March 2018 Service Trip to Tobati, Paraguay
TT 20: Celebrating Twenty Years of Service
Team Tobati’s March 2018 Service Learning Trip marked a special milestone: the team’s 20th annual journey to Tobati, Paraguay. Students, teachers, and alumni arrived ready to honor two decades of partnership, and they spent the week building, learning, and celebrating side-by-side with friends at the Macchi School and across the 21 villages of Tobati.
The group poured energy into projects that strengthened schools and public spaces. They helped construct a classroom at a rural grade school in Florida, built a sidewalk at the Team Tobati plaza, created an entrance way at Costa Alegre School, and supported work at the public hospital. Teams tended the Macchi School garden, refreshed the large children’s park in the church plaza, cleaned near the Tobati River, and distributed toothbrushes and soccer balls throughout the district. Students also worked at brick factories and sugarcane fields, practiced wood carving in Rosado, created pottery in 21 de Julio, visited a family farm, and painted at the Parochial Home and Macchi School.
Cultural immersion filled the days and evenings with joy. The team lived with warm host families, shared traditional meals in student homes, learned Guaraní phrases, rehearsed dances, and came together for the kermés festival, Paraguayan Night, sports nights at the complex, hikes to the Tobatí hills, a pool party, and the memorable Night of the Stars dance competition and closing ceremony.
What stood out most 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 over time. 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 2018 journey was a fitting celebration of twenty years of service, a week of connection and purpose whose light continues to shine in every project completed and every friendship formed.
Team Tobati’s March 2018 Service Learning Trip marked a special milestone: the team’s 20th annual journey to Tobati, Paraguay. Students, teachers, and alumni arrived ready to honor two decades of partnership, and they spent the week building, learning, and celebrating side-by-side with friends at the Macchi School and across the 21 villages of Tobati.
The group poured energy into projects that strengthened schools and public spaces. They helped construct a classroom at a rural grade school in Florida, built a sidewalk at the Team Tobati plaza, created an entrance way at Costa Alegre School, and supported work at the public hospital. Teams tended the Macchi School garden, refreshed the large children’s park in the church plaza, cleaned near the Tobati River, and distributed toothbrushes and soccer balls throughout the district. Students also worked at brick factories and sugarcane fields, practiced wood carving in Rosado, created pottery in 21 de Julio, visited a family farm, and painted at the Parochial Home and Macchi School.
Cultural immersion filled the days and evenings with joy. The team lived with warm host families, shared traditional meals in student homes, learned Guaraní phrases, rehearsed dances, and came together for the kermés festival, Paraguayan Night, sports nights at the complex, hikes to the Tobatí hills, a pool party, and the memorable Night of the Stars dance competition and closing ceremony.
What stood out most 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 over time. 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 2018 journey was a fitting celebration of twenty years of service, a week of connection and purpose whose light continues to shine in every project completed and every friendship formed.
Team Tobati 2018 Slideshow
