Pink Shoes

I went to AOHD again today, with my actual group mate. I actually woke up damn late lols. supposed to be there by 9am, i woke up at 930! like watafak right? I reached at like 1030.

So by the time i reach there, everything was practically done (the Korean volunteers cut them all on thursday already). So Hui Munn and I went to thr Clinic instead.

The Clinic is normally open every Friday from 9am till noon. There will be usually a volunteer doctor, a nun and a few other volunteers to help. Today, Dr. Uli was the volunteer and she’s from Germany. She is not residing in Malaysia. She goes all around Malaysia and even to Sabah to volunteer. A few other retired aunties were also there to help out.Only the doctor can prescribe though. Usually there will also be a nun there for counselling, but today she did not come as she came on wednesday.

One by one they came to see Dr. Uli.

One guy had rashes because of bathing in dirty water. He said he is very itchy everywhere because he took a bath under the jambatan(bridge).He said the water is very dirty, but he had no choice.

Another uncle (the one I talked to) came and said that he has rashes on his head. He was tellig us how last time he would see a skin specialist, but now since he’s homeless, he can’t even afford to eat, so he cannot go to the hospital. He also mentioned that he was bankrupt thats why he lost all his money and does not have a place to stay now…

A few others came with leg pain and joints pain because of old age.

This old uncle was also bitten by a stray dog. Luckily he went to see the doctor to get a jab. He came to the clinic to get some treatment cream so that it will heal faster.

One regular patient was this fella who always comes in with headache. He says he is thinking too much about his problems in life that he gets headache all the time. He too was bankrupt and does not have a place to stay now. How sad… So doc gave him panadols and some other medicine for his other pain. He said he needs to see a psychologist because of his problems as he cannot take it anymore. So the Aunties joked that we could see and counsel him since we’re psychologists. -_-

Doc says that they can only treat  the symptoms but not the root causes. So sometimes they will still have to refer them to the hospital to get medication.

Food served today: Dhal wit a huge piece of fried Fish!

Mr. Carl, the feeding program manager gave them a small talk on the house rules of the feeding program before they started to eat today as he saw a lot of new faces there. He also mentioned that someone actually went to the kitchen (restricted area for volunteers only) and stole someone’s money! So he reminded them that they cannot go in there.

Everyone ate slower today. I guess it was because of the boney fish. Many came for seconds and some even packed some rice home today.

One of the auntie was saying how sometimes they cannot help it that they are homeless. Some people just fall into the black hole and can never bring themselves back up. I agree with her because, they may look healthy and able to take on a job, but most of them has experienced some kind of mental trauma in their lives that was probably the cause of their homelessness. With no support and probably no resources to work (I don’t think anyone would hire someone who does not have a home address, do you need an address to work?) on, they will be having so much problem building their lives back. After all, they’re all loners and alone in this big bad world as no one probably cared about them. Or their family does not want to be associated with them.

There are so many causes that I can come up with that could explain why they’re homeless (I took abnormal psych and we did the omg, bio,psycho, socio, causes thing! lols), but of course, as psychologist students, we usually can’t pin point ONE cause to address the problem as everything is multi-causal thing and everything intertwines with one another. personal problems, social factors, it all plays a part in making them who they are today. It is a sad thing, but it happens, not only to homelessness but also to all other major problems in the world.

I learnt not to judge homeless people today. Maybe even beggers. As they are homeless too, no?

Since I’m not keeping and official log for class yet, I might as well write here, to refer back when I really do have to write a log. Today was Day 2 at AOHD‘s Human Developmental Program Soup Kitchen. Only Dita and myself went as Ery was sick.

(got pictures in the website – This is what it looks like!)

So anyways, my Parish Priest Fr. Mitchell is the head of AOHD -______- Let’s keep a low profile in AOHD, just in case father sees me! lolsss. Not like he would know me! lols.

Anywhooooooo, today almost 100+ people came. We had a lot more volunteers this time around. Since Puasa month was over, there are also Muslim people who came today. The same uncle we met last week was here this week. He said ” wahh, today you girls cooking ar??” Cos we were in the kitchen area. lols.

