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
Seeing Ibarra
Elizabeth Warren
2011-11-07
Sometimes you may be looking, but not really seeing. This was something I had experienced during my first visit to Ibarra, I was here for a week to meet my family, to visit my job, and also to see where I´ll be living over the next seven months, but even though I was in a...
Read More
Two Machetes and an Axe: We Come in Peace
Kirin Gupta
2011-11-07
Smoke curled under blackened plantains on a wood tray that hung above the open fire. Flames licked up from a pit sunken into the mud floor. It was my first Sunday in Cotundo, Ecuador and my host mom and I had hiked for miles to visit her mother’s farm – the epitome of a campo,...
Read More
Goodbyes
Galen Burns-Fulkerson
2011-11-07
I didn’t expect to get so close to my host family in Quito. Before arriving, I figured I would spend some quality time with them during my training and then move on to my longer home-stay with little trouble. This is not what happened at all. After a month with my wonderfully helpful and incredibly...
Read More
Not Foreign
Jacklyn Joy Byrd
2011-11-02
I’m the first to admit that my Spanish speaking skills are not that great. I’m also the first to admit that I possess incredibly perfectionist tendencies. The combination of these two led to a month and a half of silence: I only spoke when asked direct questions, or felt threatened. My silence ended about twenty...
Read More
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Welcome Frye
2011-10-28
You are sitting outside watching the last beams of sun disappear behind the mountains when the news reaches you. The man who brings it expects nothing more of you than simple acknowledgement, yet curiosity brings you to the communal building where all are gathered. A woman has died today, and a vigil of silence is...
Read More
Back to High School
Trevor Porter
2011-10-28
My brother’s high school I visited was not at all what I was used to, and the most similar aspect of the school day was that teachers taught and students studied. My brother told me that school started at 7. But this was Ecuador time, and people didn’t start arriving, even the teacher, until much...
Read More
Un Rio
Heather Kurtz
2011-10-19
While in Atacapi, my community, I have discovered many things. There is one that really made me think. This was the river. I never knew all the things that a river can be. Most of you know I have a passion for white-water kayaking. I am constantly watching the river levels to see when I...
Read More El Jugo De Kambic
Lily Ellenberg
2011-10-18
The second week with my Napo host family has begun. My family consists of parents, Irene and Juan, and two younger siblings: one boy, Kambic, age nine, and one girl, Nina, age three. They are both rather adorable if I do say so myself. Kambic acted comfortably towards me from the first day, but I had...
Read More
The Night Watchman
Welcome Frye
2011-10-17
It’s 5 a.m. and the cacophony has started. I hear the thump of music in the neighbor’s house, dogs barking, a mother hen ushering her chickens around like a drill sergeant, my younger brothers laughing as they get ready for school, and the insistent honk of the first bus leaving for Archidona. My first response...
Read MoreSaying Goodbye
Heather Kurtz
2011-10-14
I’m going to miss the strawberries, because they are sweet and organic and cheap, and I will miss the carrots because one is almost enough to be a complete meal. I will miss getting on my bus on my way to Ambato and feeling the wave of relief that it actually showed up. Even though...
Read More
To the Bathroom
Priyanka Rao
2011-10-14
It’s 3:41 in the morning, and I just got back quivering into my bed. I’d had to go pee for several hours but hadn’t figured out how I would make it alive. I knew I was living in the rainforest region but this truly clarifies: I am living IN it. The rain droplets can be...
Read More One Step at a Time
Stephanie Dunning
2011-10-03
I’ll start with the first day and we’ll see how far we get from there. Saturday was a day filled with anticipation. Those of us unlucky enough to know just enough Spanish to get by had to go to class for a final cramming-session before loading into buses and heading to our eventual long-term...
Read More