Main-main with Elderly

In the past two or three months, I volunteered regularly to play with elderly. Well, I would not say play as the correct term but I really like the translation of 'main-main'. I did not think I made any difference in anyone's life, thus let's just take it lightly and go with the term 'play'.

This semester I really wanted to do as many things as possible. So I decided to apply for whatever ad showed on my Facebook feed. One of them was this recruitment to introduce world culture (and play) with kids in the 지역아동센터 (like the center for kids established by the government?) from International Center for Youth or 국제청년센터. Always saying yes before knowing how, I seriously had no idea what I was applying for.

There are two streams of application, for foreigner and Korean. I did not know why but they treated my application as Korean... Meaning that I had to go through interview and such. Well, it turned out the acceptance rate for the foreigner applicant is 100%. But never mind, I experienced group interview, where eight-to-ten people are being asked the same question at the same time, for the very first time.

My first orientation did not turn out well. They could not find anyone (out of 50+ Koreans) who could match my schedule. So the group leader had to volunteer as my team mate. Later he worked that out and I was moved to the senior team, which supposed to be full Korean. Among the foreigner participants, I was the only one in the non-kids team. I thought it was a bit weird at first but hey, I am not good with kids so this is a good thing!

I thought it would be easy... Like you come to the center, say hi, play play and bye? But no. My teammates are all superrrrr hardworking and they are a terrific planner. So they had crazy weeks of planning and rehearsal before we actually went to the elderly center. I was part of the planning team too but I really did not do much, partly because I don't speak formal Korean and mostly because I am not creative nor participative.

Chinese dance team rehearsal

They decided to introduce the Chinese and Indonesian culture, mostly because I was there and one of my teammates is majoring in Chinese. We planned a stage play with Chinese dancing for the Chinese part. We trained like crazy for a very short volunteering time. I have been away for too long from dancing, I could not really keep up and in the middle of the prep time I was dying. No excuse but I brought my team down coz I could not memorize the moves hahahaha.

Post-performance selfie

We decided to do two sessions in an elderly welfare center near Seoul Station. On the day, it was okay, except for the part that I ruined the dance.
We all wore Qipao and it was really pretty!

Group picture! Not so good but still!

The man standing is our group leader. He takes care of everyone in this batch and I was glad he could come! He is a cool and responsible man.

our 단장님

On a side note, I was able to integrate, have fun and laugh a lot because of our group leader. He studies business in other uni and he is very fun to be around with. Now you might notice that there is nothing about elderly here. Yes, I could not really communicate with the elders and I found that they rather difficult to be approached. They came to see our performance but we did not really talk or whatsoever. This is not the 'play-play' I was expecting for.

I felt like I came to a mini auditorium to do a show for elderly, that's it. Very one way. Neither the elderly or we felt the obligation, or rather the intention, to know each other better. Well, it is very biased for me to say so, mostly because I do not really know how to interact with them. I was scared I would say the wrong word, with the impolite grammar and ending up trashing foreigner's (or maybe ignorant Indonesian) image.

But things got better in the following weeks because our Indonesian program required interaction. We taught how to make Getuk to the cute grandmothers!

Listening to our Indonesian presentation

Before making getuk, we prepared a quick introduction on Indonesia and the response was okay. They did not know our 'salam and salim', they were surprised that women should not wear sexy clothes because in normal people's logic Indonesia is a hot country so you should dress very 'open'.

Hanyeong Onni with the getuk that grandmas made

Our team was more excited. Well, I like the getuk they made from ubi or sweet potato. This is Koreanized Getuk, do not think of fancy colorful getuk lindri :)))

We also prepared teh botol to make it more Indonesian.

We all love Teh Botol!

So we ended up our session with teh botol advertisement :))) The elderly quite liked it. Not bad. My team leader loved it!

The next session, we moved to a resting center (that's how my teammate translated for me, 경로당) for elderly and I LOVED it! It was rather small in scale but the elderly was so much fun. Now this is main-main. I did not even know that such lounge exists because it was a cool space for elders to interact and just hangout with each other. More homy feeling, less office-welface center feel.

We did our session in a living room merged with pantry. Only less than 15 people were there and it was good for interaction. We were able to gather their attention and communicate closely with one and another.

Doing Salam Pipi

When we introduced our 'salam pipi', they quickly practiced that with their friends, We also went around and salam each of the grandmothers. Super nice!

My cute grandmothers

I was really happy to finally be able to interact with the elders. I asked them to take a picture together with me and they were all very enthusiastic.

Unlike in the previous cold sessions, we stayed a bit to talk and just hanging. I learned that one of them is 99 years old (!) and still very active to come to the center. I also observed although we categorize them all as elderly, they also have age gaps with one and another. One is more dominant, then the olders tend to be calmer and do not really say much. We also got the chatty-grumpy type who look on the youths with a skeptical stare. But they all very much kind and fun to be around with.

All in all, I am glad I was moved to the senior team. It was not really what I was expecting for, especially on the interaction part. It was harsh on the prep sessions and first meeting. I was clueless, I could not talk and I thought they were very cold. I really had a negative feeling. But things became so much better on a smaller scale. I found that grandmas are very open and warm. They are supportive and cute. The setting really determines the vibes. I learned to come with an open mind and just try my best to talk, regardless of the honorific and such. This turned out to be a really cool and satisfying experience for me. I wish to come back to 경로당 next semester!