Yihan and I were greeted by the smiling uncle Kng as he opened the door. “Wah, only 2 of you today. It used to be around 10!” exclaimed uncle when he saw that there were only 2 of us today. We quickly explained that the rest were revising for their exams or were taking their exams today. And that the Dynamic Duo needed to take some time off from revising.

Uncle appeared pretty well, laughed a lot and was talkative as usual today. He showed us the envelope indicating that he is to collect his portable breathing aid on 30 Nov at TTSH. “There is going to be more than usual housework for you to do today!” said uncle before he instructed us to change his bed sheet and wash his clothes. The Dynamic Duo started work without delay, mustering all their superpowers to complete the various chores. In between housework, we learned that when uncle was a kid, his attap house was burned down, and his family lost all their belongings, including their clothes. The government gave each of his family members one set of clothes and $3. Uncle also mentioned that he stopped schooling because of this fire.

A nurse from HCA visited uncle while we were cleaning the house. I didn’t catch her name. She conversed with uncle using Malay, as she is Malay. Later, uncle revealed that he is rather proficient in the Malay language, and would have also learnt Tamil if not for some innate fear since young.

After finishing the chores, we sat down with uncle to enjoy some Chinese songs sang by the renowned Malaysian singer Tommy Wong, also known as the spokesperson for the Creative Crystal Company. Uncle suggested that we have lunch together, and we ordered KFC as Uncle liked to have some fries for lunch. Our meal arrived half an hour later. To our horror, the fries were soggy and the chicken very salty. “Did we order salty chicken and soggy fries?” I asked. “No, we ordered ‘original’ chicken not salty chicken. But we did order soggy fries. It is stated in the receipt that we ordered them,” said Yihan with a wry smile. Who in the world would put soggy fries on their menu? KFC. “KNNN….we will not order from Kentucky next time. Pizza Hut is much better!” muttered uncle not very happily.

People visiting uncle next time are reminded not to order from KFC=) And also to get for uncle some Hokkien music CDs (like songs from the super hot drama “Love”) sang by Taiwanese singers.

Today, Taiqin & his trusty sidekick, Yihan went to visit AMK uncle. Both of us hadn’t seen him for a year, and we couldn’t really recognise him when we saw him. He lost a lot of weight & now his eyesight is blury & his chest hurts. To be honest, he could go anytime. Thankfully, his wife is still pretty healthy & she is taking good care of him & cooking for him delicious nasi lemak! His daughters have all moved out (so I assume they r happily married). One of their daughters bought them vcds of Hindi movies, so they can watch movies the whole day. The horrors! haha. Oh well… to each his own.

Anyways, they were very nice to us & were really thankful. Uncle even woke up from his rest to thank us & shake our hands before we left. Bless him…

The adventures of  T & Y continue next week. Hopefully with some more company ;P

Hi all volunteers! I am going to try and organize Project Alive in the December holidays. This seminar/talk is based on the book Tuesdays with Morrie and educates us on the importance of communication with our patients, as well as their perception of their lives. I believe most, if not all, of the seniors have attended this before and realized that it helped greatly in the way we communicate and deal with our patients. Therefore, I urge all of the new volunteers to indicate which dates you are free and I will try to organize on the date. Seniors are also encouraged to refresh yourselves with the skills and join us to make it a successful HCA event.

So please kindly indicate the dates that you can make it. You can indicate both dates if you are free on both Sats.

The two dates I am proposing are 19/12/09 and 26/12/09.

Yoz, for those who can’t wait to have a break from mugging & get away from staring at textbooks, want to join me for an unofficial visit this sat (21 Nov)? If so, pls comment & u can voice out ur preferred home, time etc. Since this is unofficial, we try to accommodate everyone. Also leave ur hp or sms me at 91700320 cos I lost all my phone contacts. haha.

-yihan

Hello volunteer….

This week is week 13 and 2 more weeks to our final year examination..For some maybe 1 more week to their final year examination…

All the best for the final years and thank you for all your spontaneous contribution to HCA and to our patients.

Thank you volunteers for their attentive care towards our HCA patients.

