HOI

Rotaract Volunteer Programme

On Thursday it was my first visit to NUH as a volunteer. I was totally unprepared, save for the crisp new shirt I was wearing. Luckily Jon helped me print my volunteer tag and even reminded me of the timing for my shift J

Things started out really slow. Jon and Ami were more or less the people I knew best volunteering at my slot, so I sort of hung around with them. Not surprisingly, the three of us were unsure of how to start or approach patients. It was like, “let’s find someone that looks friendly and bored”, but we were surprised (pleasantly of course) that most people didn’t need people to talk to; they either had family members around or simply wanted to rest. And at first I felt almost redundant, why had I bothered at all? But after almost 30 mins “orientating” ourselves, Ami took the plunge first, followed by Jon and I. For some reason, the first few people I met weren’t particularly keen on talking (perhaps due to the hesitant look I had?). But then things started picking up, we started learning the trick of finding patients who seemed approachable and willing to speak. But sure enough, the patients who yearned for company were around, we just needed to pick them out! It was a good session overall, except for the tentative start.

Hmm. That’s about it. I wanted to recount a funny incident but I realise I can’t describe it adequately. The emergency exit joke seemed so funny then but I can’t describe it without sounding lame. Nvm then (: