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
Fulla
Justin Moore
2011-04-20
My Wolof instructor, Pierre, taught me about core African values, one being Fulla. Pierre illustrates Fulla as, “being able to look at someone seriously and say, ‘I don’t like that, don’t do that again’, make sure he or she hears you and then go on with business as usual saying, ‘ok we’re still friends’. The...
Read MoreFatim & Nafi (Help) Cook Lunch
Madeleine Balchan
2011-04-18
My relationship with Senegalese food has gone from curiosity to sickness to detest to love. I help my mothers’ cook whenever I’m home — here Naomi and I helped to cook chebugen (fish and rice)- our daily lunch!
Read MoreFatim and Nafi (Help) Cook Lunch
Naomi Wright
2011-04-18
Over the last six months, I’ve become well acquainted with the national dish of Senegal, “Ceebujen”. When I have a free morning, I help the women of my household cook the fish, rice, and vegetable dish for lunch. In this video, Nafi, another GCY Fellow stationed in the same village as me, help her mother...
Read MoreDear Mr. Booker and Mr. Watt
Erin Lang
2011-04-15
A year ago, I was sitting in both of your classes, anxious to graduate, anxious to become something…dying to find a purpose and a fulfillment in my life that was never satisfied in my high school career. I was never a student teachers could seem to understand, one minute I succeeded beautifully on an assignment...
Read MoreCast of Characters
Gus Ruchman
2011-04-14
About two months ago I moved to Noflaye and a new family—a wonderful family—that, among a bit of Senegalese dance and other things, has taught me the true meaning of teranga. My living situation is now divided between to places: my family’s home and the Village de Tortues/Kër Mbonat Yi, a small but important sanctuary...
Read MoreI am a Lebu
Erin Lang
2011-04-14
I came to Senegal with the name Erin Elizabeth Lang. In less than a month, I will be leaving with the name Kiné Mariama Ndoye. Ndoye is a last name of the Lebu background, meaning that in history, the Ndoye family were fishermen. Although my family in Sébikotane is not made up of fishermen, they...
Read MoreDrop By Drop, Child By Child
Gus Ruchman
2011-04-13
Polio has been eradicated in the United States and many other countries, but not in many developing countries.
Read MoreOpen Your Ice
Naomi Wright
2011-04-06
My family in Senegal supplies the surrounding community—the village of Leona, about 1,000 residents—with ice during the hot months from April to November. It’s not the family’s main source of income; we only make 100CFA ($0.20) per block of ice. In fact, we probably wouldn’t sell ice at all, but we’re the only family in...
Read MoreOn the Road
Naomi Wright
2011-04-05
Every morning I finish breakfast by 8:15 and change into my running clothes: a baggy t-shirt and spandex capris. My attire rides the line between cultural appropriateness and physical comfort (my knees must be covered yet I live in the hottest region in Senegal, where even early in the morning, the heat begins to waver...
Read MoreWell, Water
Emily Hess
2011-04-05
Water and power outages are a really big problem in Senegal. I’d go so far to say that it could very well be the biggest problem in Senegal, but I never put anything number one on any list because I’m usually proven wrong. So let’s just say that as far as I can tell right...
Read MoreSo you speak Saafi-Saafi?
Erin Lang
2011-04-05
I live in a Wolof neighborhood, and work at a school where the majority of the students are of Wolof origin, therefore speaking Wolof as their native tongue. I had never visited any other elementary school in Sébi, except for the one on the same side of the national road as Sebi Route, that is…before...
Read MorePetite Souris
Clara Sekowski
2011-04-04
A couple months ago, I thought I had a really good idea. At the maternity ward, I was watching the sage femme, Mariama, work hours after everyone had gone home to copy in the patient log-in information by hand into three giant USAID booklets. I asked her if she had to do it every year,...
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