First day at work

Oooooh I am so excited! :) Today is the first day I am going to work at a hospital , as a volunteer of course and I am really excited and happy knowing that I'll not only be able to adapt myself to working environment but also knowing that I have not wasted my holiday being a couch potato like what I did after PMR. Yes, this time will be much different. I will soon be real busy with Anak-anak Kota work with Janet, Yoke Pin and my mum. Back to the story, And so I woke up at 6.30am, hopped on my brand new bike and off I go cycling with my sister. Then, we headed off for Adventist Hospital located just opposite OneStop or more commonly known as Looking Good. Reported in, met the real friendly Ms Wong in charge of the Adventist Volunteer Service, answered a few questions, read the Volunteer Guidebook and soon enough Ms Wong led me on a tour of the hospital.

Then I started work. I was to help out at the reception or registration counter. Boy, thankfully my seniors who were like older sisters such as June who was my best friend there, "Auntie" who's been working there for 20 years, Sister Prema who helps us send the registration forms done to different departments and Ms Dorris who's really cute and naughty. They were really friendly and they really guided me and helped me out. Here, I'd like to express my sincere appreciation and many thanks especially to June who has been a great colleague from whom I learned a lot (plus she treated me to a piece of a SUPERBLY rich and sweet chocolate cake heehee!!!).

I did some paperwork, showed patients around the hospital, had my free lunch at the cafeteria ,carried goods around the hospital and tried to comfort a poor senior patient who lost her entire luggage of medicine and clothings at the Penang International Airport. It was a real eye-opener for me and it was fun! If you were a patient or a visitor today, one of the first people that would've greeted you would be ME, sitting right in front of the large "Adventist Hospital - The passion to heal, the heart to care" board shining down on me. ;) Not only that, I had the privilege of using the toilet with the sign saying " No admittance. Staff only". What an honour! LOL. We were really busy in the morning as patients kept pouring in and most of them were Indonesian Chinese. That , surprised me. At a glance, they all looked like the typical Malaysian Chinese, they spoke Chinese and some even spoke Hokkien, but when they started conversing in Bahasa Melayu with the "true" receptionists I was helping out, the Indonesian accent kinda freaked me out.

OF all the sections or departments i visited, I decided that I would like to be a volunteer at the Dialysis centre. All the people there looked really depressed and it really gets into me too. Yes, who wouldnt. Hence, I hope I will be able to have the opportunity to be a volunteer there. If given the opportunity, I'd really like to go up to them and just talk to them and listen to them talk, just to be a companion, make their 4 hour session a happy one,just to let them know that people do care about them, remind them of how they can still live a happy life. Yes, I am not a saint. I may not be able to do just all that. No, I cant. But I'll try my best. Somehow I feel that I have that special connection or tendency to communicate, interact and care for the less fortunate especially senior citizens ever since I helped my mum out for the " care for the senior citizens" program organized by my mum at our residents association when I was in Form 1 or 2. That I have to say was a good program. Hence, it would be my great pleasure if I were to be given the chance to serve at the dialysis center.

As a conclusion, considering the fact that I have not only learned more about what working life's like, experiencing the working environment and stress people face working in a hospital but also made new friends.

Alas,
Thank you June!
Thank you Auntie for giving me that encouraging smile the first time you introduced me to Ms Wong and also all those times when I felt really lost and stupid.
Thank you Sis Prema for being my friend and helping me out.
Thank you Ms Dorris for making me carry rolls and rolls of paper and thank you Ms Wong for believing in me!