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
Women of Kebemer: The Lives of Bebe, Adja, and Alima
Mary Modisette
2013-01-15
At first glance, one notices little gender dominance in the sandy market town that is Kebemer. Amidst the bustling street stands and boutiques, an outsider can hardly tell the difference between who is the shop owner, the buyer, and the friend stopping by for midday glass of attaya and a chat. However, if there is...
Read More
So What Does Senegal Look Like?
Barker Carlock
2013-01-15
It’s not easy to describe Senegal in words; therefore, I thought that the best way to show people what Senegal looks like was through video. Here are four videos that I made to help those outside of Senegal get a glimpse into the culture, people, and atmosphere. Enjoy! 1. Sand Painting Demonstration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ctJR-t-jV4&feature=plcp) Here is...
Read More
The Ones in Orange
Talia Katz
2013-01-15
It begins before the rise of the sun, before the first cry of the rooster. They leave their clay hut compounds and begin a steady trickle onto la route nationale. Their destination- jurato- Tomboronkoto’s gold mine. The diverse crowd steps together- an old man who parts with nostalgia for the days when this very hour...
Read More
What the Bugs Gave Me
Emily Ford
2013-01-09
Bugs. Of shapes and sizes I didn’t couldn’t have imagined to be biologically possible. This is my first memory of my village. It was reaching dusk as I sat down on a mat in this unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers, when the hordes appeared. Cockroaches scurried from cracks in cement; beetles dug themselves out of the sand, and oddly...
Read More
Reader be Forewarned: This Story Contains Diarrhea
Barker Carlock
2013-01-09
For the past four days, my intestines have been ravaged. I have had the same liquid pouring out of both ends of my body. I’m not sure what the culprit was…perhaps the water, the greasy and sugary foods, the lack of exercise, etc. More than likely it was a combination of all of the above....
Read More
A Day in the Life
Emily Collins
2013-01-09
I wake up slow. Drifting between my dream and reality, I let my mind slowly awaken before my body. I turn off my alarm, gradually lifting my body and do a series of stretches before I even open my eyes. I give myself time each morning to reflect on the day that passed, and prepare...
Read MoreHappiness and Indoor Plumbing
Allie Wallace
2013-01-09
A few weeks ago, as I was chopping onions with my adult host sister, she said something out of the blue that caught me by surprise. “At the end of the month, we’re going to finish the house.” “Wait, it’s not finished?” I asked, confused. Sure, the majority of the rooms are unpainted, the exterior...
Read More
The Girl Effect: The Gender Roles in Palmarin
Jay Choi
2013-01-09
On September 29th—after a month of language and cultural training in Dakar—I finally arrived in my rural placement site in Senegal’s southern coast called Palmarin, the home of beautiful mangroves. In my family, I have three sisters—Oumi, Saly, and Awa—and two brothers—Jean and Alou. I’m privileged to have multiple siblings from both genders as my interaction with them has allowed me...
Read More
To Have Trash
Cheyenne Tessier
2013-01-09
The smell of burning waste seeps in through the open screens of my bedroom window. I came here to escape it. I thought that it would be far enough. It was us who raked the plastic next to the highway and added a bit of grass, so that it could burn quickly. It was me who bought...
Read More
City Boy
Matthew Travers
2013-01-09
After living in New York City for a year, commotion has grown to be the norm for me. I thrive in the chaos, the shoulder-to-shoulder metropolitan density. My hometown of San Jose is a modestly urban city as well, which has led me to naturally gravitate towards a lifestyle full of traffic and Starbucks coffee shops...
Read More
A chance to grow, learn, experience…Appreciate
Tasha Torres
2013-01-09
I live just outside the city limits of Kedougou in a house with a blue front door that I’ve come to know so well. I live with my dad (Baba Ibrahima), two moms (Nene Dialamba & Nene Ruggie), six brothers (Alseyni, Moustapha, Papa, Oumar, Aliou & Amadouwouri), one sister (Aissatou), and my grandma. After much...
Read More
Immersion Through the Lens of a Looney Toon
Becky McClements
2013-01-09
Written November 3, 2012: It’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m escaping the unfathomably hot sun with my host dad in the shade of the mango tree in our compound. One of our neighbors, an incredibly goofy woman with a great sense of humor and dance moves to boot comes strolling up to us, swinging a big yellow bucket, which...
Read More