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
An Uneven Balance
Tasha Torres
2013-05-14
I have little over a month left here in Kedougou and it seems like so much time and yet not even close to enough time for me to experience all that there is to experience. Recently I noticed that I either have really horrible days where I can’t stand it here and other days I...
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Oh Family!
Tasha Torres
2013-05-14
Time is running out faster than expected and I’ve been thinking a lot about the time that I’ve spent here. I don’t know much about my workplace (I keep track of the books but I don’t really know how much things cost or even the names of a lot of the items we sell), My...
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Bound Together by Dirt
Tasha Torres
2013-05-14
Being dirty has taken on a whole new meaning since coming to Senegal. Before, dirty was spilling something on your clean clothes, not bathing when your body odor suggested that you do otherwise, Not having dirt covered clothing/shoes. Practicing good hygiene! Eight months later and what it means to be dirty is completely changed! (Here...
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The Art of Religion
Jay Choi
2013-05-14
Ever since my early arrival home from Senegal in February, I made it a primary goal of mine to study religious texts. Religion had never been a priority in my academic or non-academic pursuits, perhaps because I had never had substantial exposure to any religion in my secular childhood to draw myself into the subject...
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Beyond the Data- Capstone Film
Talia Katz
2013-05-14
In Senegal, approximately 55.2% of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Yet after completing my Global Citizen Year in rural Senegal, I’ve come to realize that development statistics don’t even begin to tell the real story. Thus, here is a glimpse into the past eight months of my life and a hint...
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What Dakar Told Me
Allie Wallace
2013-05-08
When my fellow Senegal Fellows and I arrived in Dakar back in September, I found the place less than hospitable. At the tail end of rainy season, its streets turned to sewage rivers at the slightest shower. Entire neighborhoods’ roads and crumbling sidewalks were inches deep in sand and garbage. Speaking no French or Wolof,...
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The Crazy Things People Do for Money
Ariel Vardy
2013-05-02
Climbing up to a far and thin branch in a big tree, holding tight, they shift their weight to reach their hands into a hole in the tree, surrounded by hundreds of bees, trying to get honey. Grabbing a big gun, a small sack of water, and walking into the forest for the night. They will be walking through the...
Read More Africa Seen in the Eyes of Americans Through Disney Movies
Jay Choi
2013-05-02
One day, I was searching for a Disney channel on Pandora, an internet radio that enables listeners to tailor their repertoire of music to personal taste. I plugged my iPod on to a speaker, and let Elton John and Peabo Bryson carry me into a pensive trance of childhood. Like most anyone, I love anything...
Read More African Common Sense
Jay Choi
2013-05-02
Today’s foreign aid in Africa seems to be predicated upon the unconscious belief that the African people are uncivilized and somehow lack common sense – for example, that they don’t know how to properly utilize mosquito nets even though they live in malaria hot spots of the world. Foreign aid workers in their edgy offices...
Read More Debunking the Stereotypes
Cheyenne Tessier
2013-05-02
Recently, I’ve been getting countless Facebook messages and e-mails, “So, what is Africa like?” “Are you helping a lot?” “Do you confront the issue of AIDS on a daily basis?” “Have you seen any voodoo ceremony?” And so on. Even though I live in SENEGAL, and more specifically, THE DAKAR REGION, a very small portrait...
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