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
Hola, Shalom
Isabel Burns
2014-03-18
The first time I ever realized that being Jewish was rare in some parts of the world was when I visited Mexico at age 13. In the border city of Tijuana, helping to build a house, one of the kids asked me if I was Christian or Catholic. To be fair, I was there with...
Read More
Working with sugar cane
Edward Katz
2014-03-10
Already it has been 2 months or so that I have been working on farms in Macacu, Brazil. I’m finally starting to know what I’m doing and feel accustomed to the work. The picture above was taken as I was working with a Biluca, a man who with his father and other helpers makes cashasa from sugar...
Read More
The Bus
Emily Hockett
2014-03-10
Arriving at a seemingly random corner in Otavalo, I said goodbye to the other Global Citizen Year fellows in my region, and stepped onto the street. Nervously placing my backpack on the sidewalk, I looked around. A large yellow bus pulled up, and a family of four came out with flowers, balloons, and pineapple upside-down...
Read More
The Market
Claire Wohlers
2014-03-10
Ibarra (the city nearest to Zuleta) has, hands down, the most impressive food market I have ever seen. Taking up two sizable city blocks, the market is overflowing with colors and scents unlike any other. From meats, to cheeses, to fruits and veggies, to flours and dried legumes, to eateries, this market has it all....
Read More
Doing Laundry
Neil Singh
2014-03-10
Back in the States I used to hate doing my laundry. It was a long trek up the stairs and to my destination, burdened by my ponderous basket. Then, leaving a trail of dirty socks, I wrestled with my sworn enemy: the laundry room door. My back aching from such arduous labor, I placed my...
Read More
A Smattering of Thoughts
Maria Gamache
2014-03-07
The relief of cool air hitting my skin, an almost empty bakery, and soft cowboy music-playing overhead tells me that it’s okay. Every time I sit down to write, my mind goes blank. It seems to have no problem racing late at night, persisting that I write my blog post about ‘x,’ or have my video revolve around ‘y,’...
Read More
Tupac Naula, Poor Child #56487
Amanda Langan
2014-03-07
When I was about six or seven, I was always reminded of how lucky I was to live in a developed country by a small photo tacked on the fridge. It was of two little boys from the Dominican Republic, with a background of the typical falling down, crumbling painted school as they stood in...
Read More
Normalcy
Alexandra Lines
2014-03-07
(Note: I talk about culture in this blog, and my personal observations of it. Please keep in mind that I draw my observations from generalizations and patterns of behavior, and that there is a great amount of personal variety in every country and in every culture, and that not all individuals will fit into the generalizations.)...
Read More
The Chimborazo Confessions
JT Su
2014-03-06
Who is most likely to have a nightmare about anime? Who is also known as “The Wandering Man?” Who pictured two guinea pigs getting married? Who kept everyone waiting on the bus to make a Starbucks run? Who has a deep personal connection to an elephant sweater? Who always runs out of phone minutes within...
Read More