Jonathan McCullum was a perfectly healthy 17 years old boy, weighing at 155 pounds. That all changed went he signed for an exchange student program in Egypt. His hosts were Coptic Christians, who fast an unmatched 200 days a year and the boy says he was denied sufficient food, all four months that he spent there.

When he returned to the states, Jonathan was unrecognizable, weighing a mere 97 pounds and struggling to carry his own baggage and climb up stairs. He had to be hospitalized for two weeks because he risked having a heart attack.

Despite the whole ordeal, the boy doesn’t regret his experience and sees it as a mere clash of cultures, he plans on going to Zimbabwe this summer as part of a volunteer program. Take some food with you this time buddy!