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
Reacting to Reality
Ely Kadish
2012-11-10
The three way intersection at my bus-stop has no stop sign. It has no traffic light or Policeman directing the way. The first day, I stood on the corner horrified that no one would stop, that the car would crash with the gas truck clamoring down the other road or crush the child passing on...
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Just One Gesture of Kindness
Fikrte Abebe
2012-11-10
It’s amazing how a simple act of kindness and love can have such a significant effect on a person. This past week I spent with my community host family has been one of the hardest weeks of my entire time here in Ecuador. But the one thing I can point to and say “yes this...
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Where I Am
Carly Sitrin
2012-11-10
And there is a chance that everything we did was incorrect, but stasis itself is criminal for those with the means to move, and the means to weave communion between people. -Dave Eggers So here I am. From Hillsborough, New Jersey to California to Quito to Riobamba to Bayushig, Ecuador. After weeks of planning, packing, and anticipating I found...
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ALL UNDER THE SAME SUN
Sammy Gachagua
2012-11-08
Hola all! Just dropping in for a checkin! I am well down here in Ecuador. I am staying at a place called Salinas, in the province of Imbabura, Ecuador. This is one of the few places thats inhabited by Afro-Ecuadorians. This place is full of culture, which dates all the way back to the slaverly period....
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An Immediate Response, A Triumphant Community
Kimberly Nerea Tellez
2012-11-08
As I was calmly finishing up my 50 cent lunch at school the other day, which consisted of a small bowl of rice with potatoes, I glanced down to my cellphone to see what time it was. 10:39 They ring the school bell, signaling what I thought was the end of recess. Surprised at their...
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And I’m Still Moving
Aidan Holloway-Bidwell
2012-11-05
The days leading up to my departure from Northampton, Massachusetts, then the week in Palo Alto, California, finally the month in Quito, Ecuador, each was connected to the other by a lengthening string of preoccupations about my six month stay in rural Ecuador. What might it be like living with no running water? Without showers?...
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Just A Small Town Girl
Chloe Bash
2012-11-05
When I first I first arrived in La Abundancia, I questioned my decision to be placed in a small community. I walked down the single paved road, peering into the handful of shops and restaurants, and wondered what I would do for the next six months. I couldn’t head over to a library to study, a coffee shop to...
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Niños Malcreados
Gabe Jackman
2012-10-31
I have been teaching here in Pedro Vicente Maldonado for two weeks now. Pretty much all the kids know me, which is pretty impressive considering there are 984 students in this school grades 2-7. They all run up to me in the yard, calling me “Profe” or “Teacher.” The wee ones ask for high fives,...
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Blind Faith
Mackenzie McMillen
2012-10-31
About thirty minutes before we were all about to meet our Quiteño host families I decided I needed to call home, which I hadn’t done since we arrived in Quito four days before. This was not, per se, the best thing I could have done in that moment because as soon as I heard my mom’s voice through that...
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