a little more to infinity

service learning day- we're all in this together :))

today was such an enriching and fulfilling day~

today whole of SA had service learning where every class went to different private organisation to do volunteer work.
A2 signed up with Dover Park Hospice, which provides day care services for terminally ill patients.

Its slogan was something like "We don't add days to life, but add life to days." which I found particularly meaningful. Everyone, staff and volunteers there had a part to play to make the patients' last phase of their lives most meaningful.

The past few days we had spent time after school to stay back and practice the High School Musical dance
We're All in This Together to perform in front of the old people.
Glad to say that class effort could really be seen and everyone was really quite enthu to do the dance well :) And our efforts paid off cos the dance turned out really nice! so we're going to do it again for Teachers' Day performance.

Anyway, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL rocks. everyone should go watch it.

So we reached Dover Park Hospice and after the volunteer training we started to interact with the patients.
At first we were all quite apprehensive and were hesitating to approach the patients as we did not know wad to say to them.
But soon after we all warmed up to each other and started laughing and joking. At times, it was really very saddening as they all looked very healthy and you knew the fact that they only have a few more months to live! Some of them are about the same age as my dad!

*We don't add days to life, we add life to days*

My personal buddy patient Mr Tan Sung Seng was such a postive man who kept thanking me for my kindness and praising us for our courage to come and meet people who were terminally ill like them. And his chinese was pro-ness can! He sounded like a hua wen lao shi haha! all his words all veh chim one..

Mr Tan Sung Seng and I..

And when he was telling me about his 16 yr old son and his plight I really felt so screwed up inside and was on the verge of tearing. Him and two other patients also brought out their family photos and ICs to show us their happy memories. At that moment I really felt very fortunate.

We had a rocking good time dancing and singing with them. I think they loved the Chicken Dance most. There was this Mdm Wong who was SO cute as she was SO good at shaking and dancing and was very enthu in everything. Cheryl's buddy was another of my favs.

She's beautiful.

At the end of it all, when the patients left, I was in tears. Can you imagine how sad it is if the next time you go back and you're informed that they are not around anymore...

On the whole, the whole experience was PRICELESS.
SAJC rocks for planning this service learning day for us.
But still SAJC does not rock that much yet lol.

I'm sure to go back to visit sometime. I love my Mr Tan :)

After this, I kinda hate myself for being so self-centred and spoilt sometimes. I've realised that such simple people can yet be the most beautiful people in the world. We have nothing left to give them in this world except for smiles and love. A simple touch into their hearts. I guess compared to them, I'm really one materialistic bitch =(

posted by Zinc @ 4:10 AM