HOHOHO!

Merry Christmas!

I must say I enjoyed myself thoroughly for the X'mas gathering.
Special thanks to Weijian for giving me the chance to be Santa Claus.
Sorry if I hadn't been good enough - I am not professional ok. I will buck up no worries. :-p

This must be the umpteenth time I have seen the elderly play Bingo - they never seem to grow tired of the game! I recall that some time back I was kinda turned off by the whole idea of playing Bingo during such get-togethers for the elderly. In all honesty, I was on the verge of abolishing the game from the surface of the earth at that time (had I been granted Harry Potter's powers, I might have done that!).

However, upon reflection, I slowly came to realize that perhaps playing the same monotonous Bingo might not actually be that monotonous for the elderly. Through the lens of an undergraduate, all I could see was the monotony of the game. I failed to recognize that my life, or rather, our lives as undergraduates have been much more happening, to the extent that the little thrills that Bingo brings about are belittled. We terrorize KTV lounges, we colonize shopping malls, parks, restaurants and cinemas. Bingo, to us, is nothing more than childplay - the most boring way to spend an afternoon. Yet for the elderly, their lives might comprise of the routine watching of re-runs of Mediacorp, TCS or even SBC drama serials, going downstairs for a walk, a chat, a coffee and cleaning up the house (which might take an entire day, especially if they stay alone, or with just another person) - all relatively mundane tasks. The thrill of Bingo, might have a larger impact on them, as compared to us.

I guess this is the one good thing about volunteering - we learn to empathize with others, and we learn to realize how fortunate we, in fact, are. I hope I will never get sick of watching the elderly playing Bingo again. :-)

Sorry for the sombreness of the entry suddenly. Oops. It's my first time blogging here anyway. Let's give a big round of applause to the LB committee for a job well done, as well as the two emcees - the resident emcee for LB Xiaoyun and the apprentice emcee Geraldine! Let's look forward to 2008! :-)

Merry Christmas!

HOHOHO!

Cheerz
Fred :-)

LB X'mas Celebration~!

Hohoho Merry Xmas everyone!! LB celebrated Christmas yesterday (22nd Dec 07) with the elderly as usual at the void deck. It is not really known to many people but the MCs yesterday mentioned that it was 冬至 as well, or more commonly known as the 汤圆 festival where people last time gathered around their stoves in winter to eat duplings as a symbol of 团圆。Well actually I'm not very sure, I might have mixed it up with 团圆饭, but anyway I think the meaning is still there! I thought it was a pity that we couldn't have some rice dumplings for the elderly but nevertheless, food and drink was going around and the festive mood was really high thanks to all who made the event such a success! :)I think the idea of 团圆struck me more than Christmas itself in this context, because it really encompassed the significance of the get-together with the elderly to celebrate, no matter what festival it's for.



We had the usual lucky draw yesterday, but it never struck me so hard before how very different lucky draws can be. I was at a lucky draw the night before as well and the prizes comprised of things like Guess Watches, Crumpler bags, etc etc. The nature of the gifts were as such and yet everyone taking part in the lucky draw was still comparing the "value" of the gifts. But yesterday, the elderly were already really glad to receive nice little food packs from us. I was really touched at the way they tried so hard to involve themselves in the games and tried to win, never taking things for granted. In life's journey we still have so much to learn from them and every session I attend I find that I'm learning something new...



Ok so here's wishing everyone a super duper Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!! May LB have a great 2008 as it did 2007 and may we be able to learn more from the elderly next year as well! See you guys next year! :)

15th Dec 2007 Visit (Teochew)

Have you ever wondered if given a chance to be reborn, will you choose to live on Earth? In fact, I’ve never think of this question until Uncle Wong raised it during our LB visit on 15th dec. Now to think of it, I may still choose to live on Earth(because of limited choices) but Uncle Wong begs to differ. He explained that the Earth is in a critical state now as a result of deforestation and that the Earth’s heath will deteriorate in future considering disastrous effects of global warming and such.

