When my group reached St Luke’s Hospital, we were brought to a conference room by a volunteer in the hospital who later introduced herself as Rong Yi (I hope I got her name right!). While waiting for further instructions from her, my group actually took pictures in the small compact room (thanks Ammar for being our photographer for the day!).
After ten minutes or so, Rong Yi took us for a tour around the hospital. Honestly, I cannot remember how many wards we went to! However, I can still remember that we interacted with the elderly and sickly in the hospital. We waved to them and said hello to them. The boys in my group even started a conversation with an old lady!
Once the tour ended, Rong Yi divided my group into two smaller groups. The four boys in my group were led to a storeroom while the rest of us girls went back to the conference room. Actually, my group had to do administrative work during the three hours we were in St Luke’s Hospital.
What was the girls’ task? We were supposed to pack brochures and pamphlets as well as the most recent St Luke’s Hospital newsletter into envelopes. According to Rong Yi, these envelopes will be posted and sent to people who are interested to know more about the many services provided in St Luke’s Hospital.
What were the boys supposed to do? Their task was the complete opposite of the girl’s task! The boys had to rip paper from the piles of files in the storeroom and put the paper in cardboard boxes, which I guess will be sent for recycling later.
GIRLS VS BOYS
PACKING PAPER NICELY
VS
TEARING AND CRUMPLING PAPER
When I stepped into the storeroom to check on the boys, I felt as if I had just entered a war zone. Paper and files were strewn on the floor. Everything was in a disorganised and untidy state in the storeroom. You know what? I actually caught Ammar and Zi Yang jumping on top the mountain of paper in the cardboard boxes!
However, on the girls’ side, it was very calm and peaceful. The six of us were so engrossed in packing the many information booklets neatly into the envelopes that we did not even feel the time passing by. Said Natasha, “I feel as if I am a human machine!”
Once the boys had completed their task in the storeroom, they joined us girls and helped us out. They really speeded things up. We had to constantly ask Rong Yi to print and photocopy more pamphlets and brochures as we were running out of them.
2000 envelopes. That was in fact the approximate number of envelopes my group of 10 people packed for St Luke’s Hospital. I bet many of you are in disbelief as to the amount of envelopes we packed as it seems too large a number. Well, all I can say is this. Once my group members and I put out heart and soul into doing what we were instructed to do by Rong Yi, be it packing envelopes or ripping paper from files, anything is possible for us to accomplish. What matters most to us is that we are helping out at St Luke’s Hospital. That is our little way of contributing back to the society.
One word to sum up our day at St Luke’s Hospital: FUN! Thanks to the jokers in my group like Ammar, Xiong Jie and Zi Yang for constantly cracking the rest of us up while we were packing the envelopes. To all my group members, good job guys! We did well!
