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
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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Month of Adaptation
Jacklyn Joy Byrd
2011-12-01
At the end of Fall Training at Stanford University, I learned I’d be working with CARE-International in Cayambe, Ecuador, instituting sexual health projects. Despite all warnings received from Global Citizen Year staff and friends and family at home, I started to make assumptions. I thought I’d be teaching sex ed. I thought I’d be handing...
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Oh Baby!
Heather Kurtz
2011-11-30
My baby sister On November 18th, my host mother here in Tena had a baby. She had a girl. It is very difficult to explain having a baby to people in Spanish. I received a call from my host mom at 3:20pm, on the 17th. She said that she was in labor. She called me because she...
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Expectations
Heather Kurtz
2011-11-30
Throughout Fall Training at Stanford, Global Citizen Year asked us what we expected when we got to Ecuador. Although I do not know what I expected when I got to Ecuador, I never thought I would be a well-known local celebrity. I figured that I would be just another volunteer coming to change the world. As...
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Both of My Dads
Nicolas Freschi
2011-11-30
I know few people funnier than Connor Delaney, an amateur comedian and my best friend back in the US. A standard night of Connor and I hanging out consists of us walking to the beach or waiting in line for ice cream and sparking up conversations with other kids. Just when our new friends begin...
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