Went to do some charity work called "GIVE A HOPE" this morning... not a very fruitful one, but at least i made my first step in helping to make this world a better one. Not as in how obama does it, but how little things make the world a better one...
woke up early ard 7 plus in the morning to make my way to mediacorp to meetup with the rest to get to boon lay. Pooling in for a transport together is so much cheaper den each of us taking a cab to the ulu paliah boon lay cc. haha... well, i was nvr a west person, so anywhere beyond north and orchard sounds ulu paliah to me..
some of us prepared meals, some of us (like me) got no money and no expertise, can only contribute the coolie side of us.. haha!
we gathered at boon lay cc, divided the students up into groups and each group was given 4 families to visit...
according to the grc, the families that we'll be visiting are supposed to be one of the poorest and needy... the first family we went to was quite erm... "inspirational"???
This family consists of an old couple, think they're in their late 60s or 70s.. a 32 yr old daughter and a 30 yr old son with down syndrome...
Their house is in a mess, the 30 yr old son look like a 15 yr old kid sleeping alone in the room. the old lady could not walk and was just hospitalised recently, the old man had arthritis and could not walk properly, and even so, he did not seek medical treatment as he knows it is costly. The son could not even take care of himself.
When we went into the house, the old man greeted us with so much enthusiasm. He was so cheerful and even sang songs and told us stories. One of our aims today is to find out their needs and wishes. When we asked the old couple abt their wish, the old man said, "i wish to have a job, so that i can help out my daughter who is working so hard to support the whole family and still have to take care of the mother's hospital bills." This old man who could not even walk properly has only one wish, to get a job so that he can help support the family.
I felt so minute when i heard that coming out from his mouth. We young and healthy people are all complaining about our jobs and how complaining on how low our wages are, while, the old man's only wish is to get a job to help support the family.
i used to think that why is god so unfair to me? why do i have to support my family at this age when the rest of my peers are happily studying or working for their own while i have such burdens to carry on my shoulders? but when i see this family, i know i am not at all such poor thing. I am fortunate than a lot a lot of other people living around us, just that we don't get to see them.
its kind of a wake up call to me. waking me up to see how fortunate i am and how i can help the needy.
There is this other family whereby there's a 36 yr old son and a less-than-60yr old mother.
once i walk closer to the unit, we looked at each other, thinking if we got the wrong unit. the house looks ok. the people inside looks normal. they have wireless internet connection, the latest acer netbook (trust me, i just been to the pc show, it is the latest blue colour acer netbook), they have a 29 inch tv too... my mind was thinking, omg, i think this family is more well off than my family...
Later in the conversation, the guy told us that he earned 2850 per month. WTF! i dun even earn that much! in the case, i think i can qualify as the needy too! And the person even rented out one of his rooms to some workers and is collecting rent every month. WTF REALLY WTF... he really made me want to curse and swear...
and they just sold their apartment for 180k cash payout into the mum's cpf which she can already withdraw out... more WTF...
and now he is complaining that hdb dun grant him any loan cos he does not have cpf contribution as he is a contract worker. saying he is an ex bankruptcy, a yellow ribbon ex offender... WTF... He is trying to tell us to appeal for the hdb loan cos he has to hand over his key by july 21.. WTF. who on earth ask you to sell your flat? and u're earning so much per month, your mum gets monthly payouts from cpf, and you are here talking cock??? the mere mention of this guy makes me boil.. really CMI....
anyways, today is the last day of holidays... i'm glad that i ended it on a meaningful note.
till then, cheerios...
