Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Community Immersion Week
Kyle Healy
2017-01-18
Culture Shock. Culture Shock everywhere. I can’t even begin to describe the little discrepancies that I pick out daily between my life here and my life in the states. Or maybe I can begin to describe it, as I will aptly attempt now (please excuse my bizarre narration, I’ve been reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to...
Read MoreThe End of ICO
Kyle Healy
2017-01-17
For those of you who were wondering where my blogs have been for the past few months, they are being uploaded chronologically based on when I wrote them. I am starting with this one from the end of In-Country Orientation, a period of three weeks where we stayed in Dakar to adjust to Senegal while...
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Look at all those children
Anh Tu Lu
2017-01-17
Before coming to Senegal, I never liked being with kids. People have always told me that I’m good with them, but I still didn’t enjoy spending time around those evil little creatures. Going into my host family, however, I was faced with what I thought was my worst nightmare: 18 kids running around and screaming....
Read MoreAdventures
Marvellous John
2017-01-17
A wise individual more than once said to me “This bridge year is as much for your community as it is for you, with a little more emphasis on the for you bit” In country orientation had a lot of emphasis on the community aspect for me. With the language classes on most days, educational...
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Ain’t I a woman?
Jabari Gambrel
2017-01-17
An examination of womanhood in transition What does this picture say to you? Laden with piercings, covered in brass, with skin like midnight leather, she sat before me. She being a Bedik woman of considerable age appeared to me as an image. From her high cheek bones, to the beads that clung with all abundance...
Read MoreChoosing to Begin Again- For the Fourth Time This Year
Delaney McKinley
2016-12-17
After realizing I’ve been sending my blogs to the wrong email address, I’ve decided to scratch those and start again, which ties itself beautifully into the topic of this blog. Here we go- Last night, I chose to begin again. This sounds like it should be some brilliant realization I had, but, if I’m being...
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Samba et son velo
Jasen Lo
2016-12-16
A disclaimer. More like an excuse. This blog post has been long overdue. To my friends and family who have missed my incoherent writing, I apologize. This life in Senegal has been like a piece of coal, imperfect. And of course, the typical excuses: Work, precious internet connection, demotivation, fatigue, Malaria, relationships, blogger’s block. One...
Read MoreA struggling feminist in Senegal
Anne Cohen
2016-12-03
Week 10 My family won’t let me go out by myself past seven, because c’est ne pas sur. Even walking home around noon from the high school where I teach English, I can almost always guarantee that I will be followed by at least one boy or man, asking for my phone number, my...
Read MoreThe product of culture shock
Elise Petersen
2016-12-01
Trees with roots of patterns bent and broken The sea a gentle wash of white foam and salted green Walking home I sidestep plastic Dancing past the fields of broken bottles mixed among the sand Water to sand To roads To home Pulling my hand through velvet blooms hanging past paint chipped walls...
Read MoreSome Ways in Which I Have Changed
Thea Holcomb
2016-12-01
I scribbled the words of this post into a green notebook on Halloween of 2016, a day on which I was happy, tired, and for the most part optimistic, a simple bulleted list of all of the ways in which my time in Senegal has had an impact on the person whom I perceive myself...
Read MoreA Blessing
Isabel Najjar
2016-11-29
One practice that fellows are encouraged to adopt on their bridge year is one of gratitude. Each day, writing down three moments we’ve found gratitude, training our brains to scan the world for positives. It’s a practice that I’ve really latched on to, and grown to love: especially in the difficult first few months of...
Read More5 Random Things
Gloria Kirk
2016-11-25
-Went to collect firewood in the most beautiful fields. Purple flowers, baobabs, and butterflies. While walking, there was a rustling in a bush ahead and my aunt ran at it, machete raised and all. Still don’t know what it was, not sure I want to know what would’ve happened to it if Dee’ Apsa had...
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