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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Elizabeth Schubert
2016-02-12
Sitting in the rickshaw, I put my elbow on the back of the seat – WOAH, pull back. My elbow’s wet. I turn to look and see a bottle of – something – wrapped in burlap. I don’t feel disgusted or startled or scared. I just chuckle a little and turn back around. On my...
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Nene Penda
Jackson Harris
2016-02-12
If you’ve ever climbed a mountain in foam flip flops, a dress, with a baby on your back, and a sack of corn balanced on your head, you probably haven’t made it look as easy as my host mom made it look. I was trailing behind in my fancy hiking sandals just trying to keep...
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Poco a Poco
Miyo McGinn
2016-02-11
Hello, friends. I am still in Ecuador, still alive, still doing well. Still living with the family I wrote about in my most recent blog, four months ago. Many of the component pieces of what I described in that blog are still in my life, but not in the way I expected them to be when I wrote...
Read MoreRamatoulye
Ruby MacMillan
2016-02-10
My first weeks in my village, there was always another hand in mine, showing me the way- the tiny hand of Ramatou, my five year old host sister and the youngest of four others. I have found ceaseless inspiration from this sassy, prominent, divine little character. She laughs louder than anyone, has a knack for...
Read MoreA DAY AT THE FARM IN CONFUSION AND SOUNDS
eirikowl
2016-02-09
During my time in Senegal I have had my fair share of confusing moments. In the early stages I often felt as observer without understanding. I still feel that way at the farm I work at. For a few days a week I spend my time at a farm where they speak Serer, not Wolof. I often find myself...
Read MoreON SHARING BLOG POSTS
eirikowl
2016-02-09
I appreciate taking part of the experiences that people share through blog posts. To understand something given through the perspective of the writer, and to feel present with the writer. Yet I have been apprehensive about sharing my own experience here in Senegal. Giving friends and family a few juicy snippets through occasional blog posts seemed appealing when...
Read MoreCulture Shock
Allison Douma
2016-02-09
Throughout my time here in Senegal I have had a lot of time to think. Think about everything, from my perception of god to why I use so much water when I am taking a shower when here I use only a single bucket and I have even been thinking of my opinions of culture...
Read MoreFEELS #3 – LESSONS
Austin Nguyen
2016-02-09
Almost every day with Global Citizen Year is a lesson.Some days are Spanish classes, or I have informal Kichwa classes with my mother – those are lessons in a more traditional sense, I guess. Other days, the lessons are much more abstract. Sometimes I’m expanding on what I feel the meaning of being “happy”...
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Hints of Silver
Tatiana Calonje
2016-02-08
My mother has always had a chest full of rings. Beautiful gold, white gold, rose gold and silver. I was the toddler who had small little gold rings on her tiny fingers. I also had a simple gold bracelet around my wrist for years. It stayed there until I grew out of it. Once I...
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THE WINDOW
Indiana Nunez Sharer
2016-02-08
There is this window in the room. It covers a large portion of the right hand wall and consists of three sliding planes which can be moved to one side or the other...
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Swallowed
Mandula Bashu van den Berg
2016-02-06
Sunday morning in Pagdandi, the book chai cafe that I love so much. I’m trying to finally write some letters when Ashwath suddenly asks me: “So Mandula, how do you experience it? To be a woman here in India, I mean?” I stop for a second and consider which answer I’ll give him. But I’m...
Read More11 Facts that Will Surprise You!
Daniel Lewis
2016-02-04
Brazil is much bigger than you may think; it’s the world’s seventh largest economy, with the sixth biggest population and the fifth greatest size by landmass. Portuguese, the native tongue of most Brazilians, is the 6th most spoken language in the world, almost solely because of Brazil (take that French and German). Brazil is not a majority white country: 47.7% of Brazilians identify as...
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