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
Home Sweet Home
Heather Kurtz
2011-12-13
I am amazed by how much I feel at home here in Atacapi. The week I spent in Quito was fun but I missed my family so much. I was wondering how they were doing and wanted to know how the baby was because my parents said that the other children had spent months in...
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The Eighth Daughter
Kirin Gupta
2011-12-12
She lies flat as a board and is too skinny Her eyes The nurse has no words for them Buen expresivos, she settles on. Wide and bright They look as though They seek to be separate from her too-small face, Where her cheeks have sunken in, Already at age 7. And her lips are purple,...
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BIG PROBLEMS
Tessalyn Morrison
2011-12-10
(The fact that this is from Halloween is a testament to my adaptation into Ecuadorian culture) Witches, tarantulas, haunted houses. Yes, all perfectly scary, but this Halloween nothing is scarier than “BIG PROBLEMS”. A month ago, another fellow and I had a conversation about how Global Citizen Year’s motto should be this phrase because each...
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Gracias
Heather Kurtz
2011-12-10
Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful to be here in Ecuador. I am thankful for the life lessons I am learning. One of which is to be grateful for all that you have. I spent the weekend in Quito celebrating Thanksgiving with all the Ecuador fellows. It was great. In this time I learned that I have many things...
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Poco a Poco
Priyanka Rao
2011-12-10
Today, I’m just quieter in general, so I’m getting less Spanish intake; yesterday’s exhaustion and headache justify my taking a break. Today I am sitting next to Alejo, with the privilege of listening to his iPod with him. With his twinkle-eyes and long eyelashes, he is trying to practice his English because he hopes to...
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39 Hours, Pt. 1
Welcome Frye
2011-12-09
My most recent project at my internship site, Runa Amazon Guayusa, is creating a GPS map of Bosque Colonso, a 22,000 acre rainforest preserve stretching from my village of Santa Rita, past the towns of Archidona and Tena, and through a number of other Kichwa villages. All conversations within the story took place in Spanish and/or...
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Caves
Priyanka Rao
2011-12-09
Today we are going to the Jumandy Caverns- the beloved tourist site of the inhabitants of the Napo province. I have expectations of a little cave, trash, people. We enter with lanterns on our foreheads and the clean but slippy weight of water-filled boots. We reach the rock (i) black and solid, as formed by...
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Boats, and Bulls, and Bravery! Oh, my!
Joan Hanawi
2011-12-09
Las Fiestas de Tena. The Parties of Tena. Dangerous words in any language. One thing that I’ve learned very quickly here is that Ecuadorians are very proud to be Ecuadorian. They love finding reasons to celebrate their vibrant nation, and one of the ways this is done is through the Fiestas. Each province or capital...
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Over the Edge
Abigail Hindson
2011-12-08
I don’t really know how it happened, but suddenly I was in the water. My day had been pretty ordinary before this surprising event: I woke up at dawn and did sun salutations as the insects and birds began their morning serenade. My sister and I ate a quick breakfast of cold empanadas de queso...
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A New Friend
Galen Burns-Fulkerson
2011-12-08
At 10:30 on Thursday morning, with my head hung in defeat and the fresh bag of bread still in my hands, I turned around to head home. After spending thirty minutes knocking on every door in the neighborhood and talking to as many neighbors as possible, I decided to save my mission for another day....
Read MoreHome for the Holidays
Joan Hanawi
2011-12-07
The other day I was sitting in my family’s tienda (a little corner store that sells food and random necessities like shampoo) eating pancakes and eggs that I had cooked with Mamita and Vecina (the family friend that lives with us – “vecina” means neighbor). I like to cook for my Mamita, especially when she’s...
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Montana
Nicolas Freschi
2011-12-04
“Yo voy caminando a la montaña donde nací,” sang out my brother, Omar, and I as we lugged enormous pieces of firewood up the mountain to the family car. No weight was too heavy to bring down our spirits today, for indeed we were “going for a walk to the mountain where we were born.”...
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