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
French Adventures
Ananda Day
2009-10-16
Oh la la,where in the world is my mind? Last week the we had our first french lesson here, and Hilary and I are with Madame Dianaba (Jana-baa). Before the lesson we had to take an exam to find out which class we would end up in and the exam consisted of a speaking conversation with...
Read MoreElephant Gun
Ananda Day
2009-10-16
It rips through the silence, and all that is left, is all that I hide.-Beirut Looking at the majority of my days, there are usually some things that go wrong, but every day seems to turn out at least a little bit great. Its funny though how sometimes, even when so many things go right,...
Read MoreSaturday Evening
Gaya Morris
2009-10-15
Saturday evening might have been my lowest low and I say that with some ambivalence in conscience of the fact that I still have six months to go and the fact that it is always too easy to oversimplify things in retrospect, soften past pains to heal lingering ones. On Saturday evening Rachel and I...
Read Moresome days, they last longer than others
Victoria Tran-Trinh
2009-10-14
Semi-lengthy update! This is a picture of my host cousins playing the kora for me. They played a mixture of traditional and love songs. Haha. I got offered many things, from new Senegalese husbands to drags off communal cigarettes. (All of which I refused, politely, of course.) Home life: My host family is great and...
Read MorePsst. Psssst. Pssssssst.
Alec Yeh
2009-10-13
The Senegalese hiss. I don’t quite understand why, but they hiss at you. They hiss at each other. They hiss at everybody. Instead of saying, “Hello!”, they just go “pssssst.” It’s how people in Senegal try to get your attention. And it’s not just because I’m American. They do that to each other. They hiss...
Read MoreAwkward Moments
Hilary Brown
2009-10-13
I turned the corner and all of the sudden there was a wall of backs in front of me. What in the world! I thought, what are all of these people doing? I had just finished lunch at my host house and was on my way back to the Baobab Center for a Wolof lesson....
Read MoreLanguage, Langue, Lengua, Laaka
Alec Yeh
2009-10-13
I’ve never been very good at languages. I’ve always had a tough time learning them and mastering them. But knowing a language tells you so much about the culture of its people. Yes, the roots of it might be Germanic, or Arabic, or so on. Knowing that may tell you the influences and the roots...
Read MoreDinner with the Thiaws
Alec Yeh
2009-10-13
The habits of dinner are very very different here than they are in the US. It takes time to adjust, and I still haven’t quite adjusted to it. Breakfast and lunch are at pretty normal hours; whenever you wake up, which is around 8 or so, and around 1-2 respectively. However, dinner is just incredibly...
Read MoreBeatutiful Disaster
Ananda Day
2009-10-11
Here we were-Victoria, Alec, Matt, Hilary, and I (Gaya is still getting better so Rachel took her home in a car)- standing on the corner leading away from the zoo in the twilight right before the black of night. Behind us lat the cement walls with their murals of lions, tigers, and….. monkeys (no bears,...
Read MorePictures In My Head
Ananda Day
2009-10-10
Pictures of you, pictures of me, hung up on the wall for the world to see. -The Last Goodnight The courtyard in my house is roughly a 12/12 square with an extra 4×6 rectangle added onto it. From me at 8 o’clock I have the grey concrete hallway that leads to my room and...
Read MoreEn Ville
Hilary Brown
2009-10-08
This morning all six fellows, along with two guides, piled into a Tata bus for an outing down town. And by bus I men a large van with about six rows of benches five seats across. We entered by jumping through a door in the back and folding down the middle seats to make our...
Read Morelaptop computers and blueberries
Gaya Morris
2009-10-08
Sitting on the roof balcony of my new home, the call to prayer rings out loud and strong. Wispy clouds scatter the dark sky pinkened slightly by the lightsbelow. The shape of a bat darts overhead every once in a while. I write by the light shining through an open doorway through which I can...
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