The Salesian University of Araçatuba and Lins já took its students to the villages of Mato Grosso in 2017 and 2018 with the aim of involving them in projects for the native communities of Meruri (Bororo) and San Marcos (Xavante).
This year the group delivered food and clothes collected during the University's campaign. Taking turns, they guided the indigenous peoples in matters of hygiene. They also collected the blood of the dogs living in the villages to find out if they were affected by diseases like "leishmaniasis", which can be passed on to people.
The experience acquired in the year 2018 was reported by Bruno Sérgio Silva Abbade in his book "Diary of missionary voluntary service".
"I traveled with the idea that it would have been difficult for me to adapt," Abbade writes. "I confess I had a certain fear, but when I arrived everything I imagined erased itself. The people liberate themselves of all the luxury we have in the city and they live in simplicity."
"I have always liked to write, so I thought it would be the best way to make my contribution," he said, stressing that "the experience was incredible; through my writing I wanted to have the reader feel at least a little of what I felt during the mission. To have them live the experience with other missionaries so that this learning can be known by different people."
"I learned not to look at myself, not even my world," says Bruno Sérgio. "I understood (I had) to stop and look at others, to know the world of indigenous peoples, their differences, their objectivity and to transform our relationship with them."
Abbade claims to have known new ways of living together, of helping; above all he has learned new ways to love others. "I have assimilated how to be more human. I think it defines it well. Being more human is one of the greatest lessons I have learned from that experience," he concluded.
