This is my CAS reflection on my service, which is Patient care canter. In this service, we go to a local hospital every week on Monday with a small group of 10 to visit patients with HIV.

Before this service started, I was really excited, because I always wanted to work in a hospital with patients, since I always known that I want to study medicine and work as a doctor. I thought it is going to be a really good experience.

On the first “meeting”, we didn’t go to the hospital, we were just outlining the service and talking about how our year together is going to look like. It was so much fun! Even though we were just planning ahead and talking about the visits in the future, I became more and more thrilled. I couldn’t wait to finally go.

Then the first visit came. I was there with one of my really good friends (she is in the same service with me, which is amazing because we don’t have any classes together), sitting in the minibus and then we finally arrived. There was a lady, who did a small presentation on how this year of service is going to look like and told us a bit more detailed about our “job” as a volunteer. After the presentation, we went to visit the wards. We went to at least 5 or 6, and as we were walking through we met the people we were going to “work” with. To be honest, it was nothing like what I expected. I didn’t know it was going to be this mentally challenging. I saw people in really bad shape, living in really bad conditions, but there was something that made me the happiest person, the moment when I knew that I chose the right service. I saw how happy they were to see us. They were waving at us, smiling at us even if they didn’t know who we were. They only knew that we came to help them, talk to them and make their days a little bit better.

There was this lady in her mid-sixties, who we met on the second visit. We were talking to her about her life, her children and grandchildren for a little bit more than 30 minutes and it just made her so happy. She couldn’t stop talking, she wanted to tell us everything. The next time we went she didn’t remember us, but we saw the same excitement and happiness on her face as we saw it on the first time we met.

I just want to say thank for the opportunity of meeting these amazing and caring people!