Bethany Methodist Nursing Home
Followed the WTWF on their community outreach to the 'Faith' womens ward. Apparently this ward is very pampered because our church has adopted it and there are many such visitations. WTWF engaged the entertainment services of a quintet of what I would describe as 'high quality chinese opera sans costumes karaoke singers'. Yes, those who desired could follow the bouncing dot on the lyrics on the TV. After that, we played 'pass the parcel'. Just about everyone is in a wheelchair so much aid was needed to pass the thingies around. Some got the parcel and didn't want to pass it on, not comprehending the game. I felt awful but had to pry it away to keep the game going. There was one lady that caught my hand and refused to let go after that. Think human touch is highly valued and sadly few and far between for some, perhaps.

Then we played Bingo! It was quite funny. It was semi-orchestrated so the winners were evenly distributed around the room. Next was lunch. About half the residents could feed themselves, but the other half needed to be fed porridge. Whatever the case, just about everyone had a really healthy appetite. That's great, I think. The lady I fed was mildly ravenous and she whacked a to-the-brim bowl of porridge. To be cautious about choking, we were using teaspoons. Can you imagine? Hmmm.

We passed out presents after that and engaged in ad-hoc chatting. Particularly impressed by one 88 yr old who entertained us with a cantonese ditty about Jesus being born in a manger. Despite her appearance and age, she sang with gusto, firm tones and loudly. She ended off by clutching the chain and cross around her neck, lifting it up for us to see and then rendered this valuable advice " lei kei ju". That means ' you must remember' - the cross that is.