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
Final Thoughts
Nathan Edwards
2013-04-23
Hey friends and family, Well, the end of my time in Ecuador is rapidly coming to an end and on the horizon looms home. Home. Many things have passed in my life and in the lives of those who I am closest to since I set foot in DIA 8 months ago. Relationships have been...
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Utopia
John Villanueva
2013-04-23
When I began working for Fundación UTOPIA, the word “Utopia” tritely exaggerated the impact that the organization seemed to make. Every other Saturday, my coworkers and I set up Community Baskets – or Canastas Comunitarias1 – in order to provide paying customers easy access to organic produce at an affordable price. That’s pretty much it, it...
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An Inspiring Woman
Fikrte Abebe
2013-04-23
In Ecuador, there is a population of about 3.4 million of indigenous people that are descendants of the Inca Empire that existed about 500 years ago before the conquest of Spaniards. To this day, they speak their own language called Quichwa; they dress in their traditional clothing that consists for women of an “anako” (long...
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Middle Ground
Betty Gebre
2013-04-23
“Was that me eight months ago?” I asked myself as I stared at my Global Citizen Year blog picture. I looked so young and naïve, not knowing what my year would really be about. The picture felt more like it was taken eight years ago rather than eight months before at fall training. My facial...
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Esperanza en Ecuador (Hope in Ecuador)
Brian Riefler
2013-04-23
When a volunteer embarks on a mission to change the world, he finds he has to confront many obstacles, both good and bad. Sometimes the people he intends to help do not understand him because he comes from a different place. There are days in which the world seems to come on top of him....
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An Observational Blog Post: We Are Lucky
Sam Reeve
2013-04-23
An Observational Blog: Greetings, my family and friends, from the lungs of the Earth. Recently at work a few co-workers and I engaged in a conversation regarding teen pregnancy, a very common phenomenon in Ecuador, and subsequent marriage at a very young age. In many places, including some back in the United States, teen pregnancy carries a...
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Winter/Spring Update
Sam Reeve
2013-04-23
Hola desde Ecuador! Let me get the elephant out of the room: I’ve been worse and worse with communication as the year has progressed because I am so happy and content with my life here that I practically fear communication with people on the “other” America. So I’m extremely sorry for my absence from the e-blogging...
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As My Time Winds Down
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-23
As I sit here in the Runa office in Archidona, I cannot help but feel the panic bubbling up in my chest: my time in Napo comes to an end in just a mere two weeks. All that has happened over the past six months and all of the people that I have met here in...
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A New Year’s Tradition
Sydni Heron
2013-04-23
New Year´s Day is filled with tradition. One of my favorite Ecuadorian traditions is the burning of muñecas. Every household makes a lifesize muñeca (doll) or more than one to represent the old year. The muñeca can be a famous figure (like The Hulk or your favorite telenovela character), someone your know (see pictures number...
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The Easter Tradition
Sam Reeve
2013-04-23
Happy Easter from Ecuador. I write to you today to share some of the goings-on of Semana Santa, or Holy Week, here in Ecuador. As many of you might have guessed, Ecuador, like most Latin American countries, consists heavily of Catholics because of Spanish conquest and installation of the Catholic faith hundreds of years ago (Note: exceptions can include...
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An Outlet
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-23
A drinking culture is undoubtedly very prominent in Ecuador and more specifically very prominent in the Kichwa communities surrounding Tena. When I lived in Alto Tena, it was common to see the community borrachos stumbling around at all hours of every day, and there was rarely a weekend without a community party. Something I heard...
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Transitions, Differences – Change
Meliza Windmoeller
2013-04-23
*This is a poem written shortly after I moved from Napo to the province of Chimborazo to live* — What is the meaning of change? The definition? Is there even one? Most importantly, how do we learn to embrace Lo que nosotros no conocemos? (What we do not know) When a life you worked hard to create Slips through your fingers Leaving a trail of...
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