Service Learning 2

Our second day of service learning was a drastically different experience than the first day. Around forty children, some belonging to the women of the enterprise and other simply neighborhood children filled the compound because there is no school on saturdays. Instead of doing any real work for the women, who spent the entire day starting the slow process of turning soy into tofu, our group entertained the children. This idea follows the to hell with good intentions lecture as our intentions for service learning in the organization were marginalized by us becoming the center of attention. We did, however, fill the responsibility of the women by playing with the children who certainly enjoyed the donation of two soccer balls.

There was another example of service learning gone wrong. Mike, who is by the far the biggest member of our group observed the women carrying large bucketsof water on their heads to pour into a pot for cheese production. Instead of putting the bucket on his head he assumed he could carry it with his two large arms, unfortunately it was too much for him to handle and in the process of requesting my help spilled some of the water on his shirt. This upset a couple of the women who knew they could have done the job with no loss of water from their well.