So a lot has happened since my last update! About a week and a half ago, our nutritionist arrived to train our Bolivian collaborators and get her aim started for the summer. Her objective is to assess the nutritional status of Bolivian women in El Alto by quantifying the macro- and micronutrient intake in their diets. In order to do this, she has designed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and 24-hour recall form that will be used to survey women in two clinics in El Alto. Since she speaks no Spanish, we have been busy translating documents for her, and interpreting for her as she trains our Bolivian nutritionists in how to use the FFQ/24-hour recall forms and take anthropometric measurements. The best part about nutrition research is that it involves eating! Last week we all headed to the market to buy various food items and weigh them for the FFQ, and afterwards our collaborators cooked us traditional Bolivian dishes!

"Market Research"

Cooking typical Bolivian dishes to include on the FFQ

This past weekend we traveled to Sucre (Bolivia's constitutional capital) to escape the cold weather and play tourist for a couple of days. Aside from the 12-14 hour overnight bus rides to and from, it was great! Sucre is very tranquila compared to the busy city of La Paz, and there are many tourists that visit to study Spanish or volunteer. We strolled around in the sunny 70 degree weather, checked out a few museums and also visited Parque Cretácico, the world's largest deposit of dinosaur tracks in the world (it was like a real-life Jurassic Park!)

Sucre, Bolivia

standing in front of 5000 prints of more than 330 dino species!

This week we have started conducting the FFQ in two of the clinics. The mothers are recruited from the waiting rooms and asked about their typical food consumption. This morning we also met with the director of the third clinic (Senkata) to plan our focus group discussions. We are planning to pilot our discussions with Caia, an NGO that works on health issues with women in La Paz before conducting the discussions in the clinic.

Tomorrow is a holiday since it is the winter solstice and the Aymara New Year. We are traveling to Tiwanaku for the day to check out the Andean solstice celebration and the ruins.  Luckily, this bus ride will only be a couple of hours long...pictures to come!

Hasta luego!

Lauren