Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Xeex Sibbiru
Gus Ruchman
2011-04-24
The fight against malaria, as with AIDS and tuberculosis, is a multilateral war of attrition. Education of doctors and patients alike, accessibility of preventative measures, and medicines, tests, and infrastructures that comprise treatment systems are forming a defensive web against a disease with as many social as medical implications. Though there is a long way...
Read MoreMalaria No More
Madeleine Balchan
2011-04-24
Preparing for my seven-month stay in Senegal, I visited the doctor for seven shots and an anti-malaria pill prescription. Options? Take a pill daily or weekly. Side effects? Sun-sensitivity or suffer physchlogical effects. My mom’s thoughts? “AAHH! MY BABY’S GOING TO AFRICA!” My thoughts? “YES! CRAZY, VIVID DREAMS!” I didn’t realize how soon I’d encounter...
Read MoreMalaria No More
Johannes Raatz
2011-04-24
On April 17th, GCY Senegal fellows met up in Dakar for a public awareness campaign in the fight against poverty. The event was spearheaded by Malaria No More (MNM), an organization working across Africa to end malaria caused deaths by 2015. Currently, a child dies of malaria every 45 seconds. Although the situation is grim, malaria,...
Read MoreFrom My High Horse
Amanda Brinegar
2011-04-22
I grew up in a family of independent, empowered women. My immediate family consists of my sister, my mom, my father and myself so it is safe to say that the women usually have the final say. Growing up, my father would never let me believe that I was any less than someone else, especially...
Read MoreThe Tropical Holiday Season
Johannes Raatz
2011-04-22
As did many of the other Senegalese GCY fellows, I traveled to Dakar early, ahead of our December monthly meeting. Three extra nights in the city allowed me to take advantage of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture. Ongoing throughout the month of December, it was the third time such a festival was organized...
Read MorePreparing to Say Goodbye
Cameron Kaufman
2011-04-21
One year ago, after endless SAT prep classes, practice tests, the actual exam, APs, college orientation meetings, and virtually living on commonapp.org, i.e. the whole shebang, I finally was accepted into college. Honestly, I thought it would never happen, but it finally did. Similarly, I also never thought I would be sitting here in Cayambe,...
Read MoreFulla
Justin Moore
2011-04-20
My Wolof instructor, Pierre, taught me about core African values, one being Fulla. Pierre illustrates Fulla as, “being able to look at someone seriously and say, ‘I don’t like that, don’t do that again’, make sure he or she hears you and then go on with business as usual saying, ‘ok we’re still friends’. The...
Read MoreThe Disconnect
Joe Giallo
2011-04-20
“Why the #@$% would you want to do that?” And before I could reply, the conversation changed, and shifted back to the drunken debaucheries she had conducted since coming to Canoa. Alberto (who’s writing his own perspective on what I’m about to talk about on his own blog – check it out!) and I were...
Read MoreVacation Part I: The Galapagos Islands
Liza David
2011-04-20
She looked at me and then asked me whether I believed in God. I was shocked. I took a moment to take stock of the situation: an old Ecuadorian lady was asking me philosophical questions. I had just crawled through lava tubes and was returning the flashlights to her. And oh yes, I was on...
Read MoreBagunçaço Book Opening
Meg Healy
2011-04-18
Several months ago, Joselito Crispim, the director of Bagunçaço (and Mike’s host dad) finished writing a book about the after-school program he founded nineteen years ago. Last week was the official book opening, held at an artsy bookstore within an upscale movie theater. Joselito hired a bus to transport some of the kids to the...
Read MoreFatim & Nafi (Help) Cook Lunch
Madeleine Balchan
2011-04-18
My relationship with Senegalese food has gone from curiosity to sickness to detest to love. I help my mothers’ cook whenever I’m home — here Naomi and I helped to cook chebugen (fish and rice)- our daily lunch!
Read MoreFatim and Nafi (Help) Cook Lunch
Naomi Wright
2011-04-18
Over the last six months, I’ve become well acquainted with the national dish of Senegal, “Ceebujen”. When I have a free morning, I help the women of my household cook the fish, rice, and vegetable dish for lunch. In this video, Nafi, another GCY Fellow stationed in the same village as me, help her mother...
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