Sunday, July 10, 2005
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 freaking 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) 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 blablabla we arrived at the home. we had to sign in (apparently because there might be some contagious disease or some nonsense story tt lyn told me. haha.) 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.
-aysha