FOCUS Service

What does it mean to go to another community, another location, another country; to engage in service projects? 

Do we feel good about ourselves when we leave?  Is that a goal?  Or was the goal to have helped someone or some cause?  Do we think about what we have experienced and how it may have changed us and the way we think about our lives and the way we interact with the world?  What do we learn from the communities we work in?

FOCUS left this morning.  We had two really great weeks with them.  I am not going to presume to have answers to these questions from their perspectives.  I can only describe what I observed, which is that the FOCUS team did fantastic work.  They worked hard, they played hard and they did it all with smiles and good spirits.  It was clear from the goodbye party that community members were touched by the interactions all of them had and the chance to work side by side on a center that will benefit the children and families in their community.

When possible Amizade likes to tease out these ideas about service and what it means to both the groups and individuals who come to serve and the communities they are entering.   There are a couple of articles that focus on various aspects of this discussion which I am happy to pass on to anyone who is interested.

In the end, construction at the Alvorada site has been advanced a little farther and will wait for another group to come and help with the next phase.  And, in the process of advancing construction, games were played and laughter, sweat and tears were shared.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Advertisement