, if you could call it one, because it was more like a workout of sorts. mr seet would be proud. forty minutes of wheelchair-pushing is probably equivalent to an hour of pullup training, and i survived. so did ruby, who i was taking care of.
too bad i don't know cantonese though, so she probably didn't understand a word i said to her throughout the trip, though half of me wondered sometimes, if she could actually hear me in the first place.
i ended up humming random songs on the way there and back; she turned at one point, and smiled, and that was connection enough.
halfway through, bertha volunteered to perform songs for us, after zhenghao's valiant attempts to hold a mini singalong, and she was beautiful.
the way she unlocked her wheechair, pushed herself to the centre and faced the crowd, smiling like a little girl would on her birthday, and sang. and sang, and clapped, then sang another, with actions and the like, willingly doing encore after encore to face both sides of the circle.
reading this, you wouldn't have guessed, that she had no hands or feet.
she exudes a kind of joy you wouldn't expect; expectations being stereotypical, that is.

SHIPEI
Today we brought the elderlys to MacRitchie reservoir for morning stroll!! But they were sitting in their wheelchair. we were supposed to push them around. Pan Ling Ling and Huang Shi Nan joined us as well. Yihui and i pushed this man by the name Mr. Wong. We were very quiet throughout the whole "journey". Coz we dunnoe how to speak dialect. BUT we provided entertainment for the elderly. Yi Hui and i were singing and we had to take turns to push mr wong coz he is bigger in size.Then all the residents gathered on the porch. I fed mr wong with jelly and lychee and he likes it a lot. After that another cute cute elderly stood in the middle of the circle and sang songs for all of us. Heehee. After all the performances, we pushed the residents back to the home. They were very happy. We pushed them back to the dinning room for their lunch. then we left and went for lunch...It was a nice experience bringing the residents out for morning stroll. Aniwae looking forward to next week massaging lesson. [hope that i wun be break their bones...]

durian hunt!

2005-07-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

SHIPEI
went st. theresa's home at Upper thomson road. It was our first visit to the home. We went around mixing with the residents and asked them to join us in the durian game. While looking for the residents to play the game, i realised that some of them are quite pitiful. We went around talking to them but some of them were a bit busy. Later i got to know a old lady called Mary. I had a hard time putting the hearing equipment into her ear. At last the nurse came to help her put but she think that it's a bit uncomfortable. So she decided not to put it on but i will have to talk to her a bit louder. She is an optimistic lady. She thinks that having hearing problem is not the worst as there are people worse than her. i brought her around searching for durians and we managed to find 2 durians. Although it was a simple activity but she enjoyed herself. She also finds the durians very delicious. After the durian meal, we had to bring them back to the "dining room" for lunch. Before i left, Auntie Mary gave me a hug and she said that she will try to remember me as she has poor memory. But I will surely remember her as well as she is the first elderly i know.

SHERMAINE
went to st theresa's home this morning with ivie, sharlyn, shipei, wenhui and yihui for CIP. FIRST TIME THERE. heh. most of the people there were NICE. we were BRIEFED on what to do. then we set off in search of an elderly. yups. we were trying to communicate with them. i found it hard as we don't usually speak dialects, it was hard for us to understand what the elderly were saying. let alone talk to them. lucky for us, there was this male worker who introduced the elderly who speak the dialects and languages that we know. next, we tried our best and talked to the elderly, and tried understanding how their lives in the home was. most of them were wheelchair bound. so we pushed them around for little walks. we had to push them slowly and carefully. they were also sort of heavy so it was kind of energy-consuming. then came the game of treasure hunt. the treasure was DURIANS! heh. yeahs. so we each pushed an elderly around and looked for the durians. around 20minutes later, we went back to the assembly area. the elderly put the durians together and shared with one another :) yups. we ended the day by sending the elderly back to their rooms! <3>

inspirational quotes for volunteers!

2005-07-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

The time is always right to do what is right. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do.-- Martha Grimes
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.-- Tommy Lasorda
Service is not a chore. Service is a privilege.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.-- Mother Theresa
If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself.-- Woodrow Wilson
The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?-- Jean de La Bruyère
The secret of success is the constancy of purpose.
There are times when silence has the loudest voice.-- Leroy Brownlow
Few wishes come true by themselves.-- June Smith
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.Mother Teresa

art and craft session!

