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
Día Internacional De La Mujer
Sydni Heron
2013-04-04
Betty Gebre and I, the two fellows living in Puerto Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador, worked with Patronato Municipal (you can find out more about Patronato in my last blog: http://archive.globalcitizenyear.org/updates/looking-up-from-sympathy-to-respect/) to organize a march and celebration for Women´s Day on March 8th. See what Puerto Quito did to recognize this important day here: https://vimeo.com/62106662.
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Alcoholism
Delia Ross
2013-04-04
There are three big topics that come to mind when I think of things that have been a struggle to deal with while here: gossiping, machismo, and alcoholism. This blog is dedicated to the issue of alcoholism. Before coming to Ecuador, of course I knew about alcoholism and that it was an immense and very...
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How Do I Look?
Carly Sitrin
2013-04-04
“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses Basically, terrible. I’ve picked up a few pounds and my skin has decided that one bout of puberty just wasn’t enough. I am covered in flea bites, mosquito bites, scorpion stings, and acne scars....
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Mi tiempo casi se ha terminado aquí…
Meliza Windmoeller
2013-04-04
Right now I’m sitting at the mall in Riobamba, and I’m reading over the blogs that have accumulated over the past 7 months. We have roughly 1 week left in our sites before we are taken from the lives we have gotten to know and love – forever. So right now, I’m just sitting here pondering how much everything...
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The Genius of Animal Planet
Jordan Lee
2013-04-03
In the book “The World is Flat”, the author, Thomas L. Friedman, makes a lot of claims about how new business leaders will have to be able to utilize new technologies available to them to bring better and more creative products to their customers, and I think John Hendricks, founder and Chairman of Discovery Communications...
Read MoreSaying Good-bye
Kimberly Reed-Hyman
2013-04-03
I can truly say I have mixed emotions about leaving. Im happy I’m returning to Philly to see my friends and family´, but I also don’t want to leave the home and family I have here. I’m scared of how people will look at me when I leave, because I know how I am. I get really...
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Paradise Lost
Chloe Bash
2013-04-01
During my first few weeks in Quito, when Spanish classes seemed interminable, and I knew that my lunchbox was packed with congealing french-fries, I would bound down the hill to “El Jardin” or “The Garden” for lunch. In its clean, sanitized air, I would release my protective grip on my backpack and stroll past shops displaying American brands. No...
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A Letter to Myself Seven Months Ago
Danielle Livneh
2013-03-29
Hi there Dani! So you’re just about ready to leave for Ecuador. You’ve got a backpack stuffed to the brim with clothes, ambitions, and expectation. I hope you’re enjoying your clean clothes, because in just a few months every single article will have become a dwelling for an impressive amount of bed bugs. Also you can tell Mom you...
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Women, Sex, and Sexuality
Tsion Horra
2013-03-28
I was raised to be chaste, to wait until marriage, to not discuss sex openly because if I were discussing sex openly then it must be that I have lax moral views towards it. I must not think that it is as sacred or solemn as I was thought to observe through the language our...
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Getting my Joy Back.
Kalea Moore
2013-03-28
“I want my own things/ how i lived them/ & give me my memories/ how i waz when i waz there/ you cant have them or do nothin wit them/” -ntozake shange. “For coloured girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf” 9am: Wake up 9am-10:30am: Get Sunday ready 10:30am-11am: Drive to church 11am-1pm: Sit in...
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Amiga
Fikrte Abebe
2013-03-27
My first daily challenge in Ecuador and the highlights of my normal day in Ecuador occur consecutively right after each other. Reminiscing back to filling out the living preferences before coming to Ecuador, I knew living in the Amazon or in the coastal regions was out of the question for me because I was already exhausted...
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Big Mama’s In Da House
Lydia Collins
2013-03-27
Three weeks. Three seven day spans before I leave Ibarra. Before I leave my siblings, my students, the Andes, everything that was once new but is now familiar. As this intense, raw, and wonderful experience wraps up I find myself spending a lot of time reflecting on the past eight months. In hindsight, I realize that my Global Citizen Year...
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