In-Class Blog-Writing Prompt #1 (Term 2)

Reflect on your recent CIP experience helping out the aged and underprivileged. What was the biggest thing you gained from this experience.

For this year, my class, 2O4, went to St. Andrews Cathedral Home for the Aged.

My impression of elderly is actually rather contrasting, being the type of family I come from. I did have visits to old folk's home before this year, but everytime I step into the home, I have his feeling of sadness and boredom, and when I look at the faces of the old folks, usually I just see men and women waiting for their time to come. My grandfather is actually the opposite of that, he used to be a pastor in a church, and now that he is retired, he spends his time playing computer games EVERYDAY.My grandmother however, had a stroke just last year when she was in her 60s, and is starting to become senile.My point here is that, just looking at my grandparents, I can see how two types of old people live their lifes. Many of the elderly in the old folks home are there, most probably because of family issues or problems, and most are just
waiting to die! After my visit on Founders' Day, and talking to some of the elderly, is that they don't really expect much from life anymore, they are just living on, "stuck in a hole" as quoted from one of them, without knowing what is really going on in their families or the world.

I think what really made them happy would be that they had someone to talk to. Being in the old folks' home, they would have been seeing the same people for years, and having students to lend a listening ear to them really brought something to look forward in their lives. Also during the performance, I was touched when I saw how happy the old folks' were, how contented they were, with just my class' simple performance.

I think there is a need to be more open, for me and everybody else in my class. Some of my classmates were rather hostile at first, but everyone managed to find an elderly to interact with at the end. What I strongly feel is that we should have some sessions on basic conversational hokkien or teochew before the CIP itself, as there was a serious communication breakdown during the CIP.

To be frank, there wasn't much that I gained from this experience, as I have been through this "experience" a few times. I was simply reminded about another side of the world, that not everyone is actually happy-go-lucky or stressing out with their busy schedules, that there are people, the aged and elderly, just waiting for their time to come.