2005-07-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

JOCELYN

I have been to an old folks’ home once before this time but for that trip, we visited the wards of the old folks and some of them were sick and bed ridden. We were only allowed to do administration work or visit the wards. This time round, the old folks in St. Theresa’s home of the aged are younger and more active and I got a chance to do handicraft work and interact much more with the old folks here.

I know how to speak Cantonese and stood at an advantage over my fellow classmates and friends. I could understand the old folks and could communicate with most of them as many of them spoke Cantonese. We did handicraft work and coloured pictures of animals like sheep and rabbits and they looked very cute!!! While doing the art and craft, we communicated with the old folks and knew what they were feeling and many of them liked doing the handicrafts together with us and an old lady I was working with was very proud of our art work.

This is a fruitful trip and I look forward to helping old folks by making their day and it really gladdens me to see smiles on their faces.

CLARA

the trip there turned out better then expected. i thought it would be another day of simple mingling with the old folks, usual patchy convos and the art and craft. but i ended up having qutie a bit of fun listening to them (okiee one man) talk about his experiences about the world war and his principles he stand by in life.i realise that they have so much to teach and tell us, all we actually have to do is to take the effort to sit by them and listen. im glad i did just that on saturday. :)

MATILDA

It was a fulfilling day for many of my good friends and I as we glimpsed at what life might be 50 years down the road if our children decided to be ingrates and leave us at old folks' home.(that is, if we ever have children knowing how much Lynette abhors kids) It started out rather awkwardly as I struggled to communicate with smiling old lady I'm supposed to help. She speaks teochew. I don't. Big problem! Then I realised she speaks mandarin!! Seeing how happy she was with her drawing and colouring later was indeed a wonderful thing. All in all, I realised how tremendously satisfying it can be to bring a smile to the elderly and someone less fortunate.

LYNETTE

the visit to st theresa's home today went VERY smoothly! :) im so happy! praise the Lord! :) i prayed in the chapel there before we started our programme for today and im certain its due to our prayers! haha.. anw lets see..anticipated teething problems, and yup, there were some, lik ppl gettin lost n all n hvg to tk a cab. haha. rosie, who lives in RI hostel, got directions frm me to go to bishan mrt n tk bus 54 frm there. she took the bus from the wrong side of the road and ended up taking a cab. she arrived and realised that the home was within walking distance from RJ (beside RI)! haha! gee!hmm. wujuan and shuiying were initially quite scared to mingle as they sympathizes with the residents...i told them in my broken chinese that their presence will hlp brg joy in the old folks' lives and mk this lrg stretch a more pleasant journey for them. i guess this trip to st theresa's home really made them see another side of life, and helped all of us realise that in 70, 80 years' time, we'll be like them, walking down this lonely, winding road. we may be able to make it bearable, we may even be able to make it fun. it's all about perspective. like how some residents refused to participate in our craft session today as they felt that they "did not want to use their brain", we, too, can decide how we want to spend the last stretch of our lives. we have the power to keep our minds active and our bodies healthy.all in all, i feel that this trip was a great eye-opener for many of us and we grew as a team.we brainstormed together to see how we could improve on our activity in order to engage more residents.we contributed to make our visit a success.like what mitch albom says in the five people you meet in heaven "Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know", we brought strangers together and they became friends. may this mark the start of great friendships forming!thank you so much everyone who helped in one way or another! :)

