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
As Soon As I Wake Up
Emma Anderson
2013-04-23
Saturday 2nd February 2013 Place Marietu, 11:52 am Baby Astu rolls back, smacking her perky wet lips, and stares up at me over her mothers broad shoulder. She stretches out her long-nailed fingers toward the table standing directly in the center of a small shack walled by tin roofing slats. Its palm roof, supported by crossbeams...
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The Sparknotes Version
Emily Ford
2013-04-23
In a true testament to the pace of Senegalese life, I have read my fair share of books while here. Autobiographies, fiction, anthropological research. Some, forcing myself to finish, while others I excitedly sped through. But none have been quite as challenging yet enthralling as the one that has encompassed the past seven months: a...
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Me?
Ariel Vardy
2013-04-23
Me? I’m nothing remarkable. Are you going to thank me for “roughing it” out in the “middle of nowhere”? No need. Are you going to wonder whether I almost died of hunger, or disease? Please don’t. Are you going to get your mind blown about the idea of living without electricity and indoor plumbing? Nah,...
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Yellow, Black, and White
Alison Rivera
2013-04-23
Frustrated at times, amused at others. Being a Hispanic-American in Senegal is quite an extraordinary experience. “‘Foo joge?” “Where do you come from?” they ask me as I sit next to the girl with light brown hair and green eyes. My tangled wavy hair and my dark brown eyes. Not only am I a...
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Beautiful Reality
Emily Collins
2013-04-14
Song As my time here is beginning to come to an end, and realizations of college being my new upcoming reality, I can’t help but think what it is this experience has done for me. I know I’ve changed in many ways; various means that I will never even realize have altered. I’ve been gone...
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Colors Around the Mountain
Becky McClements
2013-04-14
As the sun goes down, the colors around the mountain emerge. The roas gleams burnt orange against the array of greens that blossom up the hillside. Yes, the houses blend in with the brown of the brush but the flowers bloom brilliant reds and oranges. Mangoes droop from tree branches, fading from a pale yellow...
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Her Shoes
Talia Katz
2013-04-14
Someone once told me that a person’s story could be told by the soles of her shoes. She said that the shoes’ movements, trails, rhythms, and placements could converge to reflect a unique tale. Although the narrative of my past eight months often feels as multifaceted as the collection of sand and dirt particles perpetually...
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How I Learned to Appreciate I-40
Israel Nelson
2013-04-10
“First in roads; Last in education” is a tongue in cheek saying I heard a lot growing up in North Carolina. While the saying refers more to the disparity in taxes doled out by the North Carolina State Government, as a result, many North Carolinians (myself included) grew up thinking that spending money on roads...
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The Dark, or Rather Light, Side of Senegalese Beauty
Aissatou Barrie-Rose
2013-03-26
What does a lady having a consultation at her plastic surgeon’s office in Beverly Hills have in common with a woman in Senegal religiously rubbing her body with skin bleaching cream? They are doing everything they can to make themselves more “beautiful”. Now, stop for a moment and picture the three most beautiful women you...
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The Venture of One Republican for Democrat
Barker Carlock
2013-03-13
With unfortunate circumstances in my apprenticeship and in my home stay, it was time for me to get out of Joal for a bit. Thanks to the generosity of our country director, Nicole, she allowed me to work at some land that she owns with her husband where they are using unique agriculture techniques as...
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He said, she said, we said: In translation
Grace Bachmann
2013-03-12
Host father, the village religious leader- “Fatou, where have you been? I hardly see you, my child, anymore.” Me- “I like to wander all over the village.” Host father- <chuckles> “That’s great- now the whole village knows you.” Neighbor- “You’re taking corn to the grinding machine. Can you cook latcheeri*?” *traditional corn cous-cous dish Me-...
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A Lesson in Language
Christopher LaBorde
2013-03-12
This one’s for you Kavy. When you’re in a place where you don’t speak your first language, you kind of have to think about what you say. What you want to say, how you’re going to say it, How you can say it. You probably do this normally, at least a little bit, but...
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