3J Joel Ngiam (25)

Service Learning

 

 

This whole experience has really changed my thinking of the place i live in. Before i went to the Home, i always feel that Singapore was such a rich and prosperous country, and that only a very small group of people are suffering and in great need. When i went to the Home, I went to talk with the elderly there. It was hard for me to communicate with them as most of them only speak dialects, and i could not. I was shocked that many of them could not speak or understand English, even though it is our everyday language. It has really changed my mindset of the way we live. I have become more aware of how some people can enjoy the simplest of things, yet we need the latest gadgets and entertainment to keep us entertained.

 After conversing with them for awhile, I learnt about their family background. I learnt of the many hardships these elderly people had to go through just to make ends meet, and yet people today could not spare a thought for these things. When i first talked to one of them, she started to cry because she was so happy that people went to visit her. I was so shocked that these people were so happy just to see people visit them. Through this service-learning experience, i learnt to be more appreciative of what has been provided for me, such as housing, education and food, and not take everything for granted. I listened to how their lives were last time; it was great insight for us of the time these elderly lived in. We also talked about what are the things we enjoy and what they usually do everyday. I was amazed to learn these people do not watch a lot of television; instead they talk to each other or just rest. I was also amazed that these people do not have board games such as Chinese chess, as that is what I thought elderly people like to do. They are just a bunch of people taking life easy, living their lives one day at a time, and we, people in the fast lane, have a lot to learn from these elderly people.

Before I went to visit the Home, I did not understand the people who are experiencing hardships, having no money to pay and not even a home to stay. However, after I visited the Home, I learnt how many people are forgetting about these needy people, as they care only for themselves. These people feel neglected by the society and it hurts them emotionally, to the point in which one of them would shed tears of joy when a bunch of students visited them. In the future, I will continue giving back to the society, whenever I spot an opportunity to help needy people, I will. Also in the future, I will try my best to find time away from my studies and jobs, to come and visit these Homes to keep these elderly folks company, because without these people, there would not be the Singapore we know today.