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
7-place chronicles
Jovana Jovanovska
2019-02-14
* This is a combination of a few of my journal entries from the past month Walking 30 min a day to the garage (bus station) seemed as an easy task during the first month here. That is, until I realized that the sand is everywhere around me. The sand is like a shadow, forever...
Read MoreFrom a few months ago…
London Samson
2019-02-14
April By April I will not only be London Samson but also Mame Amy Ndiaye. I will have had my fair share of Cheb, ghete, and sauce soble. I will have eaten approximately 200 baguettes and loved every single one of them. I will have learned that waking up at 7 am is a lot...
Read MoreIt’s Never Too Late
Elena Blanco
2019-02-13
Throughout this gap year I haven’t been very fair to my host family. I let my insecurites get the best of me. My ignorance was played out in the form of judgement towards my family. I isolated myslef from my family, and at the time i didnt realize how it affected my family. I realize...
Read MoreMy blog update!
Elena Blanco
2019-02-13
The best place for me to feel calm and think, is any place that has trees. I find myself having a hard time to sit and be present with others. This has always been quite difficult for me. When in a large group i feel as if i need a break to breath and recollect....
Read MoreWhat is Different is Different, but also the Same
Mia Reyes
2019-02-11
My absence on this blog has been both an intentional one and an unintentional one. One that has both helped me and hurt me. And as my time here in Senegal is boiling down to a month and then some I have found myself reflective of the seconds that have slipped me, the months that...
Read MoreSelf Doubt in Senegal
Manuel Quesada Nylen
2019-02-11
I used to say lightly I don’t want this trip to end because I genuinely felt it, I’m having fun and I’m learning and it’s all unknown out here so I can constantly explore and figure out new things about my environment and in turn about myself. Now though, I say it a lot heavily...
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From my Journal, 13th December 2018
Sophia Youngdahl
2019-02-02
Teranga. I feel as though I am surrounded in warmth. I know I am as sweat careens down my cheek, making pathways in the light dusting of sand that has laid there to rest from its windy whereabouts. It is more than that simple, easily defined warmth, however; it is a peculiar one, a delectable...
Read MoreGap Year in Senegal Re: Your blog update!
Peter Dull
2019-02-01
Hello! As some of you know, I am in Senegal, West Africa until April. That means that I may not be able to respond to you immediately. Please give me some time until I read your email and respond. However, if this message is urgent and needs to be responded immediately, please consider these options....
Read MoreWhy I Stopped Identifying as American
Jacqueline Oeschger
2019-01-27
Because I’m furious with the government that calls itself freedom. Because families seeking asylum are finding a worse hell at the border. Because poverty is an induced cycle that the government oppresses minorities in to. Because education is a right that is treated as a privilege. Because gun drills are normal. Because guns are normal....
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What do I do? What do I not do?
Jovana Jovanovska
2019-01-21
Cultural appropriation The act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. Senegalese culture is very different from my own in many aspects. Some of those differences are the everyday long greetings on the street, eating the meals from a...
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Alexander Taylor’s Blog-Senegal
Alexander Taylor
2019-01-17
> > > In Wolof, one of the languages I’ve learned while in Senegal, there is a word, ‘Teranga’, that means hospitality. Hospitality, not just in the sense of welcoming, but in welcoming so graciously that one feels at home. The Terenga of my host family in Senegal and of my community has made me...
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Wolof 101
Peter Dull
2019-01-17
[image: DSCN0738.JPG] (A candid picture of the best person in Senegal aka Yaye Bouba Diop Fall) How do I get around Senegal with a language only spoken by 10 million people globally? Here are some common phrases I use daily and my favorite words that are fun to say. How much is this? -> ñaata...
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