Team Tobati 2015 Service Trip
A Week of Work, Friendship, and Celebration
Team Tobati’s March 2015 Service Learning Trip brought approximately 100 students and teachers from Kingswood Oxford to Tobati, Paraguay. For ten days the group lived with warm host families and worked side-by-side with partners from the Macchi School across the 21 villages of the district.
The team focused on projects that strengthened schools, parks, and community spaces. Groups tended the Macchi School garden and the Huerta del Instituto, improved Plaza Team Tobatí, painted light posts throughout the city, and supported work at Amigos del Parque and San José Obrero School’s soccer field. Others distributed toothbrushes at schools across the district, painted at the Hogar Vocacional, helped at the hospital, and worked at brick factories, a sugarcane field, and ceramics workshops. Students also learned wood carving in Rosado, practiced pottery in 21 de Julio, spent time at a family farm, and visited Macchi School student homes to share everyday life.
Cultural immersion filled the week with energy and joy. The group practiced Spanish and Guaraní, rehearsed dances for “La Noche de las Estrellas,” and gathered for a welcoming ceremony, the kermés festival, evening sports at the athletic complex, a soccer tournament, a pool party, and the memorable Night of the Stars dance competition. Hikes, city tours, and a final group farewell at the Macchi School rounded out the experience.
What remained strongest were the relationships formed through shared work and play. American and Paraguayan students became teammates, dance partners, and true friends. They experienced how consistent effort and open hearts create real change. They returned home with broader perspectives, deeper empathy, and the clear knowledge that todo es posible cuando actuamos con el corazón — everything is possible when we act with heart.
The March 2015 journey was a vibrant chapter of service and connection, a week whose light continues to shine in every project completed and every friendship formed.
Team Tobati’s March 2015 Service Learning Trip brought approximately 100 students and teachers from Kingswood Oxford to Tobati, Paraguay. For ten days the group lived with warm host families and worked side-by-side with partners from the Macchi School across the 21 villages of the district.
The team focused on projects that strengthened schools, parks, and community spaces. Groups tended the Macchi School garden and the Huerta del Instituto, improved Plaza Team Tobatí, painted light posts throughout the city, and supported work at Amigos del Parque and San José Obrero School’s soccer field. Others distributed toothbrushes at schools across the district, painted at the Hogar Vocacional, helped at the hospital, and worked at brick factories, a sugarcane field, and ceramics workshops. Students also learned wood carving in Rosado, practiced pottery in 21 de Julio, spent time at a family farm, and visited Macchi School student homes to share everyday life.
Cultural immersion filled the week with energy and joy. The group practiced Spanish and Guaraní, rehearsed dances for “La Noche de las Estrellas,” and gathered for a welcoming ceremony, the kermés festival, evening sports at the athletic complex, a soccer tournament, a pool party, and the memorable Night of the Stars dance competition. Hikes, city tours, and a final group farewell at the Macchi School rounded out the experience.
What remained strongest were the relationships formed through shared work and play. American and Paraguayan students became teammates, dance partners, and true friends. They experienced how consistent effort and open hearts create real change. They returned home with broader perspectives, deeper empathy, and the clear knowledge that todo es posible cuando actuamos con el corazón — everything is possible when we act with heart.
The March 2015 journey was a vibrant chapter of service and connection, a week whose light continues to shine in every project completed and every friendship formed.