Superficially, my goals for this trip are to make a difference in the lives of the children who I encounter. I want to be able to make connections with the kids, learn about their culture and their life outlooks, and help them live healthy lives.
In detail, my goal in the beginning is first and foremost to figure out how to be accepted by the community in large. That is, to figure out how to be taken seriously. I want to learn how to effectively communicate with the people so I can deliver the most amount of information to them as possible. I want to figure out how to have people open up to me and listen to what I need to tell them.
Moreover, I want to use this skill to go to the larger community and try to work with the local community to implement sustainable food systems. My eventual goal is for whatever I do in the community to be sustainable and for me to become useless in the grand scheme of things. That is, to do my job well enough so that I’m not needed anymore.
But perhaps the first goal that I should strive for before I even set foot on the plane that takes me to Bolivia is to develop my sense of patience. I need to realize that change takes time and that results of my work won’t come quickly. Perhaps even, I will not even still be at the site by the end of it to see the fruits of my work, and my first goal, above all else, is to be able to accept that.