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
Dar A Luz
Conner Evans
2014-03-06
On January 7, 2014 I got a new host brother. A little more than eight pounds, Martín Cardenás is cute, calm, and the joy of my host family. After a long day at work or tiring day at school, my host dad and host siblings always arrive shouting his name “Martín, Martín!” or as my...
Read MoreHere goes nothing
Lauren Rendler
2014-03-06
For three months now, I have been staring at a nearly blank page in my journal that I reserved for my very first in country blog post. The only words keeping it from being a flawless blank page read: “9/22/13 blog posts… need to write blog post ASAP” and some random doodles. Every time I...
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Only Jew For Miles
Eli Chanoff
2014-03-05
“Come, Eli, we schhk the xar now,” my host brother said, sliding a finger across his throat at the schhk sound. We communicate quite effectively through a combination of English, French, Wolof and hand motions. Xar (the ‘x’ is pronounced like the ‘ch’ in Channuka) is the Wolof word for sheep, and it has been one of the words I’ve used most often...
Read MoreOyga, Tienes Un Novio?
Valerie Hurst
2014-03-05
“Tienes un novio?”( do you have a boyfriend?) *I pensively weigh of my options, do I make one up?* “No” I reply. Surprise is apparent, the questioning continues. No boyfriend in Ecuador? In the States? Not even one in both? Smiling, and amused by the third option, I tell them “Soy un independiente mujer!” I’m...
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Los Diablitos
Sarai Patterson
2014-03-05
The world was enveloped in a misty grey drizzle the first time I stepped foot in my little yellow classroom to meet my supervisor, a short, matronly woman named Tania with a kind smile and endearingly mismatched clothing. I was confused at first; I’d thought that I would be teaching my own class. And all the sessions on education...
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Church
Valerie Hurst
2014-03-05
I went to Loja recently with my family, where the houses are sporadic and pork is plentiful. Its actually the campo(country side) of Loja; the kind of more basic, of out in the middle of no where living that I had initially expected from my Global Citizen Year placement(since I’m living in a small city...
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On Being Helpless
Eli Chanoff
2014-03-05
My first night living in the small Senegalese town of Pire Goureye I wandered through the sandy streets for several hours with my brothers acting as tour guides. They showed me the market which, closed for the day, was a series of empty stalls erected from tree branches, plywood and corrugated tin. We visited my...
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Disparities
Florin Langer
2014-02-28
I have two homes in Ecuador, one in El Tambo and one in Cuenca. My host parents and I live in El Tambo during the week and my host siblings in Cuenca for school. I end up traveling between the two a few times a week. Although they are only seventy kilometers apart, the sharply...
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A Day at the Zoo
Spencer Wise Watson
2014-02-25
“The zoo has allowed me to further appreciate how nature and the animal kingdom are inseparable and how removing one from the other is neither sustainable nor ethical.” Approximately three weeks ago, I began working at the Amaru Zoologico y Bioparque, a local zoo about twenty minutes by bus from my hometown of Azogues. However,...
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