DIRECTIONS: Within two weeks of completion of an activity, attached a typed Reflective Essay with this form to your CAS Coordinator. The reflection should be in essay format with a minimum of 150 words in length. Make sure to attach this page to your reflection essay. Your essay should explore your experience. Consider the following questions:
Describe the activity. What did you do at each stage? Include dates where relevant.
What did you hope to accomplish by this activity? What did you actually accomplish?
What difficulties did you encounter? Did you feel at any stage that you were failing to
achieve what you wanted from this activity?
What did you hope to learn from this activity, about yourself, about others, or about
academic subjects? (For example: self-confidence, modesty, curiosity, objectivity, new
skills, determination and the ability to meet challenges).
Did anyone help you during this activity? If so, describe the help given.
How will you provide thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress,
reporting on this activity?
Does this activity lend itself to reflection on outcomes and personal learning
How did you record what you have done for this activity? Please provide evidence that you have actually done it.
When my friend William told me about his plans for the upcoming weekend (to volunteer at the Tzu Chi Foundation Medical Clinic), I asked him to sign me up for it. I knew I would have to make some sacrfices such as missing the upcoming Pacquiao fight, but I was determined to join the mission on that weekend (Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010.) I quickly wrote my proposal and asked helped from our CAS director for other requirements, and help set up meetings between him and my proposed supervisor for this activity, Mrs. Fang Lin Chen. After getting all the requirements done in a rush, I went to manila that Friday for personal reasons. On Sunday at 6 AM, I was quick to get up, ready to go to the mission. Unfortunately, my driver arrived late due to some traffic problems, and I left my condo at around 7.20, when I was to be there at 7.30! Luckily, the place was near, but again, the place was hard to find. We got lost and took wrong turns, but at around 7:45 I arrived at the Tzu Chi Great Love Campus. William and I met up right away and I was provided with my yellow volunteer vest (for easy identification.) A taiwanese lady toured us around the campus, showing us what we had to do, where we had to go, where the refreshments were, etc. At one point we passed by the main outdoor gymnasium where all the people for that day, were waiting to be treated and given medication. There was loads of people. As we were briefed about our job, I couldn't help but notice the different posters on the hallways with different buddhist aphorisms from the famous Buddhist founder of Tzu Chi. Those aphorisms were actually quite interesting. My favorite ones were "To have two good hands and refuse to work, is no different than having no hands at all" and "Giving is not the privilege of the rich, it is the privilege of the sincere." When around 9 AM came around, we were ready to start. Waves of people started coming in at the waiting room. I was placed at the general medicine area and my job was to collect the prescription from the patient after being checked by the doctor, lead them to another waiting room and give the prescription to one of the handlers which will then look for the medicine. Once the medicine is found, it is double checked by some other volunteers to make sure the right medicine is given, then my job was to call the person from the waiting room and lead them to the releaser who will then let the patient sign a form, so that the patient can leave with their medication. At first I thought my job was quite boring, since patients only came in one at a time. However, as time went on, I had to deal with around 5-10 patients who gave in their prescription at one time. Some patients were very demanding, and aggressive. They claimed that they asked for medicine before another person and some were begging me to hurry up because they had a "headache" and that they needed their medication ASAP. All I could say was that some medicines are easier to find than others, and that we were doing our best. After a while, there were too many patients on the hallway, and it was getting really, really hot and crowded, so we moved all the patients to a bigger waiting area. This went on until around 11.30 AM when Mrs. Fang Lin Chen called William and I, so that we may have a quick rest. After our quick coffee and bread break, we went to drink some water from the main hallway, but we were quickly interrupted when a lady came up to us and asked if we were volunteers. We of course, said yes, so she asked us to bring a 5 gallon water container up to the third floor of the building and across the campus! It was crazy tiring. When we made it back to the general surgery area, we hurried back into our post. By around 12.30, the patients were coming in at a slow pace, and we thought we would be done early, so we went on a lunch break. The food was pretty good, it was all vegetarian. At around 1 PM, we got back to work again and found out that we were wrong, there was a whole new wave of patients, but this time William was in the same post as me, so we took turns in collecting prescriptions and calling the patient with the prepared medication. I asked one of the other volunteers how many more patients we were going to allow in, and she said that we would stop at the 400th person mark. At one point, one of the patients were really begging me to hurry up with their medicine because of her grandpa, so I went to one of the handlers to ask them if they could hurry up with that specific patient (all patients had a number tag), and she yelled at me and said that her job wasn't easy and that she's trying her best and that I should tell the patient to wait like everybody else. Of course I didn't tell the patient this, but after a few more minutes, the patient finally got her grandpa's medication. At around 3 PM, we passed the 400th mark, and Mrs. Fang Lin Chen told us that it was time to go home. It was a great experience for me, and I learned how sad some people's lives are and how much they need help, but also realized how thankful I should be for what I have and continue to help those who are not as blessed.
