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
Choosing What Really Matters
Rachel Teevens
2014-03-27
Going into this experience I expected that I would see the world in a new light and this would help me grow and change me in ways no other experience could. I was expecting to learn life lessons that would affect me forever. And that has happened but there have been a lot of simpler,...
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Only Jew For Miles
Eli Chanoff
2014-03-05
“Come, Eli, we schhk the xar now,” my host brother said, sliding a finger across his throat at the schhk sound. We communicate quite effectively through a combination of English, French, Wolof and hand motions. Xar (the ‘x’ is pronounced like the ‘ch’ in Channuka) is the Wolof word for sheep, and it has been one of the words I’ve used most often...
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On Being Helpless
Eli Chanoff
2014-03-05
My first night living in the small Senegalese town of Pire Goureye I wandered through the sandy streets for several hours with my brothers acting as tour guides. They showed me the market which, closed for the day, was a series of empty stalls erected from tree branches, plywood and corrugated tin. We visited my...
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Far From Done
Jose Duran Jr
2014-02-23
Monday, October 21: My birthday. Tuesday, October 22: Helped deliver a baby. Wednesday, October 23: Hay fus. (Nothing) Thursday, October 24: Little girl passed away at the health post. (Malaria) Friday, October 25: Hay fus. (Nothing) Saturday, October 26: My first Senegalese party. The week of my birthday was a particularly heavy week for me. Many of the realizations I’ve made about...
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What You’ve Missed
Jose Duran Jr
2014-02-23
So here is the basic information of my time here in Senegal. This is by no means in depth or anything, but more of just a quick glimpse of the things that make up the basis of my daily life. I promise to go into greater detail on a few of these things in future blog posts. I...
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Sorry for the Delay
Jose Duran Jr
2014-02-23
So, it’s kind of obvious that I have been a little lacking in blog posts here on my Global Citizen Year blog. Heck, I haven’t posted a single one since I left Houston way back in August. Now, I understand how this may come off as simply me being lazy, but I want you to hear me out...
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Where Time Takes Us
Kaitlyn Johnke
2014-02-23
I wade across the Gambia River, not bothering to roll up my pants because I know the water will eventually be higher than I can roll them. A cow leads the way across the river to where Sadou is in the garden on the other side, and I can see the red speck that is...
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This Isn’t a Circus
Guzly Guzman
2014-02-23
The day had been long and it wasn’t even over but even God took some time to rest right? Well we’re not on the level of gods but even cohorts hard at work have the right to a good lunch. So in come the bowls, on to the floor we go hands ready. This is how it’s done here,...
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So, you came to find yourself in Senegal?
Guzly Guzman
2014-02-23
So there we all were looking down at the small crowd of host family members that had come to collect us for our first home stays in Dakar. One by one we were introduced and walked out the hotel to start our “Senegalese” lives. I remember my heart pounding like crazy as my eyes scanned the faces trying to see...
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In the Land of Women
Allie McKinney
2014-02-20
I’ve always been captivated by stories of the green tomato South. The ones where white babies are raised by loving, cheeky black nannies. And even though they face great oppression, everyone sits around laughing and eating banana pudding. Who wouldn’t want that? I think what really draws me in to those stories is just how powerful the black characters are. These...
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A Night & A Morning in Kebemer
Jahshana Olivierre
2014-02-20
I often spend these seemingly endless nights tossing and turning, engulfed in an ill- setup but well intentioned mosquito net. I’m at war – combating a billion different species of bugs, trying to eat me alive, and even when I see the twenty or so casualties I’ve inflicted my efforts fall short. The bugs continue to terrorize...
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I Guess I’m Not Getting Married
Rachel Teevens
2014-02-20
My niece just told me I can’t do anything. I can’t cook. I can’t clean my clothes. I can’t sweep. I can’t clean the dishes. I can’t do anything. And due to these facts I will apparently never find a Senegalese husband. Now you might think that here I should insert a feminist rant about...
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