Intergenerational activities

Today is youth day, Yu Han, Ci Dong who is from our befriender’s club and I went to the moral care center. When we reached the center the elderly there were dancing. We helped the officers to transport some heavy machines to the nearest cc. Then when we went back to the center the elderly there were playing Nummy, a math-related game in which the one who can put out all his card first can win, was also rather interesting. They were so kind that they invite us to play with them. It is my first time and two of the elderly taught me how to play. After two rounds I was able to play with them. The elderly said we are young and clever and we can learn things quite fast. It is a quite interesting game, and we really enjoy it. During the game we also communicate with the elderly. We use Mandarin, dialects and even English. We were very pleased as our English lessons were quite effective and the elderly really learnt something. By playing games we also tell something about our school life, Sec 4 annual camp and our hometown—china. The elderly also told us their life stories, something about Singapore in the past and how they come here. When we leave the center the elderly asked us to come again when we are free. They even invite us for dinner. We thanked for their warm invitation as we have to return before 8PM. We also enjoyed this chit chat session very much. We felt that both the elderly and we were willing to communicate with each other. We all were very happy as our service learning project succeeded.

Junjun
04/07/2007

the third inter-generation activity

Today Junjun and I went to the moral neighbourhood link to do some activites with the elderly. When we arrived there, the elderly were having some activities such as dance and rummy. When we talked to them, they showed their great interest in teaching us. I already learnt the game rummy during our first inter-generation activity. Then, they let Junjun and Cidong play the game, and they gave them instructions. This game is not so easy. However, the elderly kept saying, we were very young so we would learn it much faster than them. They said they spent lots of time merely in learning. I could sense that they still lacked of confidence. But actually they were quite good at it. They were able to do some amazing movement during the game. We all felt very surprised and the elderly also seemed to be very happy when they won. Also, they showed confidence when they won. Thus, we could feel that they became more confident than before. The had fun during the activities. When the elderly from another table asked one of the elderly who guided us to join them, she said she wanted to be with the students. She felt happier during the interaction with the young. At five o'clock, the neighbourhood link should close. Therefore, we were going home. One of the elderly even wanted to invite us to have dinner, but because the purpose was to serve the other people and not for rendering, we politely refused and thanked her.
After this acitivity, we think the inter-generation activity is effective in boosting their confidence as well as letting them have fun.