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
it’s a Splash
Marta Shcharbakova
2019-03-21
Now, this is a vulnerability alert: I am even more lost than I was before I came to Senegal. Belarus, Singapore, UWC, Senegal. That’s what I’m made of. Now: sitting in a chear, starring somewhere ahead of me. I see so much in front of me: so many things, alternative realities, but I’m not amongst...
Read MoreA List of Firsts:
Sophie Auvin
2019-03-21
-First time in a Portuguese-speaking country -First time living with a host family -First time living near the ocean and mountains -First time living on an island -First time with a sister -First time trying: farofa, pastels, chimarrão, acai, brigadeiros, goiaba, yucca, etc. -First time going to a club and dancing to funk -First time...
Read MoreSaying Goodbye
Sophie Auvin
2019-03-21
I thought I’d be ready to leave when April rolled around. I thought I’d be excited to come home, to leave Brazil, to start a new chapter. But, I am not ready nor excited. I feel like a toddler who’s about to throw a tantrum and scream “Give me one more month! Just give me...
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Voce Fala Portugues?
Sophie Auvin
2019-03-21
One of my least favorite questions when I first arrived in Brazil was “você fala português?” or “do you speak portuguese?”. At the beginning, I used to resent the question knowing full well my answer was only a half-truth. Saying “yes” meant ignoring the fact I would get to a point in the conversation where...
Read MoreWet Paint
Laura Harvey
2019-03-21
I was settling into painting in the warehouse on the botanical gardens of Floripa when the percussive introduction of a very specific song began to ring out of my phone’s tiny speaker. “Magalenha” by Sergio Mendes. A little random, I know – I’d recommend a listen though. I love painting because it completely focuses one...
Read MoreEsencia
Natalia Rijo
2019-03-20
I decided to buy a guitar to learn it how to play it during my time here in Ecuador. It was the best decision I have made so far, and after feeling more confident at it I started writing and composing songs. The last song is called Esencia, and I composed it after realizing how...
Read MoreSchool
London Samson
2019-03-20
For the longest time, I dreaded the idea of having to continue school after the 4 long years of high school. It wasn’t until recently, during this much needed gap year, that I felt excited about heading back into the classroom. I’ll give you some background, I used to “like” school for the social accommodations...
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The “why” I was looking for
Ida Nydelius
2019-03-20
With this post, I aim to tell you 2 things – that taking a gap year changed the way I look at education, and my next step in life. To begin with, my volunteer work is at a public elementary school Since the start, I have been without any fixed work tasks instead free to...
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Ambivalent
Katarina Guillot
2019-03-20
Ambivalent is the perfect word, to sum up, my feelings about only having two more weeks in Ecuador. According to Merriam-Webster ambivalent means “having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something” and ambivalence suggests “movement in two directions at once and hence a wavering uncertainty.” When people ask me how I feel about going back...
Read MoreLife Under a Mosquito Net
Luca Sassi
2019-03-20
When I describe my time here in Thienaba I think it as living in two worlds at the same time. I have my first and main world, which is the one when I’m awake and fulfilling all my daily activities. My second world is once I get under my mosquito net in my room and...
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Daily Routines
Luca Sassi
2019-03-20
I live in a small village called Thienaba about 20km away from Thies (a major city of Senegal). In here is always very calm. Houses are widely spread between one and another and most of the citizens have animals such as chickens, sheeps, goats, donkeys, horses and more (in my case we have 6 sheeps)....
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Who am I?
Luca Sassi
2019-03-20
If you know me for the past 18 years of my life you probably know me as Luca Sassi…. maybe my full name if you know me well, but not in here, not in this country. The moment I took my first step in what is now my home I saw a woman, who the...
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