Friday, December 17, 2010

Dear Orange,

I went to IMH with Darrell and his Ngee Ann friends yesterday! Made new friends!:) Katherine, Yan zong, Marcus and Jeremy( who is extra friendly and talkative) haha!

THats beside the point. Hhaha the best thing is that we did caroling at a few wards in the hospital:) My first time, it was fun! Let me describe my trip in detail!
When we reached there, this uncle who was walking out from the outpatient clinic approached us and started singing really loudly: "We will we will rock you!" Lol! And severeal other songs. One of the girls was so shocked she teared and Jeremy responded the uncle with a "Yo!" The others were either trying to ignore him or trying to contain their laughter. Its really interesting to see how we ourselves react to these mentally ill patients.
Perharps when we say that such and such an experience helps us to understand them, we omit the important part: Dealing with these people helps us understand ourselves.

Later when we entered the wards, I was amazed to find out how we were very warmly greeted by the patients there! They were already standing at the door clapping at our arrival, waving to us and some even with handshakes:) I was expecting to find the patients living in their own world, making weird noises or simply just being very hostile. I guess we should never be too early to judge:)
After we performed, an aunty even asked everyone in the room to thank us! Haha they are all really very cute! And its easy to communicate with them also!:) I was talking to this malay aunty and before i left, she grabbed hold of my hand very tightly and asked me not to forget her. I felt so bad:(

Hmm, so funny people. THere was this female, she loves to sing, so Jeremy played the guitar for her so that she can sing! If you dont listen carefully, you might think that she is just making weird noises, but actually, there's a very nice tune behind it!:) Then theres this uncle who made one of the guys play the guitar and he sang this christian song to all of us. He was grinning from ear to ear by the time he finished singing! The guy made his day man!:D

Yep, so actually, if everyone gets a chance to visit imh, there probably wouldnt be this public fear of the mentally ill! Not all of them are psychotic, they are humans like me and you, they have feelings too!:)
I am reading this book titled "Born Twice" by Giuseppe Pontiggia, and many things that he mentioned struck me. He said ,"When we're hurt by diverstiy, our first reaction is to deny its existence, not to accept it."
THat is what leads to the creation of what deviates from the norm.
He then said,"Our need for the norm, if shooed away from the door, returns to menace us at the window. It's not by denying the existence of difference that we can fight it, but by modifying our image of the norm."

It is not only in the way the society discriminates against the mentally-illed, but also the disabled, migrant workers, act convicts, the critically ill... Too many to list! THese stereotypes and social stigmatization can really deeply harm the victims and impede their progress in our society.
We really need to change the norm!
Ok this is where I will end my reflections part.

Anyway, after the IMH visit, I went to my grandpa's house. He claimed that its his chinese birthday and got Ida to cook dinner for us! But it wasnt his birthday at all :( well, but in the end we still cut the cake, and he even gave us Angpow!
None of us dared to tell him that it wasnt his birthday. Is he like having delusions or is it just coz he wanted to see us? I am really puzzled!

Today I went to town with Nat! Bought christmas presents:) And then met waner and ross for dinner. After dinner the 4 of us went to walk on the streets. THe deco at CK Tangs really deserves to be awarded the best!:D

Looking forward to tomorrow! Gonna go for Nat's church service, then off to Ryan's party:)
Gtg, Ciao
Love,
Joy

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jiamin=) out
@ |Friday, December 17, 2010|