Fellow Stories

The First Day, Ecuador 2017

Savier Morales

2017-04-01

August/28/2016, my first day in Ecuador. I hadn’t slept all night, flew for over 8 hours from San Fransico to Houston, then to Quito Ecuador. And so my bridge year begins with Global Citizen Year. Excited for the adventures with my new Family!   [vc_video link=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ur35njqwVM&t=4s’]

Womens Shelter in Sayasui, Ecuador

Savier Morales

2017-04-01

For the first four months, I volunteered at a women and children’s shelter. Right on the spot, it was a different place, many of these women, as well as children, were victims of the machismo culture. The kids were so full of life, and yet I could see they had a troubled past. Another thing...

PDT video

Merle Nye

2017-03-30

A quick look into what PDT was like. [vc_video link=’https://youtu.be/vH4pGgNXN-4′]

Dia de los Difuntos

Merle Nye

2017-03-30

Ecuador celebrates their Day of the Dead on the night of November 1st through the afternoon of the 2nd. In the days leading up to this celebration, you can find "guaguas de pan" and "colada mordada", the traditional food and drink for these festivities, on every street corner, in the school cafeteria, or in the...

The Super Bowl in Cuenca

Merle Nye

2017-03-30

 I decided a fun bonding with my new host family, who is very interested in American culture, would be treating them to some hamburgers while watching the Super Bowl. As you might imagine, American football’s popularity here is comparable with that of watching rugby or Cricket in the United States. Still, I had confidence that...

My Global Citizen Year Apprenticeship video

Merle Nye

2017-03-30

I recently put together some footage I had of my apprenticeship to give friends and family an idea of what my apprenticeship is here in Ecuador. [vc_video link=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAP9rHI0h0&t=57s’]

Pictures From My Apprenticeship

Helene Farrell Bee

2017-03-30

My Apprenticeship in Ecuador

Helene Farrell Bee

2017-03-30

Hola!  I have been apprenticing at Centro Gerontologico Juan Pablo II for the last 7 months. As part of my responsibilities, I visit the elderly in surrounding communities during the morning. We do crafts, eat a snack, and chat. After we return to the center, I help prepare lunch for the 20-40 elderly people. At...

A Lesson on Impact

Rachel Koltsov

2017-03-29

On Monday mornings, I go to the office of the Unidad Social de Gualaceo or I go to the terminal and meet up with the person that I will be working with that week. From there, we go off to do our site visits or group visits, where we do small activities and lessons, depending...

Que quieres hacer cuando eres mayor? (What do you want to be when you’re older?)

Gabriel McCarthy

2017-03-29

I asked my students this question. Not all of them wanted to answer, and lots of kids just said what they're friends said. So, here's what a bunch of rural-living youngsters who live in Ecuador want to be when they're older. 6th Boys  Carpenter Bus driver  Soldier Construction worker Soldier Electrician  Police officer "I want...

Reflections about an unexpected gap-year experience in a nursing home.

Noemi Liebe

2017-03-29

The summer after I finished high school I felt pretty invincible. I had spent my teenage years striving for bigger things, grabbing every opportunity to learn and explore, challenging myself and working towards getting better. This earned me a scholarship to study my two last years of high school abroad, which was an opportunity that...

The Women of Bullzhun

Jesse Aranda-Comer

2017-03-29

Last week I had the lovely opportunity  to work with a group of women artisans from a community just outside of Gualaceo. Upon arriving at the host’s house, I was surprised to find that over 13 women had shown up. This was in large part due to the close knit nature of the artisanal community...