Journal Update (Chin Yee)

before i update about work, as part of chinnie's construction and upgrading works, please feel free to help chinnie fill in her Johari's and Nohari's windows. :) does anyone else have one too?

seniors' fair

goodness all i can remember was the terror on the 1st day when lots of elderly came streaming into the fair even before 11am. the fun pack redemption cards were so elderly-unfriendly! it was all in english and the elderly didn't understand a thing, so we had to explain to them what the procedures were, mainly in mandarin. i also found the fun pack redemption criteria a bit too demanding for the elderly. especially the section (b) which required them to either sign up as a volunteer or attend a talk or fill in a feedback form. there were loads of them who didn't understand the feedback form and initially at the registration/feedback booth there was a crowd since we had to take time to explain to them one by one what each section of the feedback form meant and later on, we even had to help them fill in the feedback forms as we read to them and obtained their answers verbally. i'm glad later on we managed to exercise discretion and scrap the section (b) requirement for the elderly who really can't read and write, to let them redeem their fun packs with just visiting the booths and playing 1 game.

the 2nd day afternoon saw me helping to distribute balloons at the balloon sculpturing distribution booth. as with all free stuff being distributed, i saw the ugly side of singaporeans... those who demanded more than 1 balloon (there was this mother with 2 kids and after the 2 kids received a balloon each, the mother then requested for 2 more for her other kids at home), and those who 'snatched' the balloon designs that they wanted. i really wondered where did contentment go. then i looked at the elderly couple happily designing more and more balloon sculptures, they didn't mind it at all, and i respected their joy and hard work in making the balloon sculptures to add joy to the kids and the elderly receipients of the balloons. :) so i just had to kindly ask the people waiting for balloons to patiently wait, especially if they had special requests for the balloon designs.

spring cleaning

very thankful that i had the IFPAS volunteers together in my group to clean this cantonese lady's home. they did most of the interaction with the elderly since they were more fluent in cantonese, while i only understood bits and pieces of conversations and just nodded or gestured. i have seen other 1-room flats before, and this home we had to clean was very much in a good condition and it was really tidy. we helped to clean her door, her windows & grilles, her sinks, and then mopped the floor. the 2 IFPAS guys were really good and experienced - they knew what cleaning solutions to use (alkaline, bleach) to remove the dirt stains on the floor, and they used the cinderella method to really scrub the floor to remove the stains before we helped to mop it up using mops.

it was good exposure and i hoped the elderly lady was pleased with the clean-up we did to make her home less dusty. my mom was like jokingly complaining that i hardly help her with the housework at home but instead offer to help other people clean their homes. hehe. as with working with elderly, my one huge major major big problem would be the lack of fluent dialect skills. i'm half cantonese half hakka, and i understand quite some bits of both dialects, but have a problem with expressing what i want to say in the dialects, which totally deters communication.

heritage trail @ chinatown

i felt really lousy and i think i didn't do a good job as a guide at all. what spoilt my mood was right from the start after we set off and when i explained some symbolisms and significance of fruits and cny decorations, when the 2 china students muttered in chinese "why is she speaking to us as if we're not from china? why does she think that we don't know our own chinese heritage?". it was pretty discouraging and i guess i totally didn't expect that, hence wasn't very ready to accept such a remark. and so for the rest of the trail i spoke less (which is really bad because i'm already not a very chatty person), and focused mainly on sharing the history of certain buildings and roads in chinatown, rather than the chinese new year traditions and goodies/decorations being sold. then again halfway through after coming down from the bridge i lost phoebe (my partner guide) together with the front group of people. and so after waiting for a while but to no avail, i just continued leading the other half of our group back to the kreta ayer cc.

i guess it's a lesson worth learning, and i now feel more prepared for my next trail which will be either on friday morning or the coming saturday again. i now can anticipate certain stuff and be more prepared for the next trail. like i had ideas flying through my head to get a rafia string thing to really literally 'group' my group together and have us all move together in the rafia string that is to be held by one person at the front and at the back, so that we won't get lost halfway through the ultra crowded chinatown and it'll be easier when we need to stop to buy food/things or stop to explain the cny interesting facts/history.