Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:17 AM
We finished our cip with a total clocked of 6 hours! (:
Initally, after finishing the first 3 hours, we felt a little tired as we seldom do volunteer work. However, each time we go to jamiyah to do our cip, we will naturally start having conversation with the folks there, listening to their life, before coming in to jamiyah and currently, their life in jamiyah. actually, many of the old folks in jamiyah have interesting lives before entering jamiyah.
After we've finished our 6 hours:
We've learnt that we should not give up easily. no matter what happens, there's a solution to the problem. there should not be an 'impossible' in our dictionary of life. actually before any of us that went to the home, we expected that the old folks will interact more with us. however, we did not take into consideration that they are aged so in so that they are not as vigilant as we thought. but they still played carem, mahjong and other stuffs. Which we thought that it was quite healthy of them to do such active and brain thinking games.
We were curious of how their life was like before world war 2. as many of them considering their age has been through the japanese occupation. most of them said that they have the determination to live through that period as they wanted to live for their passed away parents, grand parents and so on. so they thought us that determination was very important in life. overall, i might say that the visit to the old folks home( jamiyah) had thought us alot on life, and stuffs. what are the criteria that leads to a successful life, and how not to get cheated and gamble, etc. we've learned alot during these few visits to jamiyah.
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Reflections after visiting the home:
Beehwa:
I had many thoughts about the old folks home before visiting. I felt excited and curious. I wonder what the home will be like hence curious. Excited because I have never visited old folks home before :) The home is pretty well facilitated. There are tables and chair, games for the elderly to play with too! The tables are beautifully decorated with table cloths as well! They seems really well taken care of. They have got breakfast in the morning, afternoon's tea-time at around 12pm, lunch, evening's tea-time at around 4-5pm, dinner and supper too! Well, I dont even eat so many times a day! :) As what I hear from the old folks, they dont really like the food there, but I guess they are satisfied already. They don't like the food there because it's not tasty enough as it's less sugar and so. But besides that, they say it's good enough already :) We played with them and find them really easy-going. They are really easy to get along with :)
Yijia:I like the old folks there. most of them are very sociable and easy to get along with.
Sunday, June 22, 2008 7:35 AM
cip at an old folk home.
2 days ago, our group went to an old folk home called jamiyah. its mainly a malay old folks home where there are lots of old people staying over there. the first impression when we went in was, there were more old people than what we thought. after putting our belongings in the room, we went to a place which sort of look like a hall to us, where there are quite a few old people over there, some watching tv, some just sitting around. we took some games over to play with the old people there. micheal and jasper played board games with 2 malay old folks. bee hwa and yi jia took five stones to play with a group pf multiracial old people. initially, we dont have the courage to talk to the old people as they look as if they dont care about us and they look a bit fierce. when we tried to play five stones with them, they seems to be not interested in the games. an old woman said that she was too old to play five stones as her movements are not vigilant enough to catch the stones. after attempting to talk to them, we decided to accompany other old people as they looks like they were more interested in the tv than us. so we walk around and tried to talk to some of them, but they do not want to play games. so we went to join jasper and micheal. they were playing board games and the old folks seems to be enjoying the game. sometimes, just a small little act can satisfy the old people. they do not expect much. when micheal and jasper played with them, smiles were hanging on their faces all the while. this shows that they were happy when people accompany them. after a short while, it was time for their tea time. the four of us went to serve their tea, which actually consist of bread and milo. after tea, we continued playing with them until we went home. these are some of our reflections on the first trip to the old folks home :
jasper : most of the old people there are not so sociable . they do not want to talk to strangers when we tried to talk to them, but there are still some old people which are friendly that showed me magic tricks.
micheal : initially, i do not dare to talk to them. but after a while, i started asking them about their life in this old folks home and they actually opens up more. one of them even told me the inportance of working hard. i like going there (:
bee hwa : the old people there are cute! (: when i served the tea breaks, they were all smiling as they get to eat. i realise that they are easily satisfied. because when i cheered for them when they played the game, they were all laughing so happily.
yi jia : the old folks there are quite pitiful. cos when i see some of them are sitting alone, i went to ask them more about their life in the old folks home. one of the woman said that everysince she came in to this old folks home, no one visited her except her son. however, her son came once only. i was sorry to ask her about this, she look like she was going to cry.