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
We Want Security
Winson Law
2012-01-13
As I reach town square, I can already hear deafening announcements coming from the gargantuan stereos strapped to the top of a car painted in primary colors. Gathered around the car and the announcer donned in a cowboy hat is a converging crowd of townsfolk dressed in white, coming together for a community event. While...
Read MoreMy Second Birth
Holli Sullivan
2012-01-06
My alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, but it was wasting it’s time. I had already been woken up by the sounds of tambours, maracas, and chanting in the distance. I jumped up and quickly got into my bathing suit and beach dress…but I definitely wasn’t going for a day at...
Read MoreFina Estampa
Annie Plotkin
2012-01-04
Every night besides Sunday night, you can find me on the couch from 6:00 to 7:00, and then 9:00 to 10:30 to watch my two favorite Brazilian soap operas. My host family jokes that I’m an addicted noveleira, and if I miss one episode I get nervous and ask everyone at my apprenticeship to fill...
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Twisting Traditions
Holli Sullivan
2011-12-13
As likely EVERY ONE of you other Fellows has been experiencing this month, the holiday season is not a very easy time to be this far away from home. I have missed home the whole time I have been gone, but this time of year brings just about as much “saudade”(a...
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Change Your Words
Holli Sullivan
2011-12-10
I watched a video once of a blind man sitting on a corner. He was holding a sign that said “I’m blind please help.” He gets the occasional dime n’ nickel, but the majority of the city folk ignore the man and go about their days. A young woman stops in front of the man,...
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This thing called our world.
Albamarina Nahar
2011-11-28
It really amazes me how the poorest of the world can create these beautiful things, surviving methods that are so valuable and rich of soul. Living in the states I was never blind of the rest of the world. But growing up forgetting my parent roots and forgetting the sacrifices–them, my grandparents. My ancestors have...
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Estou Aprendendo A Cozinhar
Sarah Coyne
2011-11-19
A quick excerpt from a typical day in the life of Igatu, Bahia: After spending two hours in Centro Cultural sorting out books and organizing them into their respective genres (Romance, Idiomas, Módulos Pré Vestibular) I head home, starving for some almoço (lunch). I find my host dad Neu working on some home improvement project,...
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Does Social Change Need God?
Michael Ratliff
2011-11-16
It would be naïve to discount the influence of religion on social change. Civil disobedience movements, from Leo Tolstoy’s communes in Russia to Gandhi’s civil disobedience to Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights marches, all shared a strong grounding in religious teachings. And with good reason; the Gospels offer an inspirational example of how to...
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The Legacy of Freedom
Winson Law
2011-11-14
After a rocky, bumpy thirty minute truck ride into the dry, arid Chapada Diamantina region, we finally arrived at our destination, a town called Ouricuri II. What seems like an average small town is actually a comunidade quilombola. These communities, scattered around the northeastern region of Brazil, are the legacy of fugitive slaves who ran...
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Reality Check
Annie Plotkin
2011-11-09
At Fall Training for Global Citizen Year, we were taught to be open-minded, compassionate, and to expect the unexpected. By the time our departure rolled around, I was sure that I was going to be the American that broke down all the barriers and stereotypes; furthermore, I envisioned this happening with a pretty picture frame...
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Expand the Impression
Antonio Peluso
2011-11-06
For my last blog post I wrote about the reality of poverty in Salvador and how one could get left with an impression that doesn’t reflect the reality. After later experiences, I am glad I titled the last post as “At First Glance” because soon after it was published, I would get handed my own...
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A Shock to the System
Winson Law
2011-10-25
After 13 years of schooling, nothing could have prepared me for my arrival in my new community, Morro do Chapéu, for six-months. Brain-melting quantitative physics tests, school-wide performances of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and freezing cross-country meets have prepared me to meet the challenges of academics, art, and athletics. I could complete practice problems, practice in...
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