Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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Class Year
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When the Stars Spilled from the Sky
Kirin Gupta
2011-12-22
I was running, chasing the elusive breeze. The greenery was thick on either side of the thin, winding road, and sharp rocks beneath my feet on the dirt path were painful through the thin soles of my shoes. A strange sight, the foreign girl running through the jungle at 4 in the morning, before the...
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The Nutella Question
Charlotte Benishek
2011-12-21
I wrote this blog entry about three weeks into my stay in Senegal, while I was still in training, living in Dakar. It was lost in the bowels of my computer, but it is now found and posted, three months late, for your pondering: Nutella. It’s a personal vice. Not just any Nutella – the...
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Where We Go From Here
Elias Estabrook
2011-12-21
Tucked away in the north of Dakar surrounded by green lawns and palms trees, the Meridien President Hotel is glaringly different from the swelling, sandy neighborhoods and bustling, littered streets through which our taxi weaves. Within the five-star conference center’s halls, the environment is abuzz with the conversations and presentations by dignitaries, professors, and representatives...
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39 Hours, Pt. 3
Welcome Frye
2011-12-21
If you haven’t read the first two parts to this adventure, be sure to do so before reading Part 3! Part 1 can be found at http://archive.globalcitizenyear.org/2011/12/39-hours-pt-1/ and Part 2 can be found at http://archive.globalcitizenyear.org/2011/12/39-hours-pt-2/. Friday, 4:00 p.m., one kilometer from the edge of Bosque Colonso I’m running on empty. Every step takes all the effort I can...
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Powdered milk can’t save the world
Kaya Hartley
2011-12-16
Bilat is my three year old cousin. We’ve recently adopted him and his 5 year old sister into our family because his mother is mentally ill and left him to his father, who chose not to raise his two kids. The kids here play rough, and quite often fight rough. Bilat, being the youngest, is...
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Corporal Punishment
Natalie Davidson
2011-12-15
Global Citizen Year provides Fellows with complete, succinct and crucial preparation prior to placing us in the field. Upon arrival in Senegal I felt well equipped to handle the inevitable culture shock – I was ready to face my immersion with an open mind and a compassionate heart, and with no expectations. However, nothing...
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39 Hours, Pt. 2
Welcome Frye
2011-12-14
If you haven’t yet read the first part of this adventure, be sure to do so before reading this blog. It might make a bit more sense! http://archive.globalcitizenyear.org/2011/12/39-hours-pt-1/ Thursday, 7:00 p.m., the abandoned ranchito Wilson and I wake to the roof being violently blown off the lean-to. The world is a whirlwind of insanity; my clothes...
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Home Sweet Home
Heather Kurtz
2011-12-13
I am amazed by how much I feel at home here in Atacapi. The week I spent in Quito was fun but I missed my family so much. I was wondering how they were doing and wanted to know how the baby was because my parents said that the other children had spent months in...
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Twisting Traditions
Holli Sullivan
2011-12-13
As likely EVERY ONE of you other Fellows has been experiencing this month, the holiday season is not a very easy time to be this far away from home. I have missed home the whole time I have been gone, but this time of year brings just about as much “saudade”(a...
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The Eighth Daughter
Kirin Gupta
2011-12-12
She lies flat as a board and is too skinny Her eyes The nurse has no words for them Buen expresivos, she settles on. Wide and bright They look as though They seek to be separate from her too-small face, Where her cheeks have sunken in, Already at age 7. And her lips are purple,...
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Caught, Killed, Plucked, Cooked, Eaten
Aubrey Haddard
2011-12-12
Before Senegal I didn’t know I could get an appetite from looking at a live animal. Then after I witnessed the sacrifice and preparation of a sheep my first time I realized this wasn’t so impossible. After all, it’s nice to know where exactly your food is coming from and prepare it from field to...
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“It Breaks Real Easy”
Lucy Blumberg
2011-12-12
Let me rant just a little. The Senegalese school system often seems broken. Alright, I’m done. What brought this rant about? It all started with a little involvement on my part in the studies of my 12 year old cousin. He told me his homework was hard that night. “Mettina, Fanta! Mettina torop!” which literally...
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