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
Seeing is Believing
Taylor Lawson
2012-03-20
“Take me with you when you go.” It’s a request I hear often enough, and I’m fairly sure that most of the other Fellows aren’t strangers to it. It brings up a dilemma. I give them information about how to contact me and where I live, in case they ever find themselves in the states....
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Community
Lukas Brenard
2012-03-17
While being in country my view of the importance of community has been greatly strengthened. In the daily connections with members of my village the inherent connections between strong community and happiness become clear to me. We live practically on top of each other in comparison to life in America and this brings out the...
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And In the End, the Love You Take is Equal to the Love You Make.
Natalie Davidson
2012-03-14
My (American) mom is rather sentimental. One might even say she is the definition of sentimentality. Just two days before my departure my parents presented me with a going away gift – a beautiful book titled “Love Letters to Senegal.” My mom had compiled 33 letters from my loved ones – family members, “honorary” family...
Read MoreBucket Hands
Kaya Hartley
2012-03-14
If you’re not familiar with the game ‘would you rather’ here’s an explanation. A group of people basically go back and forth asking each other which scenario the other would prefer to be in. ‘ Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?’ ‘ Would you rather eat the same thing or something...
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Finding Humor in a New Language
Winson Law
2012-03-12
In the ongoing adventure to gain proficiency in Portuguese, there are times when I have to make the universal face of confusion and times when I really get a kick out of learning. Below are three accounts of my daily, hilarious trek through the Portuguese language. The Difference Between Puxe and Pull Besides the obvious...
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The Final Stretch
Madeline Ripa
2012-03-12
When I first arrived in my host community Palmarin Facao, Senegal, in the beginning of October, I started working as a nurse at the “Poste de Sante de Palmarin Facao et Centre de Planification Familiale” (The Palmarin/Facao Health Clinic and Family Planning Center). Pape Ndiaye, the sole doctor on staff, and Cecile, my one fellow...
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The Moon XVIII
Erica Anderson
2012-03-12
Funny enough, it took a trip to Senegal to have my first tarot card reading. I was lucky to not only have my American parents visit me in January, but also Lukas’s mother, who came to stay with us in our village for a week. In addition to her refreshing company, she was also kind...
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Love Letter to Sénégal
Aubrey Haddard
2012-03-12
Sama Xol My Heart, My life has finally reached a point of normalcy and I have to give it up? This is my home now, mon deuxième pays, my second country, my loving family, my students, my hard work, my joy, my dances, my baptisms, my disappointments, my surprises, my rice, my millet, my...
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Senegalese Shorts
Madeline Ripa
2012-03-12
Hello Folks! The following is a collection of my experiences that I deem are blog-worthy, but not quite long enough to have a blog to themselves. They are also a way for me to apologize for my recent lapse in blogging, though I promise more are soon to come. Decadence I start my day...
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Dancing Shoes
Charlotte Benishek
2012-03-12
Recently Megan, another fellow from my region, and I sat in the sand deeply daydreaming in the unique way that only occurs when you have absolutely nothing else to do. “How can I best show Leona (my host community) to people at home?” I mused, slightly frustrated, having been unable to answer the question myself....
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4 Hours Downriver
Mitchell Mankin
2012-03-08
Arrival In December, I was invited by my family to a wedding in Cruz Chicta, the ancestral home of my host father’s family. I jumped at the chance to see a marriage in a village still lacking paved roads and electricity. The trip there was an experience in itself. In the four hours that water...
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The Crying Man and the Machete
Henrietta Conrad
2012-03-07
I was having trouble figuring out exactly what was going on. There was a blubbering man with tears streaming down his face and my host dad sitting on a stool, determinedly looking straight ahead with arms stubbornly crossed. My host dad owns a burraca in front of the house, a tiny convenient store/pit stop, which...
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