[Devora]

I have come to believe that mission trips are more about changing us than lives in Guatemala.

I think there is much insight in this statement. It doesn't mean that mission trips aren't worth it -- but we need to be realistic/honest about what the actual benefits are.

Most of the work mission groups do could be done by day laborers in Guatemala--especially if we send them the money we pay to travel and stay in Guatemala during our mission trips. (The exception being medical trips)

This is a little of what I was getting at with my comment about think about the work that's being done. For example, if the trip paints an orphanage -- it probably does more for the Guatemalan economy to pay local painters. That way not only do the children in the orphanage benefit, but so do the men and their families who do the painting.

I also think there's something to think about in terms of unintended effects when there's a revolving door of volunteers. I saw this at an agency in Chicago where quite a few of my students did service learning projects. The agency would accept any volunteers for any amount of time. So, for example, they had a Saturday tutoring program. There were some regular tutors, but they would also let church groups come and help out for just one day, people would volunteer just a couple of times, etc. My students (who were there for a whole semester, but that still is only a few months) said that it made them feel badly for the kids. Although the kids were excited about the volunteers, some of them did make comments about how they would never see the volunteers again or they would ask my students "How long are you staying?" or "Why did you come back again?" So they were very aware of the revolving door. Not only does that create more of an environment of instability, but in some cases it was almost like the groups were coming to see "the poor children on the west side of Chicago" which made them almost like a living display. A colleague of mine went on a trip to Guatemala for a week where they painted, etc. in an orphanage. She said her daughter became especially attached to a little boy who followed them everywhere and really latched on to her. I couldn't help but wonder what the little boy thought when the mission trip left at the end of the week.

So that's why I suggested looking at how long the group has been working in an area and what their connections are. For example, while a lot of volunteers rotate through with Behrhorst, the group itself has a many decades long presence in the community with the staff staying for years and many of them being part of the community, so that sort of offsets who happens to be doing the medical exam that day and the fact that person won't be the same the next time.

I also have heard fabulous things about the MayaWorks trips -- again, the coops are long-standing institutions (and definitely examples of community development) so when people come through to visit it's a little less disruptive, I think. And their model of people in the US supporting the co-ops through donations, purchases, and hosting sales back home is a realistic way of contributing.

I'm really not knocking mission trips!! I put together that list precisely because I want to see more adoptive families giving back in meaningful ways. But I think we need to be realistic and honest thinking about our potential impact -- I'm just not a rose colored glasses kind of gal so I guess that's why I'm always talking about the "other side" of things. But I do think that we as adoptive families (and we as citizens of the US or other countries that are a lot better off than Guatemala) need to do more, whatever that might be.