2019-06-01
“I bet it makes you grateful to live in America!” Why do people keep saying this to me? I’m constantly, and expectedly asked “How was Brazil?” to which I give whatever awkward, short, and unthought-out attempt to summarize my year comes out first. And then the adult, always the fully-grown adult, replies with some version...
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Daily Life of a Seminar Seminars are a gigantic part of the global citizen year life. Basically throughout the 8 months of the Gap year your whole country cohort gets together in either...
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2019-06-01
There seem to be no words to describe the feeling of being back. The sadness occupying my mind and heart has had to make space for thoughts about the present and coming days, but its heaviness remains unchanged. However, I begin to feel something sprouting from exactly this yearning for my little Brazilian home: warm gratefulness, nourished by the painful yet happy remembrance...
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2019-06-01
Dear Ida, Right now, we are about to graduate from Global Citizen Year (actually just a few minutes away from the deadline hehe), the program which decided to send us to Brazil (instead of Ecuador) – a decision that shaped our gap year with samba tunes, children’s happiness, and teachers’ struggles. I hope...
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Post GCY Final Thoughts I cannot believe that just two months ago I was a completely different person. Die Astou Samb. I remember the day that my father gave me that name. He named me after my older sister who was there when she gave it to me. She looked so embarrassed that so much...
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My Final Community Project I decided to provide a small snippet of what my final community project was about. I had a blast working and connecting with the girls at Taiba Lycee. Below is an overview of what I did and a link to a small Google Slides presentation that I put together. In my...
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2019-06-01
After looking at and listening to past journal entries, notes in my phone, audio recordings from late at night when I’d talk to myself, drawings from my siblings, photo reminders, and memories engraved in foreign songs, I’ve begun to develop an appreciation for the beauty of my Février in Touba Toul. My unhealthy obsession with...
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