Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
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“Why don’t pregnant women go to the hospital to give birth?”
Chloe Bobar
2011-02-17
“Why don’t pregnant women go to the hospital to give birth?” is one of the questions that appears on a survey that we have been giving the parteras of the rural, mostly indigenous communities within the canton of Cayambe, Ecuador. The best translation for partera is midwife, as these women serve their respective communities by...
Read MoreLearning to Take Control
Lily Shaffer
2011-02-14
Recently I’ve been able to identify just what it is about my experience that has been making this last month so difficult. I’ve been in a sort of uninspired slump, dragging my feet through the daily routine. My job doesn’t put me in contact with anyone my age, and my siblings go to university in...
Read MoreWelcome to the War
Lily Shaffer
2011-02-14
A few weeks ago, a young woman, Pati, came into Pastoral. She has beautiful dark eyes, a scar on her forehead, and shoulder length hair. She smiles a warm, crooked-tooth smile, and looks up and to the left when she’s thinking. She can’t be more than 26 or 27 and her energy is positive and enthralling. I was sitting on a bench...
Read MoreGarbage Trucks
Liza David
2011-02-14
I saw a garbage truck in Apuela. My first thought was that it was not real. My second thought held such certainty that I almost could not believe that it was not true. I thought that the world had ended. I physically had to walk around the truck and touch it, both to confirm the...
Read MoreLooking for Colombians
Lily Shaffer
2011-02-11
My job is exactly as the title suggests: I’ve been hiking through mountains looking for Colombian refugees.
Read MoreAnd if he told you to jump off a bridge, would you do that too?
Caroline Pocock
2011-02-09
What is it that gives us the courage to take a risk when it seems that every rational thought in our heads would convince us to do otherwise? We can almost deceive ourselves into doing something we’re not totally comfortable doing. Hopefully, we push ourselves for the better- to accomplish a high-set goal or to...
Read MoreThe Amazon
Liza David
2011-02-06
I close my eyes and try not to take a deep breath. I feel the healing man hover above me, blowing tobacco filled smoke into my face. All I could think was, “Is blowing this smoke into my face really going to cleanse me? It seems so dirty.” I relax a little as the healing...
Read MoreTeaching English in Zuleta
Caroline Pocock
2011-01-31
Here is a short video of me teaching English to a third grade class at the public elementary school in Zuleta, where I have my apprenticeship.
Read MoreFinding a Balance
Peter Saudek
2011-01-28
When I arrived in Ibarra and began my apprenticeship, the first month and a half I felt like I had very little “to do,” no structure in my days. Needless to say, I spent lots of time feeling unproductive and useless. Three months later, I’m teaching English classes six days a week, working in the...
Read MoreApplying principles of “good” development
Caroline Pocock
2011-01-28
The media wants us to believe that making a positive impact on the world is as easy as writing a check to that organization with the commercial that makes us all tear up. But, as a culmination of several discussions and my own observations here, I’m realizing that social impact is much more like a...
Read MoreAnother Side of Coffee
Liza David
2011-01-28
Usually I stay in the lab growing, cultivating, reproducing bacteria and fungi. However, recently I had the opportunity to visit the farms. Part of lab work is going outside and seeing results. Did the trichoderma (a bio-fungicide) work? Is the coffee healthier and stronger? So I went on one of these excursions to see how...
Read MoreLos Borrachos
Chloe Bobar
2011-01-21
Having attended two Ecuadorian weddings, Christmas celebrations, New Year’s celebrations, and, well, simply having lived in Ecuador for over three months I have seen my fair share of borrachos (drunks). Some, as you can imagine, have been thoroughly entertaining. The groom at the first wedding I went to busted out some phenomenal dance moves, for...
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