Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Reflection Session 1

Reflection Session 1
Reflection sessions are a platform for us to consolidate and review what we learnt in our interactions with the HCA elderly. This is first in a series of reflection sessions.



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We paired up with another school(Dunman?) for this meeting. We basically joined in the activity that they planned(dodgeball) which they had planned already previously. The patients sat in a circle in wheelchairs and throwed balls at us students who tried to dodge it. My take on it was that it was a rather good activity, which invoked the patients thinking and motor skills, while allowing everyone to have fun! The guys from (Dunman?) played the game rather well, and I think that they had a better attitude in general as to us. We really have to improve in that area. I feel that we have to cater our activities more for the elderlies enjoyment, not just using our own skills well. We will take this into consideration while planning for further activites. Valiant could not make it for most of the time, as he was conducting a workshop upstairs. I felt rather uncomfortable without his presence, and I feel that I need to be more open to talking to all the patients there, not just the very friendly Indian man whom I met in our first trip. When we forfeited, we even had to spend a fair amount of time "planning", or more like arguing on what to do. We really have to change that, as it became more of a punishment for us than for something for the elderly to enjoy.

-Joseph
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On Mortality and the Decisions We Make


On the 10th March we had our second interaction with the elderly at HCA. On that day itself, it turned out that there were already students from Dunearn High School entertaining them with a game of dodgeball at HCA. They actively participated in the game, and it was evident they were enjoying the game; this is definitely something we should aim for- activities where the elderly participate in and are able to enjoy. Other than that, it was business as usual at HCA; everything as per normal, and the elderly took their teabreak after the Dunearn students left. I sat down and talked to one of the elderly at HCA and found him to be a calm, patient person, who would like nothing better than to sit down and drink a cup of tea. I in some aspects, the elderly at HCA are wiser than the general populace, who are caught up in their hectic lifestyle, always looking ahead at an unfulfilled, neverending chain of promises to themselves- “When I graduate, then I will be happy!” “When I marry and settle down, then I will be happy!” “When I retire from my job, then I will be happy!”

 We live our lives as if there was an unending supply of time to fulfil our desires and wishes; every second of our lives, we are exchanging our time for something we want. Sooner or later, there will come a time where we can no longer afford to buy “just another moment” for ourselves to live in. What will we do when that time comes?
A hospice is where patients with 12 months or less of estimated lifespan left live in. Every one of us will reach that point in time where we have only 12 months left to live. What will we do then?

Life is about making do with the time you have and deciding what we want to do with it. 
After the tea break was over, I accompanied one of the vans to send the elderly home from HCA. On the way back, I got to know this Malay auntie who is a sexagenarian. From a prior incident, I got to know her as the auntie who could speak 6 languages, amongst them Hokkien, English, Cantonese and Bahasa Melayu . I was intrigued by that fact. At 67, her command and mastery of the English Language was perfect, even more so than some of our English-educated students. In addition to that, she is also fluent in Chinese dialects. I was amazed. How could she master 6 languages by the age of 68? This was in addition to her being uneducated and living in a undeveloped Singapore when she was young. This bus trip was truly an eye opener for me. It seems that learning never ends.

Lastly, I asked her how she felt after living for 68 years and seeing Singapore grow up.

She only said: "I would like to thank god for giving me such a long life."

No complaints,no worries,no animosity. Only gratitude. 
I bow down in respect.

- Juefei
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Unlike the others, today was the first time I was going down to HCA for our project. I was nervous, yet at the same time excited, not knowing what to expect next. I turned to Jue Fei for advice and he simply reassured me with a smile- it was going to be fun. As we went down, we found another group of students there for the day and they were organizing a game of dodge ball. We joined in and soon enough were having as much fun as the patients themselves. I managed to avoid the forfeit but unfortunately my group mates did not. Soon after the games we began talking to the various patients. I started talking to an elderly woman of about 60. She could only speak Cantonese and I was the only one in our group that knew the language. Although my command of the language was not exactly great, but I pulled through and managed to start off the conversation. Through the conversation, I learnt about her, her daughter as well as her daily schedule in the hospice. Through this experience, I felt that it wasn’t really that hard to communicate with the patients there at the hospice, in fact, it was only a matter of whether we wanted to. Our group is going down again  after the March holidays and I look forward to the time of interaction we will have between us and the patients. I learnt that language is really not a barrier between the two parties; rather, it is an excuse for us not to talk to the patients. If we are willing to take the extra step, I do believe that anything can be overcome and this project can become a success. 

- Samuel
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I am not into the idea of doing our project with other schools. Today, some students from Dunman High (I think) were there to spend time with the elderly. Probably just for CIP points. Anyway, I really have very little to write about since the students did the vast majority of the interaction. Kind of. Before I start commenting though, I realize that most of my comments will sound rather arrogant. It’s not to be cocky, but I do feel rather strongly about certain things that occurred today.


We came in while they were doing some sort of ‘dodgeball’ activity. The students basically made the charges sit in a circle on/in (wheel) chairs. Then, the students took turns to stand in the circle of chairs and attempted to dodge the 2 partially deflated rubber soccer balls that the elderly were supposed to throw at them. If the student was hit, they had to do a forfeit, before swopping with another student. Not that all the students complied. Most of the girls decided to sit on the nearby cupboard and film the boys doing the forfeits which they took upon themselves to suggest. In my opinion, not doing anything important.