SHARIFAH

I went to an old folks' home for the first time in my entire life yesterday morning. i thought i'd give it a shot since i've only worked with children in the past. initially i was quite apprehensive regarding the visit. what if i couldnt communicate with them? with kids i know i can just shove sweets and chocolates in their faces and im suddenly their favourite person in the world.ya but then i went anyways.. met up with my clasmates at newton mrt station (which is VERY far away from home which means i took a long time to get there which means i woke up at the crack of dawn just to visit the old folks dont u think im such a darling haha) so we took a bus and athene made us get off one stop earlier. but the walk was quite nice.. i MIGHT have seen aminah with the kayakers but im not sure. *shrugs*so we arrived at the home. then the guys went to the men's ward and us girls went to the ladies' ward. the women were ALL in wheelchairs in tt room. then there were a couple of nurse women who randomly selected people to participate in the lets-all-sit-together-do-art-and-chitchat session downstairs. so each girl wheeled one lady to the downstairs place right. and they were all being friendly and talking to the lady they were sending downstairs. except me. cause the lady cant understand english. -_-'so i was like mute all the way downstairs. but i was being extra smiley lest i appear antisocial. so ppl started preparing the art materials on the table and telling the old folks' abt the plan for the morning. it was nice to hear frm the guys tt some of the men frm the home can speak english(: however they were already talking to some girls who arrived before i did.. so i thought nehh tts okay i wont DIE because of the laguage barrier. right?so. somehow i paired myself up with this man in a wheelchair at the end of the table. "uncle, would u like to do a collage? is this picture okay for you?" i winced while waiting for his reply.. please understand me please.. and then he nodded! HAH! i was so overjoyed tt he responded so i decided i will stick. to this man. so i took the little crepe paper balls and squeezed some white glue onto a postcard and began teaching the uncle to make the collage thing. all throughout my instructions the uncle nodded and smiled at me. perhaps he's shy.. so me and the uncle just continued making the collage in silence and even though the collage-making was rather uneventful - okay extremely boring - the uncle seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly and he went on and on pasting the little balls onto his picture. it kinda showed me that those old folks' barely have any activities to do. no wonder they like doing this boring sticking-balls-onto-paper project.. so i entertained the uncle and helped him with the art piece.before i knew it he was done. like waaay before the others. so i took the construction papers and asked him if he wanted to draw. and he nodded again(: "is this colour okay?" and he nodded again(: maybeeee he understands english but he doesnt speak it.. so i let him choose his crayons and i started drawing a flower on my side of the paper. and he copied my drawing on his side of the paper. we coloured our drawings in silence and soon we were done. again before all the others. so i asked him "do u want to do another collage?" and he nodded.. ok so he's still not bored of this yet.. i thought id get irritated but he was smiling throughout the morning and it was so pleasant to see what a difference im making so i found it quite rewarding..yea so cut the story short in the end we finished three art pieces and i wanted him to write his name on them.. but he didnt seem to understand me.. so i got matilda to ask him in mandarin. did he not understand a single word ive said the whole day?? so then he began writing his name in the unreadable chinese characters. he was still smiling and he was showing off (okay sort of) to another uncle.. so fineee. i wasted my energy talking to him.. but i made him happY and tts wad mattered.. quiteee pleasant! satisfying. yeah. tts the word.

MELCIRCUS (MELISSA)

One might think that spending one’s Saturday morning volunteering at an old folks’ home would be kind of boring, but I’m glad it turned out to be fun in the end. Well, this was my second time visiting St. Theresa’s Home, and we didn’t get lost this time round. Just don’t mention how I got my friends lost for an hour when I mixed up “opposite” with “on the same side” and “Far East Florist” with “Far East Plaza” LOL.

It’s funny how someone can remind you of so many people. The first person I met was called John. He was 56 years old and thankfully spoke English haha. Was worried about having to use my 10-word Hokkien vocabulary. He is divorced and has no kids, and was at St. Theresa’s recuperating after suffering a heart attack. I was thinking, he’s quite close in age to my Dad, and how important it was to have a family to take care of you when you get older. In some ways he reminded me of my grandpa too. Haha my initial ‘job’ was to persuade him to join the rest for handicrafts, but he laughingly waved his hand and told me it was computers he was interested in instead.

Struck up a nice conversation with him, and I was content to simply sit back and listen to him talk. He spoke about the communists in the 1960s and even he actually saw the Bukit Ho Swee fire that gutted the slums in the 1970s(?), well that’s something we only see in our Social Studies textbook lol. Liked the part when he told me and later Makoto who joined in that studies weren’t everything, we should go out and play and have fun : D Yup but of course we have to study hard and get a good job haha. He was extremely well read, I was discussing the latest events going on in the world with him and even recent movies that had just came out. He’s a nice guy, hopefully I can lug my big, chunky laptop to the home this week so he could tinkle around with it : D

Next, I helped the other old folks with their handicraft work, which involved, pasting colourful crepe paper balls onto some cute hand-drawn designs to form a picture. And in the end some of them were so proud of their pictures, and help them up smilingly as we took a group photo. There was this resident who was an amazing artist, apparently he had been a music and art teacher in Hong Kong before he suffered a stroke, and his drawings were like, fantastic. Heck, he could probably sell his drawings professionally haha.

Finished the day tired, and hungry after 3 ½ hours, but I didn’t even feel time go by, honestly. Playing Treasure Hunt next week, bet it’ll be fun!