2. Hosting a service-trip groups, or delegations, is time-, labor-, and resource-intensive for the in-country hosts.

Imagine that you and your community are suddenly responsible for the care and well-being of a group of international visitors coming for a ten-day visit. You will need to provide them with housing, transportation, and food. Few of them speak your language. They have no pre-existing connections to your community. Some of them may have very specialized diets. At the least, the food and water that they consume will be unfamiliar to them (and will likely make some of them ill). How would you manage this situation? This is the situation in which your host community will find itself. The resources (including time, money, and labor) that your hosts devote to hosting your group may well be resources that are taken away (even if only temporarily) from the community at large.

So ask yourself: Will your presence in the community be costly or burdensome to your hosts? Does it come at the expense of more pressing community needs? If so, what might you do to alleviate these concerns?

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