Unlike the girls, the Dunman boys were actually quite sporting. Most of them (poor, outnumbered souls) volunteered to be the dodgeball victims more than twice. The elderly were quite good at hitting the victims. The problem wasn’t the reaction times of the students; it was the sheer lack of space, and the fact that there were 2 balls in play at once that got most of the victims. When all the students were crammed into one side/the centre of the circle, the elderly simply needed to throw the balls at the approximate direction of the students, and those not looking at that particular ball would be hit in the leg or something.
Poor Joseph. He was the first of us to get forfeited, and probably the only one to get forfeited twice in a row. It wasn’t his fault really. His first forfeit came about when he was hit by a ball that I dodged, which came from behind him. He was supposed to do some sort of song performance, which the Dunman girls quickly came up with. Ever heard of the song “Watermelon”? The melody sounded familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what song it sounded like. To me, it was some random song that I heard during some random camp. I guess it was the way students taught themselves biology/diversity of nature or something. Anyway, Joseph’s second forfeit came immediately after. He was nice enough to stoop down and pick up a ball for one of the wheelchair-bound patients, who immediately threw the ball at him. Forfeit number 2. Cause: Niceness. This time, he was supposed to do some sort of dance, but being Joseph, he took it in his stride. Somewhat.

Then, all us RI boys were volunteered to do a forfeit together for some reason that still remains unknown to me. Perhaps we were too good at dodging the balls, or perhaps they just wanted to sabotage us. Either way, we had to do some group item. Juefei soloed a self-model show. It was received fairly well, although he ended a little too abruptly. The Dunman boy who triggered off the forfeit performed a quick beatboxing demonstration, which was, admittedly, quite impressive. And as expected, I sang. Joseph and Leon kind of piggybacked the forfeit. I did most of the singing, Leon just stood there and Joseph looked really blur while singing really softly. I don’t blame them though; I’d rather have them piggybacking my singing of the chorus of “You raise me up” than see them both do push-ups in front of the elderly and the Dunman students. Very awkward. Blame Leon for that suggestion.

Eventually, the Dunman students brought out their surprise: Some students hiding out at the reception area with a guitar came in to perform a song item. To be absolutely honest, the performance could have gone better. The main thing that shocked me was the disunity. It honestly sounded like random singing. I believe that the students could have done a better job if they had spent more time practicing, but I’m quite sure that they only spent a few minutes getting the performance together, since the students were all referring to their handphones for the lyrics, except for the guitar guy, who played really well. The song was not very well selected too. They chose to perform “Hey, soul sister”, which I am fairly certain that most of the elderly didn’t quite understand anyway. The problem was that the song was sung too fast for anyone who didn’t know the lyrics to understand it. Myself included. I could tell that most of the charges were quite confused about the performance, as usually, they clapped to the beat of most any song. The clashing rhythms of the singers and the guitar must have sounded more peculiar to them than to me. Especially since a fair amount of them were not English-educated.

I have to admit though, the Dunman students did much better than us in several aspects. For one, some of them were very comfortable with performing in front of the elderly, and many of them were very considerate. Also, the dodgeball idea was a good one, and I hope that our RE group can come up with something similar for activities. The guitar playing was much better than any of us, and a few of the students were able to connect with the charges better than we did. Not to mention, they were much more cheerful than us, and behaved less awkwardly than us. I do take my (non-existent) hat off to those few students.

- Andrew
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Unfortunately, the day of our 2nd visit coincided with our CCA’s B division finals. Despite not being in the team, I was really interested in it and had looked forward to watching them play in the finals. Initially, I thought that I would be excused from the visit that day. Despite my disappointment of being absent from the finals, I decided to make the most of it instead of sulking for the whole day. Time was precious and our visits were rare enough.

Even before going to the hospice, I already had a bad feeling. We had not planned anything for this visit. In addition, our external mentor, Valiant, was absent that day. We had also heard that another school, Dunman High, would be conducting CIP on that day. Upon our arrival, as we walked through the door, we could already hear a commotion coming from the activity room in the hospice. The moment we heard it, we shot worried glances at each other. I had felt quite awkward when we saw the other students. We had instructions to join in the activities in order to strengthen the bond between us and our charges.

We were all surprised when we heard that our charges were playing dodgeball. Unsurprisingly, we, of course, were the targets. Me, Andrew and Joseph were the first three to be volunteered. The game itself was simple: our charges would hurl soft rubber balls, while we attempted to dodge them. The ones who got caught would have to do a forfeit. The Dunman High guys sportingly went for the first round, and performed their forfeits with a flourish. They were able to beatbox as well as dance. When our turn came, I was rather successful at dodging the balls. I was ambushed from behind and in the end I had to perform a forfeit. Joseph’s clumsiness and large size cost him. Samuel cowardliness was apparent as he could not wait to leave the game.  To be honest I did not feel very comfortable, especially since we had to decide our own forfeit and I had practically no talents to speak of. I was really relieved when we finished the game and just watched the Dunman High students perform.

After that, as always, it would be the patients’ snack time, where there would be time to have a conversation. As I approached the patient that I had befriended, my first question was “Hey auntie! Remember me?” Apparently, she did not, as she explained that she had mild dementia and could not really remember us. This set me thinking. If she did not remember me, this would cause us quite a bit of trouble, as since we want to record her legacy, yet she would not be familiar with us, it would probably be hard to give us details about her life. Also, the objective of our first few visits to the hospice would be to befriend and familiarize ourselves with our charges, and vice-versa. However, through this conversation, I realized that it has only been one-way. Despite this, there are still a few people who remember us, and I can tell that there is still hope as she can remember the names of her friends and the hospice staff. Still, this would require a familiarity that we cannot accomplish with once-a-week visits, and even that will be interrupted by the upcoming exam period…

-Leon Chin
~END~

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