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
Country
Mi primer mes en Brasil My first month in Brazil
Mauro Ramirez-Azofeifa
2018-10-09
El 2 de Septiembre llegué a Brasil. Después de un largo viaje de más de 30 horas desde la Universidad de Stanford. En mi primer semana estuve recibiendo capacitación en el sur de la Isla de Florianópolis. Desde el primer momento me sentí como en casa cuando comí arroz, frijoles, frutas, ensalada y carnes. El...
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Finding Joy
Natalie Glick
2018-10-09
“Comparison is the thief of joy”. We have all heard the saying before. Wether seeing it on a motivational poster in a classroom, or having someone tell it to us; it’s well known. I have heard it many times before with a passing ear. For maybe two minutes it would have an impact but then...
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“Desaprender lo que creo haber aprendido”: musings of a guatemalteca in Senegal
Phoebe Shea Perez
2018-10-08
After five weeks of living in Touba Toul, I’m proud to say that even though kids in the streets tirelessly still call me toubab (Wolof for westerner), my family consistently mentions I’m becoming Senegalese. Two Fridays ago, at my cousin’s wedding in Doudoul, when we had finished cooking a colossal amount of beñe (1) and...
Read MoreAdios
Sarah Montross
2018-10-08
In Ecuador, adios is what you say as a more permanent goodbye. Instead, most of us just say chao, a sort of see you later. But yesterday, I said adios to the family I’ve been staying with for the past month. Truly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It brings tears to my...
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Along for the Paseo
Macy Lipkin
2018-10-07
On the third day of my apprenticeship at the radio, Joselyn, the reporter, asked me to listen to interviews she’d conducted with some folks from Guatemala. Guatemala? Seriously? I didn’t come all the way to Ecuador to learn about Guatemala. But despite my apprehension, I sat down and went through the audio files. Among other...
Read MoreWhat ‘Privilege’ Means
Surabhee Arjunwadkar
2018-10-07
It is difficult to accept your privilege. Privilege is something I thought I didn’t have, something that only ‘rich’ people had. That is until I came to Ecuador. Somewhere in my mind, the word privilege had gained a negative connotation, that growing up privileged somehow made you ignorant and unaware of things. In this journey...
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Me Llamo Anita Lechón
Anna Sophie Tinneny
2018-10-07
I listen to the mayor of Cayambe discuss the idea of dualism in Kayambi culture. “In order for the world to work,” he explains, “Balance is necessary. The sun needs the moon. The masculine needs the feminine. The rainy season needs the dry season.” In the Kayambi tradition, the universe is united through polar opposites....
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It’s the way I’m living
Bihotza James-Lejarcegui
2018-10-06
It’s the freeing moment of slipping into my jacket and stepping foot outdoors, determination in my wandering footsteps and pressure against my chest as I struggle to breathe in the 10,400 ft altitude. It’s the way the clouds surround the rooftops and nestle themselves into the mountains, like a dress fitting around a woman’s curves,...
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Little birthday wish
Salome-Valdivieso
2018-10-06
(View from my house 05/10/2018 evening) A strong feeling of homesickness comes to my 19th birthday here in Senegal. Nostalgia fills me when I remember all my friends and family members in my 16th and last birthday in Ecuador. Nostalgia comes to my heart when I remember my last two birthdays; by the fjord, in...
Read MoreDalal ak jàmm!
Paula Medina
2018-10-06
8 Sept 2018 Today I arrived to my host family in this yet unknown country for me. My senegalese name is ‘Yaay Faatu’, the identity with which I will be recognised by my new neighbours. The life awaiting for me at this point is to observe, learn, play and feel necessary confusion. Someone told me...
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London Samson
2018-10-05
I’d say it’s easy to fall in love with a place when the sun sneaks into your room through thin metal shutters at 7 am and the birds accompany it in song. When your instant coffee and breakfast baguette pair well with staring off into the sky carelessly. When walking down the street has become...
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“A World Ahead”: lessons from my playlists and suitcases
Phoebe Shea Perez
2018-10-05
[Image description: photo of myself at the Orlando Museum of Art in front of Dan Halter’s Rifugiato Mappa del Mondo] Packing my suitcase for the next eight months in Senegal brought an initially incomprehensible sense of déjà vu. For days I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had already packed for this sojourn, but...
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