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
Getting my Joy Back.
Kalea Moore
2013-03-28
“I want my own things/ how i lived them/ & give me my memories/ how i waz when i waz there/ you cant have them or do nothin wit them/” -ntozake shange. “For coloured girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf” 9am: Wake up 9am-10:30am: Get Sunday ready 10:30am-11am: Drive to church 11am-1pm: Sit in...
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Amiga
Fikrte Abebe
2013-03-27
My first daily challenge in Ecuador and the highlights of my normal day in Ecuador occur consecutively right after each other. Reminiscing back to filling out the living preferences before coming to Ecuador, I knew living in the Amazon or in the coastal regions was out of the question for me because I was already exhausted...
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Big Mama’s In Da House
Lydia Collins
2013-03-27
Three weeks. Three seven day spans before I leave Ibarra. Before I leave my siblings, my students, the Andes, everything that was once new but is now familiar. As this intense, raw, and wonderful experience wraps up I find myself spending a lot of time reflecting on the past eight months. In hindsight, I realize that my Global Citizen Year...
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…And sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together
Jojo Guerrero
2013-03-27
“People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe … Incidentally my favorite quote does a...
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Just One
Ely Kadish
2013-03-27
[This was originally a speech given at training seminar. I left it as it was to give the most organic experience.] I have always struggled with the idea of one. I was the kid who could never read one page, only watch one more hour or just eat one cookie. One just never seemed like enough,...
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Saber y Conocer
Mackenzie McMillen
2013-03-27
The summer before senior year I realized that after five years of French classes I could introduce myself and order a meal but that was about it. I attribute this sad fact to 70% my goofing off in class and 30% the weaknesses of the language program at my high school and junior high. I...
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Farewell
Josh Thompson
2013-03-27
As I’m writing this, only two weeks remain until my departure from Pijal – my home for the past 6 months. I can’t help but feel nostalgic. I’d like to share some of the experiences that I will remember best from this place. To you they might just appear to be evidence that Ecuador is a very strange...
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Updates and Anecdotes Part II
Aidan Holloway-Bidwell
2013-03-27
Time grows short here in Los Bancos. With two weeks left I start to think back: “How exactly have a spent these past seven months, that it all went by so quickly?” Well, my routine made weeks fly by. Teaching English classes, giving environmental and recycling presentations, painting, building, traveling to and from communities…that was...
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The Dark, or Rather Light, Side of Senegalese Beauty
Aissatou Barrie-Rose
2013-03-26
What does a lady having a consultation at her plastic surgeon’s office in Beverly Hills have in common with a woman in Senegal religiously rubbing her body with skin bleaching cream? They are doing everything they can to make themselves more “beautiful”. Now, stop for a moment and picture the three most beautiful women you...
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Enjoy the Small Things in Life
Dianne Perez
2013-03-26
Enjoy my new video, “Eu Vou Torcer pelas Coisas Pequenas.”
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Cameras
Camille LeBlanc
2013-03-26
At a Stanford cafeteria table back in August, I had my first meeting with my Team Leader, Sol. I had thirty minutes to express my interests and passions and to explain exactly what I wanted out of this year. Although I probably made very little sense at the time, art was at the forefront of my mind. I wanted...
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Vending on a Bus
Lauren Holt
2013-03-26
“Papas, secos, heladitos, papa’s, secos, heladitos!” “Potato chips, chicken, ice cream, potato chips, chicken, ice cream!” This is the sound you are guaranteed to hear on a bus. Each time I am on a bus, whether I’m traveling or coming home from a day in Ibarra, vendors come on and sell food and trinkets such...
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