IMH
spent a day at IMH with rich and other Achievers volunteers. prior to my virgin day there, i've been receiving feedback about how insane tt place is. but to the contrary, me and rich felt so comfortable there.
well, firstly, the place is decorated like a huge, beautiful chalet with mini gardens everywhere. and when i say huge, i mean huge. if anyone ever plays hide-and-seek there, you can spend at least a month seeking the hiders. and though the sun was unmerciful in the afternoon, surprisingly, it's pretty windy over there.
secondly, the patients are well, not like anyone i have known in my entire life. duh. they are special but they are not harmful. in fact, some of them are so simple-minded we felt so at ease interacting with them. they played games with us, talked to us, one even danced with rich. but they have no ulterior motives, except to get those sweets off our hands. so we use the sweets as 'carrots' to encourage them to open up and interact with us.
they dont know whats jealousy (except when they see one patient having more sweets than them), they dont know how to do evil (other than to steal sweets when we're not looking). in fact when rich told one volunteer that "IMH spells sanity, the world outside is the place tts insane", i fully agree with him.
ok enough of the serious stuff, lets talk abt the patients. well, some of them behave quite normally actually. one volunteer told us that in fact, a handful of them may long have been in a stable condition but because they have no relatives and friends, they cant be let out in case something outside triggers the worst in them again. tts such a sad thing to hear.
these patients here do not see the world outside IMH except once in a blue moon when the volunteers organise a day out with them to a park or something. yes 'once in a blue moon' is the phrase. still, there are only a selected few who can actually be let out with the volunteers.
hmm we interacted with quite a number of them during their interaction time. some are really talented at chess, table-tennis, basketball and what not. some prefer to sit down and talk abt their family and probs. one big indian guy with this super huge round belly is rich's best friend. he seems to tickle rich alot. the whole time, rich just kept going back to talk to him cos apparently, he mumbles alot and nobody can understand him which tickles rich. and rich just mumbled back. and rich loves to punch his belly and lure him with sweets cos he has this i-dont-care-bout-the-world attitude which changes immediately when u offer him a sweet, and only when u offer him one. aiya tt rich ah, just loves to disturb tt poor guy.
another guy seems to have a crush on me. haha. i spent quite some time talking to him and suddenly, his conversation turned cheeky. then he kept asking why im not angry when rich patted my back cos a male cannot touch a female. then the whole time after, his eyes just kept following me ard the room. heh. kinda freaky but he's actually quite a nice guy.
then there's this another guy who came to me and said, "there are alot of tigers outside, alot alot. you better be careful." to which i said, "yea. so its better if we stay inside huh." another guy went up to rich and ask him to look out for a lieutenant in e room. then there's this indian guy who asked rich if he can dance like michael jackson. rich said yes, followed by a brief performance. but the guy shook his head after rich's performance, muttered nooooo... and walked away. tt was hilarious. this same indian guy came up to me and told me tt his bro is fat and he's fit. then he asked if i like his brother or him. to which i obviously said him. then he proudly told me he has 5 girlfriends, 2 of which are his wives.
the conversations with them are just so different, in a gd way. cos somehow, i enjoyed them. some of them never failed to make me laugh. i just love them all, and im happy to know tt rich feels exactly the same way as me. in fact, we r already missing them. too bad the next session is a fortnight away.
anybody interested?
well, firstly, the place is decorated like a huge, beautiful chalet with mini gardens everywhere. and when i say huge, i mean huge. if anyone ever plays hide-and-seek there, you can spend at least a month seeking the hiders. and though the sun was unmerciful in the afternoon, surprisingly, it's pretty windy over there.
secondly, the patients are well, not like anyone i have known in my entire life. duh. they are special but they are not harmful. in fact, some of them are so simple-minded we felt so at ease interacting with them. they played games with us, talked to us, one even danced with rich. but they have no ulterior motives, except to get those sweets off our hands. so we use the sweets as 'carrots' to encourage them to open up and interact with us.
they dont know whats jealousy (except when they see one patient having more sweets than them), they dont know how to do evil (other than to steal sweets when we're not looking). in fact when rich told one volunteer that "IMH spells sanity, the world outside is the place tts insane", i fully agree with him.
ok enough of the serious stuff, lets talk abt the patients. well, some of them behave quite normally actually. one volunteer told us that in fact, a handful of them may long have been in a stable condition but because they have no relatives and friends, they cant be let out in case something outside triggers the worst in them again. tts such a sad thing to hear.
these patients here do not see the world outside IMH except once in a blue moon when the volunteers organise a day out with them to a park or something. yes 'once in a blue moon' is the phrase. still, there are only a selected few who can actually be let out with the volunteers.
hmm we interacted with quite a number of them during their interaction time. some are really talented at chess, table-tennis, basketball and what not. some prefer to sit down and talk abt their family and probs. one big indian guy with this super huge round belly is rich's best friend. he seems to tickle rich alot. the whole time, rich just kept going back to talk to him cos apparently, he mumbles alot and nobody can understand him which tickles rich. and rich just mumbled back. and rich loves to punch his belly and lure him with sweets cos he has this i-dont-care-bout-the-world attitude which changes immediately when u offer him a sweet, and only when u offer him one. aiya tt rich ah, just loves to disturb tt poor guy.
another guy seems to have a crush on me. haha. i spent quite some time talking to him and suddenly, his conversation turned cheeky. then he kept asking why im not angry when rich patted my back cos a male cannot touch a female. then the whole time after, his eyes just kept following me ard the room. heh. kinda freaky but he's actually quite a nice guy.
then there's this another guy who came to me and said, "there are alot of tigers outside, alot alot. you better be careful." to which i said, "yea. so its better if we stay inside huh." another guy went up to rich and ask him to look out for a lieutenant in e room. then there's this indian guy who asked rich if he can dance like michael jackson. rich said yes, followed by a brief performance. but the guy shook his head after rich's performance, muttered nooooo... and walked away. tt was hilarious. this same indian guy came up to me and told me tt his bro is fat and he's fit. then he asked if i like his brother or him. to which i obviously said him. then he proudly told me he has 5 girlfriends, 2 of which are his wives.
the conversations with them are just so different, in a gd way. cos somehow, i enjoyed them. some of them never failed to make me laugh. i just love them all, and im happy to know tt rich feels exactly the same way as me. in fact, we r already missing them. too bad the next session is a fortnight away.
anybody interested?
posted by geri at 12:18 AM
1 Predictions:
"thank you for bringing joy to the patients"
"No...it's the way round...Thank you!"
---Rich aka 2more weeks
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