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
Learning to Find Peace
Maya Panicker
2015-12-09
So, I used to know this girl named Maya. She was nice. She cared. But she worried all the time about what people thought of her. She compared herself to others and never believed she was spectacular or even enough. Her life was a constant competition with her peers and herself. Thoughts on what to...
Read More
A Letter to My Host Mom
Maria Morava
2015-12-07
To my host mom who only speaks Wolof – a language I don’t yet. Here are some things I wanted to say in those early days spent in silence. Sama yaay, I still don’t know what to call you. Even beginning this letter I’m not sure how to address it. In my time here you...
Read More
Roll With It
Anita Yan Chen
2015-12-05
PREFACE I suppose I’ve been running on Senegal-time for a while now, even before I knew what it really was. In other words, my blogs are very late. But hey, you can’t rush art, right? The order of my blogs will not be chronological and they will come as they will. The way waves do. ROLL WITH...
Read MoreMy Addiction, My Challenge, My Recovery (for Mac users)
Mason J. Sedlack
2015-12-01
This version should be compatible with all computers! I gave this speak up at TS1. It was completely unplanned and unrehearsed. It may be a bit shocking for some, sad for others, but please listen. Thank you. Peace be with you all. TS1-Speak-Up.mp3
Read MoreMy Addiction, My Challenge, My Recovery
Mason J. Sedlack
2015-12-01
I gave this speech up at TS1. It was completely unplanned and unrehearsed. It may be a bit shocking for some, sad for others, but please listen. Thank you. Peace be with you all.
Read More
A jaraama!
Abigail Foy
2015-11-26
November 18 In the United States, if I’m walking my dog on the street, I may say hello to a few neighbors I know, but for the most part I’ll nod, smile, but most likely I’ll say nothing at all. That would be quite an unusual site here in Senegal. The greeting culture here is...
Read More
Endless Summer
Abigail Foy
2015-11-26
October 31 I remember sitting and reading the blog of a new Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. She expressed something along the lines of, “I know I’ve only been here a few months, but it already feels like home.” At the time, this didn’t comfort me. It made me more anxious. I was so nervous to go that I...
Read More
Gratitude
Maya Panicker
2015-11-26
Ten things I am grateful for: 1. I am grateful for the sores on my feet. They remind me of all the paths I have walked to places I had never been before now. 2. I am grateful for my runny nose. It reminds me that the seasons are changing and the sweltering heat will...
Read MoreThankful to know
Brooke Donner
2015-11-25
Every year on Thanksgiving, in between backyard games of spud and plates piled high with mashed potatoes and strawberry mush pie, my family passes around a composition book. Its cover is bound in a paper grocery bag and adorned in doodles, and at the top it reads “Thankful Book” in my mom’s block print. The...
Read More
And the rain changed the day
Armi Katariina Kauppila
2015-11-23
I’ve never feared rain. Or storms. I don’t particularly like thunder, because of the unpleasant noise; I sometimes dislike rain because of the way it soaks my clothes but I’ve never really been afraid of its journey colliding with mine. Even when the first insecure drops of rain water splashed on my foot waking me...
Read MoreReading Hemingway on the Savannah
Janet Sebastian-Coleman
2015-11-23
November 6th 2015 I look over the cover of A Moveable Feast as my sister Rama and her friend Sally Ba dance into the compound holding out bowls full of guavas. There’s a guava tree down the hill from the compound; when I go to the well to get water for my bath I can just see it,...
Read MoreHealth
Allison Douma
2015-11-23
Over the past few weeks I have become very familiar with the health system here in Senegal. I work in a health post and I also have gotten sick three separate times so I have been able to observe the health system pretty well. Nothing describes the health system better than my last visit to...
Read More