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
The Search
Lucy Blumberg
2012-01-30
We make our way through the village, buckets and scarves in hand. People are sitting out talking, laughing. Children are playing. Upon seeing our baggage one man wishes us luck. “Search in peace,” he tells us. Upon arrival at the water spigot, we find a small group of women, girls really, waiting. They sit on...
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Strike!!!!!
Alexis Adams
2012-01-30
Today started just like another day; it was laundry day, midway through my second bucket of clothes I heard what sounded like a stampede of children charging down the streets. I ran out to see the streets flooded with over 300 students yelling, waving signs, chanting, and blocking traffic. My house is directly opposite St. Thomas...
Read MoreThe Walls Came Tumbling Down
Erica Anderson
2012-01-30
When I first started at Le Verger, I thought I had found an apprenticeship in paradise. My original placement in the school system turned out to be stressful and blinding, exactly what I didn’t want; the only direction I could see was OUT. I asked my host dad and fairy godfather if he could find...
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‘She’ being me.
Megan White
2012-01-30
No one has ever called the mosque in Potou graceful. Maybe when it was first built, maybe then they said that it was a good mosque: a clunky, stumpy tower which served to regularly pierce heaven with forceful cries of God’s goodness. Potou, the town of a thousand Allahu Akbars before dawn. She sat looking...
Read MoreLa Navidad
Heather Kurtz
2012-01-25
When you think of Christmas what do you think? For me Christmas is: snow and sledding, time with my family, and presents for everyone. One thing I love about Christmas are the decorations: the green and the red, the Christmas tree and my Grandmother’s Christmas village. I love to decorate the house and put up the tree; it is a lot...
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A Lesson On Grieving
Lily Ellenberg
2012-01-25
The house sits on wooden stilts, sunken down below the road. When we arrived it was already full of people. I didn’t know our destination until we arrived; I didn’t know our purpose until I saw the small wooden coffin. It sat atop a table covered in tall white candles. My stomach dropped and my...
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Video Blog!
Charlotte Benishek
2012-01-24
Up to this point my blogs have focused on specific experiences or “ponderings” about Senegalese culture and international development. I designed this first video blog to portray a more macroscopic view of my bridge year experience. I also wanted to showcase the variety of skills I’ve acquired and things I’ve learned in Senegal. Enjoy the...
Read MoreA Whole Other World?
Elias Estabrook
2012-01-24
The endless dunes and savanna scrub pass by, as we rumble down winding, dirt roads. Yet I’m hardly aware of the landscape’s warming morning orange and spotty green; rather, I sense only the rhythmic pounding of the rocky road beneath our aging vehicle. Most of all I feel the tranquil pulse of life in the...
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An Hour
Jacklyn Joy Byrd
2012-01-18
Here is a journal entry from December when I traveled an hour to get data for a CARE nutrition project. I hope it captures a little of the growth that I am beginning to see in myself. ___ 7 de diciembre This is a new experience. I rode the bus from Cayambe to Olmedo solo...
Read MoreChristmas Grace
Jacob Stern
2012-01-18
“Let’s thank Jesus for coming into our house this Christmas. We’ve never been able to have Turkey before…” My mom chokes up. I feel the whole family’s eyes are all on me. Just smile and don’t look anywhere but at her. “And we also want to thank Jake, for coming to this poor house. Thank...
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Hip-Hop: A gift and a curse
Lucias Potter
2012-01-17
For those who know me, they know Hip-Hop is my life. I listen to music more hours then I sleep. When I’m bored I write graffiti pieces on sheets of paper. Occasionally I would go to a Turf dancing battle. You could imagine my joy to see the Hip-Hop scene present in Senegal. I remember the first...
Read MoreMy New (Gap) Year’s Resolutions
Emily Hanna
2012-01-17
Whenever people ask me how I’m enjoying Senegal, I unfailingly respond that taking a bridge year was the best decision I’ve ever made. And I stand by that statement. But, I’ll admit, over the past four months, I’ve occasionally lost sight of the bigger picture and instead focused in on the things that make life...
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