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 Next Step
Charlotte Benishek
2011-12-08
“What is that prescription for?” I ask the nurse at the local health post as she scribbled on her notepad. “Hypertension,” she replies. “Is that a common problem here?” In response, she pushed the record book across her desk and pointed to the “diagnosis” column. Common would be an understatement. Surveying the column, I estimated...
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Montana
Nicolas Freschi
2011-12-04
“Yo voy caminando a la montaña donde nací,” sang out my brother, Omar, and I as we lugged enormous pieces of firewood up the mountain to the family car. No weight was too heavy to bring down our spirits today, for indeed we were “going for a walk to the mountain where we were born.”...
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Explaining Myself
Charlotte Benishek
2011-12-02
The preferred form of public transportation in Leona is the “auto,” a pickup truck from the 1960’s (and rarely a slightly later model) with a sort of frame affixed over the bed to facilitate squeezing the maximum number of humans inside (and on top) for the journey. Like the locals, this is the primary means...
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Month of Adaptation
Jacklyn Joy Byrd
2011-12-01
At the end of Fall Training at Stanford University, I learned I’d be working with CARE-International in Cayambe, Ecuador, instituting sexual health projects. Despite all warnings received from Global Citizen Year staff and friends and family at home, I started to make assumptions. I thought I’d be teaching sex ed. I thought I’d be handing...
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Initiation
Madeline Ripa
2011-12-01
“ C’est quoi?” (“What is it?”) I asked, in response to what my new host mother had just told me. When I first arrived at my new home in Palmarin, my French had been less than mediocre and my Serere was non-existent. Consequently, “C’est quoi?” became a popular phrase. I would sit while my family...
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A Baby and the Belgians
Madeline Ripa
2011-12-01
I took a moment to appreciate the beautiful baby girl in my arms. Just around 4 minutes ago, she had been a bump in her mothers’ stomach. I watched as she opened her eyes to blink at the big new world she was now a part of. I smiled and handed the unnamed baby to...
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Oh Baby!
Heather Kurtz
2011-11-30
My baby sister On November 18th, my host mother here in Tena had a baby. She had a girl. It is very difficult to explain having a baby to people in Spanish. I received a call from my host mom at 3:20pm, on the 17th. She said that she was in labor. She called me because she...
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Expectations
Heather Kurtz
2011-11-30
Throughout Fall Training at Stanford, Global Citizen Year asked us what we expected when we got to Ecuador. Although I do not know what I expected when I got to Ecuador, I never thought I would be a well-known local celebrity. I figured that I would be just another volunteer coming to change the world. As...
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Both of My Dads
Nicolas Freschi
2011-11-30
I know few people funnier than Connor Delaney, an amateur comedian and my best friend back in the US. A standard night of Connor and I hanging out consists of us walking to the beach or waiting in line for ice cream and sparking up conversations with other kids. Just when our new friends begin...
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Definitions
Kirin Gupta
2011-11-30
Sex: Female. Age: 29. Children: 3. Status: Married. Income: $600 per month. Primary/Subsequent: Primary. Diagnosis: Tentative. Breast Cancer, Stage 4. Recommendation: Immediate visit to oncologist, Hospital of Tena. Filling this chart leaves me empty. My pen drops. Because how much can you see in the statistics, even when the notes are well-enough detailed? How...
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Sifting Through
Priyanka Rao
2011-11-30
Yesterday evening while sweeping the patio floor, I had a moment of realization. Examining the line of my life, I saw America, the sidewalk before me. And India, the concrete floor, and here I was sweeping the wooden slats of a Latin American patio, in a country verdant green, with the calls of chickens. ...
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Finding Family II
Priyanka Rao
2011-11-30
I got to go to the river the other day with my family in order to shower and wash my clothes because there was no water in the tank at home. This time I was prepared with dirty clothes and a skirt to change. I was relieved to find that this was only a laundry...
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