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
On Backpacks and Ballots
Charlotte Benishek
2012-02-07
One morning as I sat on the mat in the sand in Megan’s village, drinking my ataya, I watched Ibrahima, her six year old brother leaving for school, carrying his little backpack. This reminded me of how my little brother and all of the students in first grade in my village had recently received free...
Read MoreA day to remember
Alexis Adams
2012-01-31
The Senegalese Go on Strike!! January 27th will be the defining moment in Senegalese politics, of this decade. It seems like every time you turn on the TV someone, somewhere is protesting, going on strike, and/or launching complaints at the current administration. Teachers have gone on strike at least twice since the school year started in...
Read MoreIt’s More Than Just Tea
Alexis Adams
2012-01-31
Tea time here in Senegal is nothing like you would expect it to be, no crumpets and fancy dresses, and definitely no elaborate china and pinkies in the air. It’s more like a group of 6 or 7 people sitting around a coal stove for nearly an hour drinking Chinese green tea called Ataya from...
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The Search
Lucy Blumberg
2012-01-30
We make our way through the village, buckets and scarves in hand. People are sitting out talking, laughing. Children are playing. Upon seeing our baggage one man wishes us luck. “Search in peace,” he tells us. Upon arrival at the water spigot, we find a small group of women, girls really, waiting. They sit on...
Read More Strike!!!!!
Alexis Adams
2012-01-30
Today started just like another day; it was laundry day, midway through my second bucket of clothes I heard what sounded like a stampede of children charging down the streets. I ran out to see the streets flooded with over 300 students yelling, waving signs, chanting, and blocking traffic. My house is directly opposite St. Thomas...
Read MoreThe Walls Came Tumbling Down
Erica Anderson
2012-01-30
When I first started at Le Verger, I thought I had found an apprenticeship in paradise. My original placement in the school system turned out to be stressful and blinding, exactly what I didn’t want; the only direction I could see was OUT. I asked my host dad and fairy godfather if he could find...
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‘She’ being me.
Megan White
2012-01-30
No one has ever called the mosque in Potou graceful. Maybe when it was first built, maybe then they said that it was a good mosque: a clunky, stumpy tower which served to regularly pierce heaven with forceful cries of God’s goodness. Potou, the town of a thousand Allahu Akbars before dawn. She sat looking...
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Video Blog!
Charlotte Benishek
2012-01-24
Up to this point my blogs have focused on specific experiences or “ponderings” about Senegalese culture and international development. I designed this first video blog to portray a more macroscopic view of my bridge year experience. I also wanted to showcase the variety of skills I’ve acquired and things I’ve learned in Senegal. Enjoy the...
Read MoreA Whole Other World?
Elias Estabrook
2012-01-24
The endless dunes and savanna scrub pass by, as we rumble down winding, dirt roads. Yet I’m hardly aware of the landscape’s warming morning orange and spotty green; rather, I sense only the rhythmic pounding of the rocky road beneath our aging vehicle. Most of all I feel the tranquil pulse of life in the...
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Hip-Hop: A gift and a curse
Lucias Potter
2012-01-17
For those who know me, they know Hip-Hop is my life. I listen to music more hours then I sleep. When I’m bored I write graffiti pieces on sheets of paper. Occasionally I would go to a Turf dancing battle. You could imagine my joy to see the Hip-Hop scene present in Senegal. I remember the first...
Read MoreMy New (Gap) Year’s Resolutions
Emily Hanna
2012-01-17
Whenever people ask me how I’m enjoying Senegal, I unfailingly respond that taking a bridge year was the best decision I’ve ever made. And I stand by that statement. But, I’ll admit, over the past four months, I’ve occasionally lost sight of the bigger picture and instead focused in on the things that make life...
Read MoreSo Many Peanuts!
Samuel Parson
2012-01-13
If you give way to the mind’s stream of flowing consciousness, then you’ll surf through to the waters of enlightenment. I really love to write because writing is in many ways and for many reasons, a great form of expression. So on this day I sat with my laptop while snacking on some peanuts and...
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