MY trip to Nyee Phoe Garden on 25 Mar 2006
By Kenny Seah
When it was time to set off for Nyee Phoe garden, everyone was given the name of the elderly that they were supposed to take care of. Together with Yin Mei, we started searching for our elderly but apparently she was not at the gathering corner. We started going up level by level to check on her whereabouts but to no avail. Yin Mei went to ask one of the nurses and she told us where to find her. During the search I heard someone said that the elderly did not want to go and wanted to stay at the home instead. But later, she reappeared at the gathering corner saying she wanted to go.
Everyone was in the bus and off we headed to Nyee Phoe garden. The atmosphere was great and volunteers were singing in the bus together with the elderly. Halfway through the journey it rained and for a moment I thought that the outing would not be possible but the rain stopped after a while. Maybe the weather did not want to dampen the outing which was meant especially for the elderly and the elderly were really looking forward to it.
When we reach the destination, we gathered at an open air area where we waited for everyone to arrive. The scenery was magnificent, the whole place was surrounded with plants and the area was cooling too. It seemed we were like in nature. I even heard volunteer saying it would be ideal to hold their marriage here and I silently agreed.
When everyone has arrived, we were divided into groups and we were shown two different routes. The place was full of different kind of plants and at one point the organizer told us to smell one of the plants and identify the plant. There were papaya plants, cabbage plants, caixin plants and many more. As the garden was open to public as well, some of the visitors were seen plucking the vegetables at the plantations and the elderly follow suit and did the same. It was so funny as the elderly thought the plants were there for them to pluck and keep but they had to seek permission from the organizers. Nevertheless, it was a hilarious moment.
As we walked through the plantation, we also enjoyed the scenery. The beautiful scenery captivated me and I thought it was so different from our lifestyle where everyone of us would always be busy with our hectic lifestyle. I feel very relaxed in this place. After that we gathered at the open air corner and we participated in a game organized by the volunteers of SN home.
The game goes like this, elderly will throw a hoop onto the reward/punishment map and those volunteers in charge of the elderly have to perform according to what the treatment is. Some of the volunteers perform punishment like shake a bom bom, sing songs, recite poetry and make funny expressions. The punishments that volunteers had to perform were hilarious and brought out laughter. Rewards were gifts for the elderly. Some of the elderly who didn’t get any gift thought everyone was entitled to a gift and went complaining to their respective volunteers. But in the end all the elderly got their gift and every one was happy.
After that was dinner time, we had hor-fan and they seem delicious to me even though I have not tasted it. Everyone was hungry but the volunteers make sure all the elderly have their meals before they eat. Demand for Hor Fan was overwhelming and some of the volunteers did not have their food but no worries because the chefs easily whipped up the tasty Hor Fan in a short while and everyone had their Hor Fan.
Not to forget there was the singing session, just like our city KBox, this is SN-box. Volunteers played with their guitars and belted out the elderly favorite songs and the whole place was full of voices with the elderly singing so happily.
I felt the elderly must had a wonderful time judging from the happy expression and their positive body language. When volunteers saw how the elderly enjoyed themselves, they felt happy knowing their efforts were being appreciated and I was happy too because I was part of the volunteers that participate in this outing.
Personally, I felt proud and happy to be involved in this outing and I hope to have another similar outing again because I know the elderly would certainly enjoy coming out again.