Just yesterday, we had our first sessions with the members of Hougang Care Centre… and things did not go as planned.

Much to our dismay, it started raining just around the time the members arrived and we did not create a Plan B in case it rains. So we decided to send the members who came for swimming to the zumba class the school also has for the Hougang Care Centre.

Even though we though we had planned properly we didn’t account for the one thing that could disrupt our class, Singapore’s sudden, unexpected showers of rain.

So instead of swimming, we created a Plan B (which is sending them to zumba) in case of rain. Due this our interactions with the members where very limited, but I did get to speak to one member.

The member told us about his Schizophrenia (it was also the reason he was in the centre). Coincidently, my uncle is also a Schizophrenic, so his story really hit home. He told us that his mother was paying for him to be a member, but his mother is old and will die soon, which leave him motherless and without a source of income. Although this is not the case with my uncle as my parents pay for his treatment, I still felt… moved… I never really expected him to be so open.  I also didn’t expect him to be so wise, he told us how important it is that we study well and get jobs as one day our parents won’t able to support us.

Hopefully, it doesn’t rain during our next session and I get to interact with more of the members and get to listen to their story.