March 2017 Service Trip to Tobati, Paraguay
TT 19: Building Together Across Tobati
Team Tobati’s March 2017 Service Learning Trip marked the team’s 19th annual journey to Tobati, Paraguay. More than 90 students, teachers, and alumni arrived ready to serve and connect, and they spent the week working side-by-side with partners from the Macchi School across the 21 villages of the district.
The group focused on projects that strengthened schools and public spaces. A major highlight was the construction of a new kitchen at the San Rafael grade school in 21 de Julio (a school Team Tobati had previously built over seven years) so that the Paraguayan government could begin providing free breakfast and lunch to its students. Teams also tended the Macchi School garden, landscaped the school park, built a sidewalk in front of the Tobati cemetery, refreshed the large children’s park in the church plaza, and supported garden work and painting at the public hospital. Light posts and columns throughout town were painted, toothbrushes and soccer balls were distributed to schools across the district, and students helped with vaccination clinics. Additional days were spent at brick factories, a sugarcane field, a family farm, wood-carving workshops in Rosado, and pottery studios in 21 de Julio, while others visited student homes and supported a science and art fair at the Institute.
Cultural life filled the evenings and free moments with energy. The team lived with warm host families, shared traditional meals, practiced Guaraní and Spanish, rehearsed dances for the annual competition, and gathered for games, sports, and celebrations with Macchi School friends.
The brightest moments centered around the relationships formed through daily work and play. American and Paraguayan students became teammates and true companions. They experienced how steady 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 2017 journey was a vibrant chapter of shared purpose, a week of service and friendship whose impact continues to shine in every project completed and every bond formed.
Team Tobati’s March 2017 Service Learning Trip marked the team’s 19th annual journey to Tobati, Paraguay. More than 90 students, teachers, and alumni arrived ready to serve and connect, and they spent the week working side-by-side with partners from the Macchi School across the 21 villages of the district.
The group focused on projects that strengthened schools and public spaces. A major highlight was the construction of a new kitchen at the San Rafael grade school in 21 de Julio (a school Team Tobati had previously built over seven years) so that the Paraguayan government could begin providing free breakfast and lunch to its students. Teams also tended the Macchi School garden, landscaped the school park, built a sidewalk in front of the Tobati cemetery, refreshed the large children’s park in the church plaza, and supported garden work and painting at the public hospital. Light posts and columns throughout town were painted, toothbrushes and soccer balls were distributed to schools across the district, and students helped with vaccination clinics. Additional days were spent at brick factories, a sugarcane field, a family farm, wood-carving workshops in Rosado, and pottery studios in 21 de Julio, while others visited student homes and supported a science and art fair at the Institute.
Cultural life filled the evenings and free moments with energy. The team lived with warm host families, shared traditional meals, practiced Guaraní and Spanish, rehearsed dances for the annual competition, and gathered for games, sports, and celebrations with Macchi School friends.
The brightest moments centered around the relationships formed through daily work and play. American and Paraguayan students became teammates and true companions. They experienced how steady 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 2017 journey was a vibrant chapter of shared purpose, a week of service and friendship whose impact continues to shine in every project completed and every bond formed.
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