Ageing | Nursing Center Volunteer Service

Jul 29, 2021

I don't know what "service learning" really means Face it and learn how to age.

This is an old article, written about ten years ago when I volunteered in service learning in college.

At the beginning, a classmate and I felt that service learning should not just help elementary and middle school students with homework, but want to do something else. He and I unanimously agreed with the choice of serving the disadvantaged groups as the service-learning course. After looking through the materials provided by the school, we chose this nursing home for the elderly as our service-learning outpost.

We were very excited, contacted the social workers, and made a contract with Jiaotong University. When I went to investigate the environment and service content, I was stunned by the sight. The three rows of wheelchairs were neatly arranged like a line at the meeting. Because the lights were not turned on during the day, the background was gray and black. It was a video tube TV. The screen flickered and I couldn't understand what was going on inside, and the sound was intermittent. The grandfathers spent their day in the team one by one. This is the first time I entered a nursing home for the elderly, and the most profound picture for me.

To be honest, each job is very monotonous, even more boring than the tutoring homework I despised before. The windows were taken down and rinsed and dried, which was a routine for the aunties and us every week; the floor was very clean, and the beds and clothes were very neat, because they were made every day. During the day, the environment of the nursing home is very quiet. Most of the grandfathers are watching TV, and the sound is not too loud. Some grandpas stay in the corridor and look in a certain direction. The electronic marquee on the wall circulates today's date and "please." Keep quiet" slogan, today is another quiet day. A lot of the time I feel as calm and peaceful as my surroundings.

There are times when I muster up the courage to say something to some grandparents or push them out for a walk, but it doesn't always go the way I want at first. The conversation I imagined is that grandpa or grandma could tell about their past heroic deeds, maybe not very brilliant, but always get something out of it, something to reflect on. Grandparents often ask which school did you come from? I replied, "Jiaotong University." Their reactions to me were very polarized, usually they were surprised or praised, and then we were embarrassed but happy. Very; some of Abo's responses were very surprising. He said that people died in the lake of Jiaotong University before. Because there was no guardrail by the lake, someone fell and drowned while walking by the lake. After scolding Jiaoda for a few words, Abo repeated the above. About the second time I heard about the example of drowning people he mentioned, I would go to other places to sweep the floor.

There was an Arbor staring at the electronic marquee all the time. I thought I wanted to have a chat with him, but I didn't expect Arbor to speak only Taiwanese, which forced me to respond in very broken Taiwanese. He started by asking me what day of the week it was today? Then he told me the name of the TV show that was performed today or yesterday. I remember one was doing a puppet show. Usually it stopped when the topic was changed. Ask me what day of the week is today? Later, I said sorry to Arbor and left first. The aunt in the cleaning room told me that it was okay not to talk to him, and I didn’t speak to Arbor after that.

At the end of the service learning schedule, I was finally able to push my grandma out for a walk. I have been looking forward to this opportunity for a long time. I, Yuxiang and Lifeng each pushed a grandma out. Let’s go to the temple entrance not far from the House of Charity , because there are very few squares on Ximen Street where you can stop. Ximen Street is narrow and small, but there are a lot of cars. Three young people push three old grandmothers. Passers-by often praise them. The car owners honk their horns from time to time to show their impatience. market. The grandma I pushed was heavy and made me sweat profusely. She often laughed at me and asked me to exercise more; Yuxiang followed a very cheerful and talkative grandma (I agree with the grandma I pushed), When we were taking pictures at the exit of the market, she was even more than YA's gesture, and she was in a very young mood! Lifeng didn't sleep yesterday, but he still pushed his grandma hard. Her hearing is not very good, and Lifeng always had to stop. , bent down and chatted with her in her ear, it was really hard for him!

During the last service learning session of the semester, I had my first conversation with a grandfather on the sixth floor. I first wondered why my grandfather always listened to the headphones and wanted to know what songs he listened to? When I asked, my grandfather was listening to Japanese songs, and when he surrendered to Japan at the age of 13, he was studying in Japan, and then I started to use Japanese. Chat with grandpa. Grandpa's Japanese is extremely fluent, as expected of having studied in Japan! Grandpa's daughters come to see him every day, but I see only one more often, even if they are on vacation for the next four days, they also book Will come to see grandpa. Grandpa studied kendo and judo when he was in Japan. Although his feet couldn't go, he could only be on the bed. Looking at his gestures, he felt that his body should still remember that feeling. During the final war of resistance between Japan and the United States, he said that it was very bitter, very bitter, that he could not fill his stomach, and it was difficult to find food. After that, his grandmother asked him to come back to Taiwan, so he went back to Taiwan. After the Nationalist government came to Taiwan, my grandfather could only speak Japanese and Taiwanese. After that, I learned some Beijing dialect. Until now, my grandfather can speak Japanese, Taiwanese, Hakka, and Mandarin.

"Life, student's life is hanging in the balance, graduation, graduation, marriage, child education, education, ...", "foot が歩かない.", "つまらない! つまらない!" said sadly. Life is to study during school, work after graduation, get married and have children, and then read to children. Now my grandpa's feet can't walk, life is boring, nothing exciting at all. I told him that your daughter is very caring and will come to see you every day; my grandfather changed his attitude and encouraged me to learn more Japanese, emphasizing that Japan is a strong country, and it has grown from a small country to a strong country today. Here it is, the one I saw last time. Grandpa immediately changed to Mandarin to talk. I think it was obviously different from his expression in Japanese, and he became much kinder. After that, I said goodbye to my grandfather, and asked my grandfather, his daughter and the room to go back and sweep my floor.

On the sixth floor, there was another Arbo's daughter who would come to eat and take medicine for his father every day at mealtime. She said to me, "If you come here to be a volunteer, you should know. This is what the nursing home for the elderly looks like." A little unhappy, he said, "I still have to pay more than 20,000 yuan a month." Abo's daughter came to feed Abo every meal, but how complicated the mood is!

These days, I don't know what I have served? What have I learned? What I have experienced in it will accompany me to live my life, thank the Lord.