This entire time I have talked about malnutrition in Bolivia without comparing it to the malnutrition we see in the USA, but it’s not entirely different. Malnutrition of different sorts is rampant amongst children in the USA, particularly through obesity. An overfed child can still be a dangerously malnourished child. In the USA the main way this problem is being addressed is through education about diet and exercise, a practice I have already partaken in on the regular. However in Bolivia, as far as I experienced, malnutrition is addressed mainly through hospitalization, rarely through education, if at all; And that’s a problem. If any of my beliefs before going to Bolivia have been strengthened, it’s that education is the single most important factor in fighting malnutrition. But the the contents and style of education provided changes between cultures, that is for sure.
What my time in Bolivia has helped clarify for me is that nutrition is something I practice every day in my life, not only because I can but because I love doing it. This experience has taught me that if I work in a field of nutrition be it clinical/sports/corporate I will not work a day in my life because I love what I am doing. And indeed, even though with Projects Abroad we call going to our placements “going to work” it really just felt like I was going out to have fun. And that was a beautiful feeling.