Personal Narrative _ for speech

   On March 16^th, I went to the center where they take care of dotards, as a member of ‘Dong-eu-bo-gam.’ ‘Dong-eu-bo-gam’ is a volunteering club which we do hand moxibustion and hand acupuncture to the dotards at the center. Because it was my first time to do this activity, I was excited, but on the other hand, nervous.

  The way to the center was quite far and winded than I thought. However, when I arrived at the center, I can’t move my step in there. Like a house from the fairytale, the center was very pretty and beautiful. It was built with red blocks and was in harmony with trees and flowers. I took my step to go in, and surprise again. Inside, it was warm and congenial, just like real house. As I looked around, I could see many grandmothers and grandfathers sitting on their chairs.

  We bowed to them and started our job. My work was to do hand moxibustion to them. I got a fired moxa cautery and went to one grandmother with senior. He introduced me to her that I am a new member in their club. I bowed and introduced myself again. She greeted me warmly and we started hand moxibustion.

  First, I put the moxa cautery on the grandmother’s hand. Then, I waved my hand above it to prevent her from smoke. I did this work three times on both hands. I talked with her while I was doing the moxibustion. She was just like my grandmother except that she cannot talk fluently like my grandmother. But I liked her very much and we did moxibustion in a warm mood. After I finished the moxibustion, one of senior students did hand acupuncture to her.

  Because I finished my work, I went to the other grandmother. I bowed to her and asked her whether it is okay for me to massage her shoulders. She agreed, so I started to massage her shoulders. While I was doing the massage, she showed the interest on moxibustion. She asked me what it is. I answered that it is called hand moxibustion, and it will be good for her health if she put that cautery on her hand. I asked her whether she wanted to try it. She said “yes”. So I tried to do it to her. But after few seconds, she refused to do it.

  Without the need to do the moxibustion, I just sat next to her and talked with her. She kept say that I am pretty and called me as ‘old sister’. She told me about her father, her childhood, and the house that she had lived before. From her sayings and actions, I could easily find out that her disease was more serious than other grandmothers in the center. I kept talking with her and sang ‘Arirang’ together.

  When I was going to leave, the volunteers at the center came to me and said ‘thank you’. According to her, the grandmother whom I talked later never did the moxibustion before. It was her first time to do it when I did it to her. Though it was only for a few seconds. I was very glad, excited and felt thankful to her because she opened her mind to me.

  On the way back to school, I was saturated with the smell of moxa cautery, which smells like cigarettes. However, I was on cloud nine.

  On April 6^th, I am going to the center again. At that time, I hope to help other grandmothers and grandfathers, just like her.