Today we helped with the “Adult Day Services” sector of Fifty Forward and went to a church. The church had a service daily for elder. Today the activity of the day was bingo. Bingo is a great way for elderly people to exercise their mind a little bit while not stressing them out too much. We had one or two people at each table assisting the elderly to play bingo. We really didn’t do much other than just sit there and play the bingo cards for those who were not able to do so themselves. I sat next to an older woman named Ms. Margaret. She did not say but a few words and needed help to move around. They designed the bingo game so that everyone won. They would keep calling numbers until everyone won a bingo, then they would keep going until two people won a “cover all” grand prize. The prizes included junk food such as candy, gum, and chips and random household items such as napkins and shampoo. But this brings me to the question, why are we feeding the elderly all this junk food? Just on my fourth day here I have already sat through several health talks about how important it is for the elderly to eat healthy and have good nutrition. Yet at all of the sites I have been to, they have been feeding them junk food. At the Knowles site you could buy a plethora of chips and candy, at the Bordeaux site there were sugary cookies, and now at this church they were giving away junk food.
After bingo, they played some name that tune with the nearby piano. The highlight of the day was when the eldest member, Wilbur, who was 102, was playing harmonica and dancing along with the piano. It was inspiring to see someone who was so old so full of life and energy. Afterwards he taught Hannah how to play the harmonica. We then helped to serve lunch and played some more bingo. One of the other elderly individuals told me a sad story about how he was drafted for World War II. He said that he was sent away without his wife even knowing where he was. It is stories like this one that remind me how awful drafts are.
In the afternoon, we went to a woman’s house which was damaged by the flood. I was in shock that there was still so much damage from a flood that happened over a year ago. The floors were so damaged that they needed to be replaced. In order to do so, everything needed to be boxed up and moved out temporarily. We helped to box all the trinkets and dishes that were on the shelves in her dining room. She wanted to clean all the dishes so we helped her do that before we boxed them. It was a little difficult because there was only one working faucet, in the bathtub, but we managed. Some of the things that she had to say remained with me. She was still a little sensitive from the flood and all the damage that it caused. We came to help reduce the “clutter” in the dining room but she took offense to the word “clutter”. She said that she is thankful for what she has, and that she doesn’t think it is clutter. This reminded me that we need to be more careful with our words in situations like this in order not to offend anyone. I was struck back into reality when she said that she still has to live in the house we were working in. She had nowhere else to go so we had to be careful to keep the house livable. She was taking care of several grandkids that were living in the house too.
-Yasser Hassan
No comments:
Post a Comment