Today’s menu: Curry vege, Sardine & Milo. No desserts today.

I had to cut vege and onions. didn’t cry today. lols, I’m making progress…I also opened like whoa, 20 cans of sardines. came home smelling like sardines. . . Owh, and I just realised that I totally suck at pouring milo from kettles. lols. we practically poured 2 cups away while filling up the cups. hahahaha. so bodoh.

Got to know the cook better today. Her name is Auntie Rosie. A pinoy. She has a daughter studying at KDU, a 9 year old son. She has been volunteering there for about 2 years as the cook and also before that.

She comes everyday at about 10am when we have already finished cutting them veges. She’ll start to cook at 10am. She then directs everyone to cut this, open that, get this ready. hehe. Head cook mar!

She goes marketing at Tesco to buy the vegetables and poultry each week.This week she had a problem with the chicken man at Tesco. lols. They didn’t want to cut her chicken for her. She usually orders 20+ birds on monday. This week, they refused to cut and told her they have increased the price. Once, they didn’t even want to sell her 20 chicken because they said limited 2 birds per customers. But she managed to talk to the manager and told them that the chicken is for the homeless. So they agreed in the end.

Another nice lady is Auntie Boo-lean. She’s the one always asking us to do this do that and teaching us how to cut vege. She is actually not married and devoted her life to social work. Interesting. Shall ask her more questions next week. Need to actually devise questions lols.

Owhh, and Auntie Maria has like so mnay tattoos!! awesome… lols. Some fella found a hairband and gave it to Maria. How sweet of him. He also found a comb and a used lotion which he wanted to give her but she declined.

There are also a few other aunties who are there to help (who did not see us last week). Somehow, they seem skeptical towards us helping. They look at us weirdly. Maybe its just me being over sensitive lah. Like when we had nothing to do (memang nothing to do cos everything is done mar), then we had something to do already, one of them gave a sacarstic remark, “wahh, finally got something to do already ehh?” . Like “em song” us like that. lols. Then another remark they made in cantonese. She said, “All these volunteers come and go, no one stays also…”. Like omggg, give volunteers a chance. Not everyone is retired and have nothing to do, we all try our best to help whereever we can right?

anyways, before food were served, they said catholic prayers in Chinese, Tamil and Muslim prayer also for the Muslim people there. How muhibah, lols. Food were served as usual at 12 sharp. and by 1215, everyone was done and washing plates.

Today I decided to sit for a while and listen to the people talking. They were talking about how the homeless sleep at night. Some guy, I forgot his name has rashes and it maybe some kinda STD of some sort.

(OWH OWH OWH, they also have a clinic at AOHD! An old nun and a few aunties are volunteering there to give medical check up to the homeless. I guess they are former docs and nurses.)

Cos one of the clinic volunteer was there and she was tellig him to go see a doctor (she also secretly gave him a RM50 note for his medical bill). So anyways, the guy was telling us how he usually sleeps like in Dayabumi, behind Maybank, behind Southern Bank, around St. John’s vicinity I guess. Then he says he usually just sleep wherever there’s place. He said the authorities/guards will finish their rounds early and they can then go to sleep at the pavement, or under a tree or anywhere covered.

Then he says sometimes at 3am, it rains, everyone wakes up and runs about frantically taking everything they have got in their arms-boxes (their beds), plastic bags of clothes (their pillow) and bags of their found items and run to find shelter. He says as long as there are some shelter like you know how it is beside a building, where there’s like a bit leftover roof, that would suffice for them.

T_T

I feel damn blessed to have a roof over my head. I think the more I help out here, the less materialistic I would become. Like, come on, they don’t have a house!!! They can’t find money to feed themselves. They use the same clothes each day. sleep on pavements and under trees. haihs. I need more volunteering work. I need to be grounded and stop being materialistic.

Please Thank God for everything you have right now? please?

Ok so maybe Facebook actually puts a reminder, but we’ll all ignore that huh and imagine that these people remembered my birthday, awwww..

(lols)

To everyone who wished me on sms,called, msn-ed, Thanks.

Yes, I am loved, jealous ar? hahahaha… (more…)