Yeah hope to see everyone after exam on 6 Dec And after Exams :  LETS HAVE AN OUTING TO RELAX . HAHA

Also there will be lots of fun during december holiday for our christmas party in HCA HQ… Hope you guys can join us… yeah..

STUDY HARD AND MUG HARD :p

Hello everybody!

Im shiyu!:) This is my 2nd visit and we’re back at Bedok Uncle’s this Saturday morning! Met up with Keith and we went to meet Elvina and Hongyu at Bedok interchange. And since walking is healthy( Hongyu’s idea:)), we walked to Bedok uncle’s home. But DING DONG DING DONG!! 1 second…a few seconds…a few minutes past…there was no answer:s oops! For a moment I thought that we’re all gonna return home again on an early Saturday morning! But thankfully, we found Bedok Uncle at a nearby hawker centre, munching away happily on his noodles:) We sat there with him for awhile before JunHong came to join us. Haha Bedok uncle seemed to feel stressed having us looking at him while he ate, he rushed through his breakfast. We went on to get some bread and yakult before we all went back together to Bedok Uncle’s place. P.S Bedok Uncle seems to like green:) From the Gardenia wholemeal bread he chose to the apple-flavoured yakult that were all green:)

YAY!!! Time to start work!:) Keith volunteered to wash the toilet while Elvina and I helped around with the cleaning. JunHong mopped the floor while Hongyu was there talking to Bedok Uncle. For a moment, I was gald to be there. I was glad I was able to see and feel everything at that moment. How will it feel like to be Bedok Uncle, living alone, eating alone, sleeping alone. Does he feel lonely, sad or wishing there was company? Behind his smiles and funny jokes that make us all burst into laughter, is he really happy?

After all the cleaning spick and span, we all gathered in the cosy living room talking to Bedok Uncle:) He shared with us umpteen stories about the history of Japan, and all his little life expereiences here and there. The time when he went over to watch aqua show with his friend!!! HAHA he even told us about how “pretty” those aquas were, much prettier than women and that they had VERY FAIR skin, according to Bedok Uncle!!! And not forgetting how much Bedok Uncle loves singing and his little english phrases once in a while that made us all laugh. I will never forget his funny tone as he says ” ok…BYE BYE!!!”:D:D But throughout the entire conversation, there were indeed much to learn. Thankyou so much to JunHong, our language translator of the day, for translating Bedok Uncle’s stories for us from Hokkien to English!:) Keith, Elvina and I were struggling to catch Bedok Uncle’s stories. Bits and pieces here and there. YES!! It’s time to pick up a new dialect! I wanna understand what Bedok Uncle wants to say and I want to convey our thoughts to him. For the sake of Bedok Uncle and all the Aunts and Uncles we’re gonna visit in future, let’s speak Hokkien! The new “speak good Hokkien movement”:)

It’s been 2 Saturdays. And each Saturday stirred different emotions and thoughts. I rememebered for the first visit when I saw Bedok Uncle’s feet that were turning black, I didnt dare to look at it. It felt painful, very painful it hurts me too. But this time, looking at Bedok Uncle’s feet didnt feel that scary anymore.  Perhaps his smiles made all the pain go away. It was already something that was part of him. He had accepted and lived with it. It became only a part of him. And what mattered most is his joy and his laughter. ROCK ON BEDOK UNCLE!:D:D

Many many more Saturdays to come!:) And in the meanwhile, let’s WORK HARD TOGETHER for final papers!!! GO GO GO:D:D:D

p.s oops this is essay:s

Toh Ann, Tiew Hock, Xiu Yuan, Hui Ting, Swe Swe and I visited Uncle Cadja yesterday. Aunty Cadja was the one who greeted us when we arrived at their house and very shortly after we started doing the household chores aunty assigned to us.  Swe Swe, Toh Ann & Tiew Hock even cleaned the stove & mopped the floor on their own initiative! Hui Ting, Xiuyuan & I did the generally cleaning of the things on display. They were rather dusty…given that there are some many things in Aunty’s house, it must be really tiring for her to clean them. She was rather happy that we were there to help her to do household chores so that she could relax (=.  I think that everyone did a good job!