As he continued to mention the Bali Climate Talk, I thought we were having a small Geography discussion on environmental issues! I was really taken aback by his creativity and knowledge, especially since Uncle Wong and Uncle Liu, who was staying with him, were talking about their lack of knowledge due to low academic qualifications or no schooling opportunities just minutes ago. Even so, they did not give up on learning and keep up with current affairs by listening to news on radio. Uncle Liu even clarified his doubt on the usage of a Chinese term with us. Their enthusiasm and passion in learning serve as an inspiration for us to work harder and overcome obstacles when faced with difficulties. Perhaps they knew what it is like to fall behind others and the sufferings ignorance will bring, and that is why they shower us with kind advices and reminders. While the uncles learned some facts from us, I think we have even more to learn from them=P

When our group of four( Victor, Tan Ching, Serena and me) visited Uncle Yeo after that, he welcomed us warmly with his cheerful smile and treated us chrysanthemum tea as usual but this time he had a bandage on his head. Later, we learned from him that he was attacked by an old lady(a cleaner) who quarreled with him over a metal can when he was collecting the cans at the hawker centre. Apparently, his injury is quite severe as the woman hit his head with the sugarcane glass several times. To think he had to meet with this kind of mishap when collecting empty cans is tiring enough and does not pay well at all. However, Uncle Yeo faced the difficulties in his life bravely with an optimistic outlook which is very admirable.

Many a times, we feel defeated by small problems but on a bigger picture, our problems may be insignificant as compared to those who have to put on a bitter struggle to survive. So sometimes we should step back and be happy with we have.

It would be great if we can save some metal cans for Uncle Yeo since we will be drinking more drinks with Christmas coming up! haha=) my long winded entry ends here.. Happy Holiday!

15 Dec Visit(Singlish)

After a long break from visits, we have the visit resume as usual. However, not many ppl turn up as many of them were not in sg. The group leader, Suan Hong was unable to attend for the visit while Swe Swe was not in sg. Hence, i was accompanied by Terence and Luke for the visit.

As usual, we visit Madam Quek and her place was always spick and span. So we chatted with her for awhile till her frenz came to visit her. Then we left to visit the next elderly. The elderly is Mdm Papa from Ipoh. It was nice chatting with her .She shared with us the story about her family, about herself when she was young (this auntie was quite naughty when she was young ..keke..) and also about the period during the occupation of the Japanese. The life at that times was tough. She says at that time, it was difficult to get the basic necessities such as milk and even shampoo which we took it for granted nowadays.

I felt that we are very fortunate to have everything we want and yet we are still complaining of lacking this and that. We are also very fortunate to have the chance to get an education which most of these elderly does not have the chance to do so. Ok.. thats all for now.. Looking forward for the Christmas celebration with the elderly on the 22nd December =)

15 Dec 2007 Visit [Hokkien]

Hi everyone!

I am Wee Kiong, a new member joining in the LB house visits today! Was attached to the Hokkien Dialect Group today with Wei Jian, Yu Pei, Fred and Yong Wei today. Well, the experience was not too bad, despite the heavy downpour we encountered (on our way to IKEA after the visits to buy stuff for the upcoming events), everything went quite smoothly still. :P

I was quite apprehensive at first on what I would expect on my first house visit today, but things turned out ok after all. The elderly whom we visited today were very hospitable towards us, although the blind sisters or is it the younger one if I am not wrong was a bit shy at first, but they managed to open up more later on, with Fred breaking the ice.

When we turned up at Uncle Lee's house, he was in the shower and we waited a while for him while Auntie Lee offered us drinks. It had started to pour by then and when we saw Uncle Lee he was still complaining of being quite breathless given the cold weather and we advised him to put on some warmer clothing. Was told by my teammates that Uncle Lee is quite a sociable elderly and he went on to tell us of his younger days when he used to go fishing out in the open sea.

Well overall the experience was quite like how I always interacted with my grandparents, and I had a great time today! See you guys soon again on the next visits!