Exhilarating Outing: a trip to River Safari

For couples and singles alike, Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love in all of its forms. This Valentine's we spent a memorable day at the River Safari with All Saints elderly. To celebrate which type of love? Love for animals, for the nature, for volunteering and most importantly love for each other.
So here we are at the entrance of Singapore Zoo all excited for the expedition ahead.

Ah Xing is cracking his head over the program flow and manpower allocation.

 Ah, as we all know, he's got this.

 The festivity of the new year is eminent in the air. Even more so when we all wear All Saints Home Volunteer RED T-shirts.

Ready.Set. Go! The residents are already fascinated by the scenery.

We are warmly welcome by the staff at River Safari.

Along the trail are the huge fish tanks with fish come all the way from Mississippi River,  Africa, Yangtze River China and all over the world. It's really therapeutic for the residents to look at the variety of fish, from catfish to stingray.

 Emerged from the rivers, we entered the house of Kai Kai and Jia Jia. But first let's say Hello! to this pretty Red Panda, or Fox right here.

The pandas are sleeping peacefully. A panda usually spends 8-14 hours on sleeping every day. That's why we all love panda! Because we wish to be able to sleep as much :D

 We are not allowed to get too near to the pandas so why not take a photo with this giant wall mural? I honestly think the elderly and volunteers are much cuter than the pandas.

 And more pandas!

 Here comes snack-time! What do we have on the menu today? Sandwiches and Tip-top curry puffs. And sirs and m'ams, we serve mineral water too.

 The nurses are having fun too. We thank them for joining us and taking care of the elderly's needs.

After the break, we pay a visit to our long long long distance cousins. Geez, these monkeys are cheeky. One tip: do not bring food into this premise. Not even if you hide it behind your back on the wheelchair. They will follow you till the end of the world. 

 And more.. fish! This time it's Amazon Flooded Forest. This 10-metre deep underwater ecosystem houses some giant manatees (also known as Sea Cows) and  Arapaimas. The residents are definitely mesmerised by this world's largest fresh water aquarium exhibit.

 And so we have come to the end of the tour. Hopefully we have brought a little more joy to the elderly before the new year comes.

Presenting to you our team of wonderful tour guides (don not mistake them for giant angbaos) . Happy New Year 新年快乐 to all and we hope to see more of you at All Saints Home Tampines this year! 

Thank you, Pierce Wendy Carolyn Rae Ah Xing for organising this wonderful outing! 

November birthday celebration

Hello November! This month we celebrated the residents' birthdays in the dining hall. It was nonetheless joyous. 

The residents were served crunchy curry puffs. Look how delicious they are! The residents definitely enjoyed the treats. 

That was Esther in yellow making sure everyone is served with food and drink. 

The bekery-fresh birthday cake looks so enticing! We wish the residents and our volunteers whose birthday in in november a fresh year ahead!

 Now let's move inside the chapel. Our 2 MBs (Master of Bingo) Tytus and Jike sure knew how to stir up the air and brought laughter to the residents.

All treat, no trick October birthday celebration

We were glad to have volunteers from the Church of Divine Mercy to celebrate the residents' birthdays with us. The exotic Putu Mayam (South Indian snack of rice flour noodles, steamed and eaten with sweetened toppings such as desiccated coconut, gula Melaka (palm sugar) or biji sawi (mustard seed)) was served together with delicious birthday cake.

 The new volunteers were very hands-on (literally, including this young aspiring volunteer.

 Birthday uncle and birthday professor and new groom, Choon Hwai.

After makan was Bingo time! Mohan found a very helpful helper. The residents also found new companions :)

Singing became more lively with the group of volunteers from the Church of Divine Mercy. We can clearly see it on the faces of the residents!

Thank you volunteers from the Church of Divine Mercy. We hope you found it a meaningful afternoon too!

ESN Carnival, a cruise trip back to our kampong days

The SATS- ESN Carnival this year was a big hit with generous sponsorship and hundreds of volunteers from SATS (hence the name). The Carnival was held at Marina Bay Cruise Centre, a very spacious and well-equipped venue. Kudos to ESN organisers and SATS!
Now let's follow the elderly on their half-day trip at the carnival. The atmosphere was joyous from the moment the residents were lifted up to the bus. They were ready for a day of good food and fun!

The residents arrived safe and sound at the Cruise Centre thanks to this team of wonderful volunteers comprises of both our regular volunteers and SATS employees. I'm sure everybody made a lot of memories that day. 

It's finally time for fun games. Each resident was given $20 coupons. The coupons can be used for food, vast choices of games, photos, karaoke and even shopping. Following the resident-volunteer pairs, we saw many smiles and listened to many meaningful conversations. The residents could exercise too while playing the games and winning attractive prizes.

This mama shop sells the cheapest stuff in town! And they sell anything from towels to bags to canned food.

And the list of booths go on, even consisting of a barber corner

Saving the best for last, presenting to you All Saints Home Tampines Game booth! Designed and decorated by Pierce and manned by enthusiastic volunteers like Liberty and Zendy, our booth was one of the most visited booth at the carnival.

After singing and playing with all their might, the residents were treated with typical Singapore delicacies served by SATS chefs. Wow!

Meal time is great bonding time. These photos prove that language barrier is no barrier when it comes to volunteering.

Besides food and games, the residents had a chance to enjoy performances from VGC (Volunteer Guitar Connection). In addition, NTU Risk Management Society with their lightning speed photoshop skills provided photo-taking service for the beneficiaries with this trishaw sponsored by Trisaw Uncle Singapore. 

ASH(Tampines) also fought hard in the "Show Us Your Talent"competition with our miniband together with our diva and divo residents.

The carnival also gives the volunteer the opportunity to meet and chat up with fellow volunteers they have not met for a long time!

Before heading back to the respective agencies, some of the residents received lucky draw prizes. What a good day!

Team photo at the entrance to mark the end of a fulfilling day at the SATS-ESN Carnival. See you next year!

Bonus: Our dear Cameraman Benny in action. He was busy running around that day. Actually not that day only :D