//home visit-thurs//

Back from amk home visit.
Went to 2 students' homes.
Before we got to the first one, ruifang was telling me what her patients did in IMH.
It was to prepare my mentality when we went to visit the first student.
This is because her family has a history of schizoprenia.
Father is ~ so two daughters also abit ~
I was told that the last time someone visited them 2 years ago, the flat was in total darkness.

When we arrived at #02-12, there was a taller-than-us bookshelf-turned-shoe rack smacked right at their doorstep.
We were at a loss as the house was apparently uninhibited.
Right at this moment, their Indian neighbours was peering at what we were trying to do.

So we decided to ask them about the family's whereabouts.
Initially we were shocked to learn that the family had moved out 2 years ago and the flat had been unoccupied since then.
They told us that the family either moved to Woodlands...then corrected that they moved to SengKang. Lol.
The funniest thing was that they said the couple had two girls who are toddlers.
We were supposed to look for a 14 and 19-year old.
Then we realised that in our anxiety, we had read the address wrongly.
We had walked past the unit #02-16.
Lol.

I commented to Ruifang that it was a good sign that there appears to be light coming out of the translucent window.
And it really was not so bad as we had imagined.
A teenage girl, the younger 14-year old opened the door after some assurance that we are not some salesgirls.
In fact, judging from our conversation separated by the metal grille, (we were not allowed in) her family appears to be in a not-so-good situation, but at least everything about her appeared to be normal.
A 14-year old, enrolled in secondary 2 answering calls on her handphone occasionally.
However, our eyes did not miss the pair of legs peeking out from the door.
Our guess is that they belonged to her father's. As her father is rather ill.
I tried to take a closer view of the living room and realised that the house is rather spartan with old furnitures. Wah. this brings me to the question of how she got the money to acquire a rather new handphone. What about the bills?
Perhaps she shares it with her elder sis who should be working already.
I also did notice that her eyes were rather big but the way she looked at me is strange.
Friendly definitely...but strange.
Was it because that I got to know about her background so I tend to stereotype?
I don't know.

The second home was also in amk, but we had to take another bus from the interchange.
Quite near aj, in fact.
I met this girl before at a camp but don't really know her personally.
Haha. That time, I was in the treasury/admin com so I was supposed to collect money from the campers.
At that time I had no idea of her family's financial situation so I actually came up to her to collect the camp fees. She gave me a blur look. Then another person told me she didn't have to pay.
Now, having completed her Os and working at a bookstore, she looked different.
More confident and energetic than before.
Plus, she talked more too.
Maybe an additional income to the family really had helped.
I don't know much about her family.
But I can gathered that her dad must have caused trouble to the family.
Ruifang says that no matter how much we hate our parents, we must still be thankful to them cuz they gave us life.
It is our negative kharma.
Afterall, one of the debts of gratitude is one of to our parents.
Really hope that she can have the strength to do so.
Though it won't be easy to show compassion towards someone you dislike.

I guess it is good to home visit people sometimes.
I got to see more of the society's other facades.
In comparison, our lives are not bad.
And I felt that we are really fortunate people.
To have a good family and kind parents.