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
The Power of Social Enterprise
Hannah Bouline
2019-04-29
By Hannah Bouline, Ecuador ’13, University of Denver Four years ago I was sitting in a modest workshop stringing tags onto ribbon. The shelves full of colorfully dyed seeds hid the dull cinderblock walls. The door rested open allowing the brisk evening air to enter, and orange light from the setting sun illuminated the mountainside....
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Haku Wasima
Anna Sophie Tinneny
2019-04-29
“‘You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place,’ I told him, ‘like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.’” Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran As I stepped...
Read MoreOn Leaving – A free write from my favourite cafe
Jasmine Johnson
2019-04-29
1/02/19 – La Cosecha When you go to a place you never think that it will be the last time. I’ve been thinking about how I’ve got such little time left and that not only people do I need to say goodbye to but places as well. Why is that? Say goodbye to a place?...
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Snaps and Captions Part 3
Jasmine Johnson
2019-04-29
*February * *Cotacachi* [image: IMG_4255.jpg] The best thing about Ecuador is the plethora of puppies. This was another fellow’s latest addition to her family and I couldn’t help but carry him around like the sleepy baby he is. *Tena * [image: f4f49682-61dc-4a78-b0c2-559a76ccae91.jpg] This is our good morning at 5 am face. We were able to...
Read More19 things I already miss about Ecuador
Dena Muething
2019-04-26
I started writing this during my last week in my host community and it was going to be called “things I am going to miss about Ecuador”. But I realized, sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to miss until it’s gone. So I stopped and waited till I got settled in my home in...
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Before I Said Goodbye
Eliza Stowe
2019-04-25
Thursday, April 25 2019. Every once and awhile I wish more than anything that I could go back to those days before I said goodbye to Ecuador. Those days where I woke up to my natural alarm clock of the sun and the songs of the gas truck making it’s rounds past my house at...
Read MoreInca Kola
Tiarnan Ferry
2019-04-23
Throughout my time in Ecuador, one interesting product I took a liking to was Inca Kola. This yellow Peruvian soda is not sold in the United States of course, but can be found in almost every Ecuadorian streetside store. The flavor is intriguingly bubblegummy (which I love), however many Ecuadorians I spoke to felt otherwise....
Read MoreWater
Avry Richter
2019-04-23
Water. Uncontrollable and flawlessly wild. The substance that binds our bodies and quenches our throats. This precious and invaluable resource has unspeakable power. This value is ever present and largely known. I must pay homage to a body of flowing water that kept me sane, that kept me loved, and reminded me that I too...
Read MoreGauri Vaishali Fuerez Navarrete
Surabhee Arjunwadkar
2019-04-22
When I came to Ecuador, I had certain assumptions about how my life would look like. I didn’t know anything about anything and this is one of the things I had not expected. At all. During my second month with my host family, I found out that my 17-year-old host sister, Lesly, was pregnant. I...
Read MoreA Statement on Fear
Grace Partridge
2019-04-18
My error was fear of error, was silence, was numbing myself and convincing myself that the shadow of existence I was living as was who I was supposed to be. (frozen, terrified of failing, voiceless) Until one day, I wasn’t. And it didn’t happen right away, either. It happened in little moments that forced me...
Read MoreA Journey of Healing, through Journal Snippets
Grace Partridge
2019-04-18
During my time in Ecuador, my journal became an explosion of self love and introspection as I learned what it means to be alive and growing. Throughout the journey of fighting for myself, I changed in many ways. Part of my journey is visible through the bits of writing I’ve included below. 10/12 & things...
Read MoreLittle Things Don’t Feel Big Enough
Macy Lipkin
2019-04-18
Little things excite me about going home: having a bunch of sweatshirts to choose from, eating bagels and tofu and drinking lots of almond milk, seeing my dogs again. It’s been a long time since Mom and I counted expired inspection stickers as we drove around. I can’t wait to eat wacky vegan food—as much...
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