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
8 Tips for Ecuador Vegetarians
Sarah McMillan
2013-05-02
I know many of those who apply to GCY are vegetarians. Unfortunately, living abroad can make eating vegetarian difficult. But the good thing about living in Ecuador is that being a vegetarian here is totally possible. It’s harder than in the States, yeah. You might have to watch what you eat more carefully, but it’s...
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Africa Seen in the Eyes of Americans Through Disney Movies
Jay Choi
2013-05-02
One day, I was searching for a Disney channel on Pandora, an internet radio that enables listeners to tailor their repertoire of music to personal taste. I plugged my iPod on to a speaker, and let Elton John and Peabo Bryson carry me into a pensive trance of childhood. Like most anyone, I love anything...
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African Common Sense
Jay Choi
2013-05-02
Today’s foreign aid in Africa seems to be predicated upon the unconscious belief that the African people are uncivilized and somehow lack common sense – for example, that they don’t know how to properly utilize mosquito nets even though they live in malaria hot spots of the world. Foreign aid workers in their edgy offices...
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Straight From China/ World History
Christopher LaBorde
2013-05-02
This one’s for you, Covey If you look at the history of the world, it’s all been kind of random, and following the path of human nature. The advention of institutionalized religion, the human conquest of the world, slavery. Even now we think we are advanced. Think about how far we’ve come. Think about how...
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Souvenirs
Claire Amsden
2013-05-02
In Senegal, taking photos is called taking souvenirs. I can’t tell you how many times I asked my Senegalese friends and family to let me take a souvenir of them during my last two weeks there. (My photo count is telling: I had 400-something photos at the beginning of March, and had more than doubled that...
Read More Africa
Matthew Travers
2013-04-23
When I woke up in Dindefello, a quaint village littered with tourists in Kedougou, I felt for the first time since my arrival I was living the “authentic African experience” foreigners seek when they come to this country. A hut over my head and a digital camera full of pictures of wildlife and women with...
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Old Enough to Change the World, Young Enough to Still Want To
Matthew Travers
2013-04-23
There are nights where I wake up in a lukewarm sweat, still saturated with the dream that doesn’t let me sleep. In this nocturnal vision, I am back at home in my room, or somewhere in San Jose, California, and I am looking for a way to charge credit on my Senegalese phone to make...
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In The Tomato Field
Matthew Travers
2013-04-23
My greatest insights are revealed to me in the tomato field. Knee to chest, hands to ground, root to soil, I spend my mornings alongside what I confidently call my friends, sixteen Senegalese seeds themselves that, through struggle and effort, now bear the fruits of laughter and companionship. Together we plant row after row of...
Read More The Toubab Dilemna
Matthew Travers
2013-04-23
Words here in Senegal are a valuable commodity. The wisest people string the neatest webs of words, and a new word learned in Wolof is a new tool to use. However, since the beginning of my time here, one word in particular has followed me wherever I go: Toubab. As you walk down the road...
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