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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Class Year
Country
The Coffee Process
Liza David
2010-11-10
Let’s take a coffee farmer- we’ll call her Maria. She lives on and owns a coffee farm. On this farm she picks coffee beans. She then sells her coffee beans. For this venture, she has two options: She can sell her beans on the open market at a price that is below her household cost,...
Read MoreThe Next Step
Peter Saudek
2010-11-10
After finishing the first month in Quito, I said farewell to my wonderful first host family, and prepared for the next step. I have been placed in Ibarra for the next six months to begin my apprenticeship. Ibarra is a small, four-hundred year old city with antique-style buildings and churches, narrow stone-patterned roads, and is...
Read MoreOlor de Café
Joe Giallo
2010-11-05
Well, today, I worked with AACRI, my new employers, for the first time, and I’ll be the first to tell you it was an experience. As part of our (Liza and I’s) first month of training and initiation, we spent the day in la planta, the factory where all of the coffee that AACRI produces...
Read MoreRocks and Rivers
Joe Giallo
2010-11-05
I was sitting out by the river today with my family, and their family, and their family’s family, and then friends, and also the two Canadians who live nearby (they speak no Spanish at all, and seem to think it’s great that I’ve arrived and I speak enough to translate), when a thought occurred to...
Read MoreThe Most Beautiful Place No One Has Ever Seen
Joe Giallo
2010-11-05
I’m here in Apuela now. Well, in actuality, I’m just outside of Apuela, in a place that is just a bit more rural, and whose name I do not know how to spell, so forgive me. In lieu of a name, allow me to paint you a picture of what my house is like. Ten minutes on the...
Read MoreA few more bus stories…
Peter Saudek
2010-10-29
There’s something about riding the public transportation bus system every day that has really intrigued me. What’s most interesting about the bus is the make-up of the people on it. There are women in indigenous clothing selling their goods, men in full suits and ties, six year-old girls riding alone to school, preachers, and female security guards commuting...
Read MoreFirst Month Findings
Peter Saudek
2010-10-29
The past few weeks I have found myself doing lots of observing, listening, and gradually beginning to interact more with the locals as I gain more confidence in my language abilities. However, the more comfortable I feel here, the more I want to say. Then I realize there are still so many ways in which...
Read MoreEcuadorable
Cameron Kaufman
2010-10-28
This past week had us getting into the Quiteno rhythm; Spanish classes in the morning, a huge lunch back at home with the host families, and lectures at the university about various subjects to finish up the day. Of course, with the exception of Thursday’s, on which we have our “Ritmos Tropicales” salsa class after...
Read MoreGame Shows Can Teach Valuable Lessons
Chloe Bobar
2010-10-27
Embarrassingly enough, I am a huge fan of game shows. Given this, you can imagine my excitement when I was sitting in the living room with my siblings last week, doing homework and watching a ridiculously silly comedy show, when a familiar scene ran across the television screen (and it wasn’t the ever-popular Simpsons). It...
Read MoreThe Road Less Traveled
Cameron Kaufman
2010-10-27
Left, right, left, right… My breath was labored after about four hours of hiking up the steep incline towards that summit that just never came, hovering in front of me like a mirage but never actually becoming reality. Several breaks eased the day along, but it became slowly harder as less and less oxygen made...
Read MoreFamilia, Amor, y Amistad
Omar Arteaga
2010-10-25
Mi familia aquí en el Ecuador es mucho más unida que mi verdadera familia en los Estados Unidos. Por ejemplo, aquí en el Ecuador me di cuenta que las familias comen a una hora segura. En los Estados Unidos hay muchas familias que tienen que cumplir con diferentes deberes y a veces no tienen tiempo de...
Read MoreExpect the Unexpected
Lily Shaffer
2010-10-25
Yesterday I came home from classes and there was Klezmer music wafting down the stairs. Yes, I am in Quito, Ecuador. Yes, I’m living in an evangelical Christian household. Yes, my internship with Pastoral Migratoria is affiliated with the Catholic Church. I went upstairs to Mamá’s room and found her sewing muñecas and humming along...
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