On November 21st 2012, the whole community service band went to visit the Fu Hong society. When we got there, the people happily greeted us with heart warming smiles. As soon as I walked in, I could tell they were very excited to see us come and perform for them. To provide some background information, the people who live in that place are weak-minded meaning they live and behave a little different than that of normal people.
Since it was my second time there, I wasn't really shy and actually recognized some familiar faces (of course they won't remember me unless I see them everyday). However, this was the first time I actually performed music for mental diseased people and never experienced what this performance was going to be like.
After setting up our instruments, we introduced them the Christmas songs we were going to play (Silent Night, Joy to the World). Even though some of them didn't realized the names of the songs, the band began to play. As I played my instrument, I looked up to see what their reactions were like. I realized that they were peacefully enjoying our music and they also were very engaged as well!
Once we were done with our pieces, we played two games with them: Guess the Action (which a person must act out a certain object or action and the others will guess) and Traffic Lights (which people must stop when lights were red). Since I was in charge of the games, I explained to them the rules and played alongside with them as well. They had a really fun time during the games but unfortunately it was time for us to leave, but before leaving we played them the last three random songs (If You Are Happy, and two other chinese songs that we made up). The people were so engaged, they stood up and danced with each other! The band knew that they were successful in making them extremely satisfied.
Once we started packing up our instruments, some of them said, "Farewell! Hope to see you again!" On the way back to school, I realized that this performance made a change in a part of these people's lives. The people during that period was able to experience something they hardly ever do and I hope that they had fun with us!
