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♥ Tuesday, July 31, 2007♥

hey guys, i guess you guys miss me coz i haven been blogging for many many days and i am finally blogging today. *sweeps off the cobwebs*

I guess you are wondering what i have been busy with, actually, for the pure sake of completing my 80hrs of CIP, i joined this project named DOMINOES OF DREAMS. However, it was such a fun and meaningful project that i really enjoyed and learned from this project. The main objective of this project is to raise fun for our 3 beneficiaries, and to lay 50, 000 dominoes for the last week. We get a chance to visit one of our beneficiaries, which is the Blue Cross Thong Kuan home, which is the home for the intellectually disabled. i was scared initially and i was totally against the idea of visiting their home. the usual fears came to me; are they going to be hostile? are they going to be weird? will i be treated differently? is it really going to be an " eye-opening" experience for me? but my fears are gone when i reach there as i realised that they are just very friendly people. They are adults with a kid's mind, they are like very friendly young children wanting to know you more. they will shake your hands when you come and invite you to dance with them. Many of them looks like normal adults but they will still call me" jie jie, jie jie" some are down with down syndrome and have difficulties expressing themselves. At the home, i met a rahter rough aunty who you can relate to the "primary school boss" coz she loves to show that how pro she is, another aunty held my hand and told me" let's go dancing, let's go dancing." , while another young girl, down with down syndrome, simply pointed to the scalded scar on her hand and look at us, just as if she is telling us that it was a painful scar. Some of them are more normal and their conditions are more stable, so we are able to bring them out for walks. yong xiang is the person we brought out and he held my hand and shu min's hand super tight. He is a girl lover, as he will only hold girl's hand but not the guy's but i guess that he is still a kid at heart.

After this trip, i realised that they are a butch of people that are forgotten by the society. Have you ever seen deformed babies on documentaries? Can you imagine them growing up to be as tall as you are? yes, they are commonly seen in the home too and i am impressed not just by their caregivers but also their will to survive. Instead of giving up on life, they live their lives to the fullest. In their innocent world, they enjoy singing and dancing, playing badmintons or simply going for walks. I am impressed by their talent when it comes to singing as they are able to sing out the words in the lyrics, if you think that intellectually disabled people = idiots then u must be an idiot yourself. They can memorise lyrics and sing them to the correct tune. I am impressed.

The other was a talk by Disabled People's association ,as we all know, the government has been trying their best to provide whatever we can to help the disabled, but no one ever questions if they are doing it right. if you ever noticed, the transport nodes laid on the floors for the blind of the NEL mrt stations are laid in the centre of the station? try closing your eyes and imagine that you are a visually disabled with the stick, would you prefer to have a wall for a support? but sadly , the transport nodes for the NEL stations are built in the middle of the station, which will greatly affect the visually disabled which might be knock down by the rushing crowd. And in this talk we are also told that it is ridiculous to ask a person" aunty why are u in a wheelchair ah? leg got problem ah?" coz the answer you are most liking gonna get is, " oh i am feeling a bit lazy today so my daughter is pushing me around." Basically, we have taken care of the hardware but not the software. Instinctively, when we see someone in a wheelchair, we try to help them. But never insist on helping them with a wheelchair if they reject your offer as they are trying to be as independant as we are. Remember this : NEVER USE WHEELCHAIR BOUND!! IT SHOULD BE WHEELCHAIR USER. THEY ARE NOT TIED TO THEIR WHEELCHAIR AS THEY ARE ONLY USING IT.
Some cool terms i learn though hahah..

anyway now i shall talk more about the laying of DOMINOES!!! it was the most meticulous and careful periods of my life as you hardly sees me doing things carefully. however, i was so careful and trying all my best not to make the dominoes topple! It was simply a test of patience and perseverence and i am glad ot have nice team mates in this project. they are pple i can talk to and joke with, it was a very very pleasant experience working with them. I am glad to see my dominoes topple nicely on sunday 29th july. Glad to have joined this project and glad to have cleared 106hrs of CIP haha. I am really very grateful to him, who was there to send me home, despite the fact tt he lives in jurong area( we laid our dominoes at jurong west sports and recreation center), who was there to send us dinner, who was there to send me home when i felt sick and stressed up, who was there to provide all the comfort and love i need. Thanks ming.

this week is a week of english lessons for me and i hope i can pass the post test!

to all those starting school next monday, enjoy life as much as u can. cya guys.


my donut-addict STOPS!