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
Balla Gaye
Russell Bollag-Miller
2011-10-25
Everyone is dead. Well, not really. But it really looked like it. In a matter of seconds, the entire hundred-something people who inhabit my village cleared out. Women screaming. Men sprinting for the road. And then silence. I was dazed, sitting alone under a tree that had previously been bustling with life and conversation that...
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Senegalese Cinderella
Emily Hanna
2011-10-25
I plunge my dirty rag into the bucket of soapy water in front of me, holding back a wince as the soap suds and lye find their way into all my cuts and scratches. My hands are raw from scrubbing, and my left eye is red and weepy from my unwise attempt to rub it...
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A Shock to the System
Winson Law
2011-10-25
After 13 years of schooling, nothing could have prepared me for my arrival in my new community, Morro do Chapéu, for six-months. Brain-melting quantitative physics tests, school-wide performances of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and freezing cross-country meets have prepared me to meet the challenges of academics, art, and athletics. I could complete practice problems, practice in...
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Why us???
Jean Ulysse
2011-10-21
Everyday when I am walking down the streets of Bonfim in the lower city of Salvador, Bahian people mistake me for African. Why that is I do not know, but I am eager to find out. People of African-descent throughout the diaspora need to dialogue with one another, so I asked aloud “why do you...
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Un Rio
Heather Kurtz
2011-10-19
While in Atacapi, my community, I have discovered many things. There is one that really made me think. This was the river. I never knew all the things that a river can be. Most of you know I have a passion for white-water kayaking. I am constantly watching the river levels to see when I...
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El Jugo De Kambic
Lily Ellenberg
2011-10-18
The second week with my Napo host family has begun. My family consists of parents, Irene and Juan, and two younger siblings: one boy, Kambic, age nine, and one girl, Nina, age three. They are both rather adorable if I do say so myself. Kambic acted comfortably towards me from the first day, but I had...
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The Night Watchman
Welcome Frye
2011-10-17
It’s 5 a.m. and the cacophony has started. I hear the thump of music in the neighbor’s house, dogs barking, a mother hen ushering her chickens around like a drill sergeant, my younger brothers laughing as they get ready for school, and the insistent honk of the first bus leaving for Archidona. My first response...
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Gostosa
Annie Plotkin
2011-10-14
Among the deluge of advice I got before departing for Brazil, one common piece was to beware of the Brazilian men. I brushed it off along with “strap your passport to your body at all times!” but I realize now that the first piece of advice is more relevant than I ever could have anticipated....
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To the Bathroom
Priyanka Rao
2011-10-14
It’s 3:41 in the morning, and I just got back quivering into my bed. I’d had to go pee for several hours but hadn’t figured out how I would make it alive. I knew I was living in the rainforest region but this truly clarifies: I am living IN it. The rain droplets can be...
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A Cultural Role Model
Lucias Potter
2011-10-12
Greetings readers and welcome to my first Global Citizen Year blog post. I would like to thank all of my supporters and readers for your interest in my experience. Enjoy! My experience in Senegal so far has been extraordinary in so many ways. There are a number of different things that I have learned, experienced,...
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Location, Location, Location
Lucy Blumberg
2011-10-12
I have a secret. It’s a secret that, if discovered, could mark me as a traitor, a hold out, stingy and untrustworthy, at least to my Global Citizen Year cohort. The secret is the location of a place in Dakar where one can sit poolside, sip cocktails in bikinis, be fed complimentary olives while listening...
Read MoreForward, Into the Field
Samuel Parson
2011-10-12
Hey, so I’ve titled this article ‘Forward, Into the Field’ because “the field” is the name that Global Citizen Year found for the place where we the fellows call “home” for our 6 month stay while we work through our apprenticeships. The range for these places of ‘nesting’ is actually pretty wide. Some fellows are...
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