passion

i think the kids had a lesson on ageing when they came to class at home today. it was not planned of course. when you had an old folk at home, you don't have to plan this kind of lesson.

the old folk is grandpa of course. he had come out earlier from his room at about 6 plus in the evening and i noticed his pants was soiled at the back. you could see it very obviously. there was a piece of stool sticking on his butt which had also stuck onto his pants. the smell no doubt was pungent.

hence, before he could reach his chair, i indicated for him to go and change his trousers and wipe himself using hand signals. he made a u-turn back to his bedroom but plonked himself on the bed. well.....squished that piece of stool. i also showed him the wet baby wipes at his bed for him to use.

well, i had no idea what happened behind the closed door.....but one thing for sure....he did not clean himself.

and the second time he came out of the room was at 8p.m. when all the kids had arrived and were seated at the table waiting for the class to start. that was when the 'teaching and learning on ageing' started.

oh gosh, the smell that followed grandpa as he made his way to his chair in the living room. everyone had to press their noses and stiffle their giggles. i had warned them when i heard grandpa's door opened.

mom then had to write on the board and insisted on him going back to his room to change. unreluctantly, he went back to his room. yet, he did not change. mom then went upstairs to get dad to come down and do the work of changing his pants. first time for my dad i think.

so all the dirty work began in the room and i was requested by the kids to get air freshener out to spray at our area. request granted; mom had bought a few bottles for grandpa's room.

from the kids, i knew mom wore rubber gloves to wipe the room clean. the ordeal lasted for about 15 minutes i think because by the time it was all over, the cuckoo clock struck 8.30.

while waiting for the smell to go away, i shared with the kids my experience of changing and bathing granda and telling them the difficulties old folks had to deal with once they had reached that stage in their lives where your bodily functions were starting to fail. the girls showed their empathy and asked questions while one boy was still squirming with disgust at the smell and thought. phew....that was not too bad and learning still took place.

when grandpa finally emerged from the room, the smell was no longer there and he was in another pair of clean pants. that relief lasted for about 2 hours until my class was over and grandpa went his pants again after going to the toilet. i think his bowel was also loose and he shit in his trousers again.
when mom told him to change again, he just lifted his hand indicating 'later' but what he did was to lie on the bed and he is sleeping now. well, there goes the clean bed.

tomorrow will be another day to get him to take his bath and change his trousers. that is for tomorrow.

let me end this post by sharing a photo i took today at one of  the donors houses when we went collecting cheque for the building fun.

i miss passion fruits. the passion fruit at this house was really round and big and has such smooth and clean surface. the owner said they were sweet as well. well, i got one ripe fruit to bring back. will wait a few more days before i cut it open. the fruit still lack a fragrant that shows it is ripe enough.