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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Page 29 of 39

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Broccoli in a Carrot Patch

2015-09-27

I’ve been in Pamar Chacrin for one week.  In this town of 83 short, Ecuadorean, farming families, I stick out like broccoli in a carrot patch.  This week has been rough for me.  In Quito I was welcomed into an upper-middle class home with all the commodities I had back in Chapel Hill.  I could...

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A different dance

2015-09-27

The melody, OUR melody, starts, filling my ears and making my heart skip a beat. I feel a cooling tear run down my red cheek, complementing my slightly skinnier profile. It takes me right back. I stand up, turn off the fan and light, close my eyes and start moving, letting the rhythm take me...

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Into the Jungle

2015-09-26

        All I know is what’s on this piece of paper. It’s crazy to think, it’s crazy to imagine, and it’s even crazier to realize that I will be calling the jungle that is the Amazonian rainforest, my home. My community placement, something so endless and full possibility, is confined to a sheet a paper. It...

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New Settings

2015-09-26

Exactly one week ago I left my temporary home in Curitiba. It was here where, athough I ultimately really enjoyed spending time with my host family, I experienced my first “low,” (clearly shown in my previous post). Luckily, almost immediately after posting, I made it out of the trough and began to feel much more comfortable in...

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The Struggle with Sexuality: An Article from an Openly Gay Individual Living in Ecuador

2015-09-26

  If you had asked me if I was going to come out to my host family in Ecuador last year, or even last month, I would have said “duh” and left it at that.   But now, it just doesn’t really matter.   During Pre-Departure Training in August, I talked a lot about being...

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GHOST CHILDREN

2015-09-25

Amongst the city span there are children who seep out of every niche and corner. Silent they are as they approach you with outstretched arms and haunting, wanting eyes. It is not until after that you notice the pitter-patter of their teensy bare feet as they trail along behind you.      Pit-pat-pit-pat-pit-pat.   Almost a nonexistent sound yet...

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Trunk-tied

2015-09-25

Today in school (if you don’t know, my apprenticeship is assisting a Teach for India fellow, teaching English and/or History), the teacher read a poem to the class, called “Eletelephony”.    Eletelephony By Laura E. Richards   Once there was an elephant, Who tried to use the telephant, No! No! I mean an elephone Who...

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Avatar Andrew

2015-09-24

This may seem a bit geekish, and borderline just very cliche-ish, however I can honestly draw so many parallels between what I am experiencing, and what Avatar Aang was going through before he could defeat the Fire Lord, and become the hero of the story. At this very moment I am an excellent air bender,...

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Baby Bugio

2015-09-24

Several weeks ago I walked out of an airport in Curitiba, BR with mixed feelings of doubt, excitement, curiosity and homesickness. I have experienced a lot since then, yet those same feelings persist. As I crossed the threshold into a new country, the atmosphere felt surreal. I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, expecting...

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Settling Syndrome

2015-09-24

What is Settling Syndrome? Settling Syndrome is a bout of hyper sensitivity and hyper openness that occurs whence an individual is tossed into a place he’s never been before, with a language he barely knows and a new family he has just met (Warning: this definition is from the DHD, the Daniel’s Head Dictionary, a...

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I’m Here

2015-09-24

Well, it happened. I’m here. I am officially in my permanent homestay In San Bartolomé, Azuay, Ecuador. Right now my life consists of never-ending laughter with my host nephews, working with the best apprenticeship supervisor ever (looking at you, José), and daily cups of café at an attempt to keep me warm ( which unfortunately...

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A Little Random and Out There

2015-09-23

Day 5: My host family still doesn’t know I have tattoos and that I accidentally broke a telephone pole in the back linking the house’s electricity (I managed to prop it against a small cement wall and another post to keep it upright) A strong wind gust will undoubtedly be the end of my wifi....

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