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
The Village Gringa
Carrie Hamilton
2012-11-21
One of the many things I have come to realize during my time in Ecuador is how inherently obvious my foreigner-status is to the Kichwas of Alto Tena. I don’t know if it was my look of disbelief when my mother put a plate of chontacuro (most accurately described as maggots) in front of me...
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Meditation in the Maze
Brian Riefler
2012-11-21
Having had a Jesuit high-school education, I have been taught the value of reflection, which I believe is vital to staying centered on life, family, and most importantly to God. Kairos, a three-day retreat at most Jesuit high schools, is named for the Greek term meaning “The Lord’s time” and is vastly different from linear time because it invites us to...
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Only in Ecuador
Daniel Schwarz
2012-11-21
It really is lucky that I now work in the productive development office of the provisional government of Napo, Ecuador. My job is challenging, fun, and allows me to experience things I never could anywhere else in the world. I’m either sitting in an office, sending and receiving emails in a language I have not come close to mastering, calling...
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Kids Will Be Kids
Jordan Ricker
2012-11-21
By Serigne Saliou Sarr (aka Jordan Ricker) My Senegalese family is pretty average-sized. There’s my father, only one mother (even though polygamy is practiced in Senegal), my five younger siblings, and me. My oldest rakk bu góor (younger brother) is also named Serigne Saliou, 14 years-old, and in troisième (the equivalent of 9th grade), while my youngest is 2 and...
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Introducing Fama Siby
Marisa Comeau-Kerege
2012-11-21
Throughout the application process and my Summer Campaign, so many people told me that I would come back a completely different person. I would nod and politely smile at them but I never really believed it. I thought I would go to this other country, which I knew nothing about, learn a new language, maybe a few cultural dances,...
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One Silent Night
Betty Gebre
2012-11-21
It was a semi-normal night for me in Ecuador when a conversation I had not anticipated started to unravel with my host-mom. It was a holiday week and my host-siblings were at their grandmas for the week so the house was unusually silent. My host-dad had decided to hang out with his friends than to join my host-mom and...
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Dia de los Difuntos
Aidan Holloway-Bidwell
2012-11-14
Halloween isn’t well recognized in Los Bancos. On the thirty-first, my house boasted a jack-o-lantern in spooky solitude, and not one child could be found roaming the barrio in search of tricks or treats. Luckily, the festive spirit that I instinctively accumulated through October found another outlet two days later. The holiday is called Dia de Los Difuntos, or Day...
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Life is Good
Daniel Schwarz
2012-11-14
A smile swept across my face while riding in the back of on old pickup truck. To be specific, a rickety but sturdy and faded green Chevy with lots of miles on the odometer and lots of life left in it. The wind whipped at my face causing a rucous in my overgrown hair. I...
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The Small Things
Meliza Windmoeller
2012-11-14
Welcome to the Amazon. Where everything is a luscious green, drinking water is a luxury, the electricity is questionable, and spiders the size of your fist join you at bedtime. What…exactly have I gotten myself in to? I must have asked myself this question dozens of times since leaving the comforts of Quito. There I...
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