After cleaning up, we sat down to have a chat with aunty. She told us stories about her daughters  & grandchildren…you could tell that she really adored them and that she was very proud of them. We didn’t managed to talk much to Uncle Cadja because he was very breathless despite being on oxygen. Aunty also mentioned that uncle hasn’t been sleeping well because of the pain (he was moaning most of the time we were there).  I felt quite helpless seeing uncle in pain, and aunty being worried about him and not being able to do anything to help.

THEN, uncle reached out, with much effort, to grab he’s cigarette and lighter for a puff. But after 2 puffs, he got too breathless and he snuffed out the cigarette.  I was both amused and amazed — how uncle’s addiction for cigarettes would induce him to want to more smoke even though it would make him even more breathless after.

Hi volunteers! Two more visits and we are taking a break for exams le.. so try to make it for visits this week k.. This week we are going to Bedok , Ang Mo Kio and Lakeside.

Bedok: Shi Yu, Keith, Hong Yu, Jun Hong, Elvina

Lakeside: Jia Fang, Toh Ann, Tiew Hock

Ang Mo Kio: Xiu Yuan, Hui Ting, Toh Ann, Tiew Hock, Eng Hui (10am)

Hi all, this is Rongyao here.

After more than a month, I went to back to Balestier to visit Auntie, this time with Jiang Tao, Hao Xing, Li Chao, Eng Hui, Hsiao Yan and Hui Ting.

When we reached auntie’s house, one of her sons was about to leave, having cleaned up the house. As usual, auntie was very cheerful and chatty. We then did the usual cleaning up the house. Hsiao Yan, Jiang Tao and Hao Xing brought auntie out of the house to chat and even sang to auntie. =)   They were joined by auntie’s neighbour and her 2 adorable kids.

After cleaning up the house, we watched 综艺大哥大 with auntie as she did not want to go downstairs. We chatted with her and she told us about a horrifying accident she witnessed at a water slide many years ago. After the show, auntie told us her son was coming soon and we left the house.

After visiting the various patients, I feel that auntie is one of the more cheerful ones. Hope that she stay positive! =)

Thank you volunteers for coming, hope you enjoyed the experience too!

Hello (:

This is Elvina. I am a year 2 student and a new member of HCA. (: To be honest, I am not good at words and do not really know what to type. But I will try my best. (:

Yesterday, we visited uncle at his Lakeside home. This was my first time visiting him and it was a very different experience compared to the previous places I have been to (Lavender and Bedok). 

For once, I never saw smiles and laughter – a stark contrast from the uncles at Lavender and Bedok. Honestly, I was a bit shocked upon seeing the state of uncle’s house but I was more overwhelmed with sadness. Uncle did not talk much to us because he was tired. But I heard about his plight from the other volunteers.

During the visit, I guess I was inspired by the volunteers- Li ping, Li Juan, Jehanne, Xiu Yuan, Toh Ann, Tiew Hock and Longqiang. (: Having witnessed volunteers scrubbing the floors and toilets repeatedly, some cleaning tables and items meticulously, and others enduring the hot weather in order to make trips down to buy essentials, I was sure that they possessed an extra something to care for someone who was a stranger in their lives, to go that extra mile for an individual- compassion, empathy, selflessness and love. (: This is something I have to learn from all the volunteers.

I seldom pause and reflect with the fast pace of my life, but I am thankful to be able to do so for this visit (haha yes, having to blog about my reflections was a key factor.) Apart from learning from other volunteers, I have learnt a lot more than I realised. I have always been focusing on medical sciences in school (all the microbes and drugs etc) that I sometimes forget that medicine is also an art. The provision of a clean environment and a simple gesture of care like a smile and pat on the back might bring more comfort and solace, than a mere focus on meeting medical needs.

It is sometimes about that human touch (:  

I am really grateful for this opportunity and am looking forward to more visits with HCA (: (: Thank you to all the volunteers who have taught me in one way or another (including translating hokkien and canto) (: