| PROYECTO
VIDA HOSPICE OPENS
A personal reflection of two wonderful
weeks
This summer I was invited by Sister
Dee to join her, Sister Marlene and members of the Proyecto
Vida team at the official opening of the hospice. I
arrived on August 15th 2005 and was immediately put
to work helping to cement the roof of part of the building.
My job was to help lift buckets of cement onto the roof.
The hard work of mixing the cement and laying it was
being done by other team members.
By the following morning it was obvious
that working with cement was not for me and I was given
‘light duties’ instead. These consisted
of painting the railings around the hospice; a task
that seemed never ending. Green paint went everywhere
with some finding its way onto the railings and some
onto the white painted walls. This meant I spent as
much time repainting the white walls as I did painting
the railings green. My fellow painters greeted my artistic
attempts with much patience and not a little humour.
As August 28th drew ever closer, so
the Proyecto Vida team worked harder painting and cleaning
the wards, washing the floors, moving the furniture
into the rooms, preparing the garden, organising the
chapel and more cementing and painting. All the time
there was a joyful comradeship amongst the team. We
were nearing the conclusion of the task – the
building of the hospice and were looking forward to
its official opening.
August 28th dawned bright and warm
with little sign of rain. The food began to arrive and
so too did the guests. Over 500 people eventually came
to join us and Mass was a wonderfully joyful and musical
celebration. There were presentations to all who had
helped in so many ways. I will treasure for ever the
glass plaque that sits above me on my desk as I type
this. My only regret is that I was unable to reply in
Spanish to the kind words spoken to me and to all those
in the UK and Ireland who helped raise the funds for
the hospice.
The Proyecto Vida hospice is a wonderful
testimony to the enthusiasm and commitment of so many
people. In particular, it is a reminder that, if we
all work together, we can, in the words of a recent
pop song, ‘reach for the sky’. What I shall
remember most from my all too short visit, are the many
friends I made; friends whose smiles continue to light
up my life as I look again and again at the photographs
I took. Proyecto Vida and all that it does is a truly
forward looking approach to the treatment of people
suffering with HIV.
Kevin L Cook
Strawberry Hill Overseas Concern
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