2010-03-22
Dear You, Person reading this, maybe even GCY applicant, Hows life ? Whenever my friends and I talk that’s where we start. Last year at this time, life was centered around school , soccer, and figuring out college . The thought of a gap year started when I was applying for scholarships, and the ones that excited me...
Read More2010-03-22
I remember visiting my college last year. I was walking on the campus with some friends, just taking it all in, when we ran into this extremely peppy, extremely overbearing girl. She asked us, “Are you guys going to be students here next year?” Expecting to make a new friend, we responded, “Yeah. We are....
Read More2010-03-21
Years ago when the French first arrived in Saint Louis du Senegal, male colonists created transient marriages with local women while in country and would return to France, leaving everything, including any relationship title, behind. Going by the name of “mariage à la mode”, these relationships were used by locals to advance themselves through associative...
Read More2010-03-15
During the U.S. training institute we did an exercise to replicate the food distribution throughout the world. For dinner one night only two people eat the usual full, healthy IONS meal. The rest either had a bowl of beans and rice; just rice or in the case of one person a half portion of rice....
Read More2010-03-15
A major question that we fellows have been set out to answer ever since day one is: how much of a difference will we be able to make, if any at all, in each of our host communities and work places? For I think we each left California in September with the idea pretty well...
Read More2010-03-10
Vaccinating infants, examining pregnant women, giving birth control, checking up on prostitutes and other activities related to reproductive health make up a usual day at the Sebikotane Maternite, where I have been an apprentice for the past four months. As I am not a medical student, my jobs are relatively simple: taking blood pressure, weighing...
Read More2010-03-09
Not a doubt in the world, my Spanish language abilities have improved dramatically since arriving in Guatemala a little over five months ago. But occasionally, I still think “god, I’ve been in this country for so long, yet there are so many words I simply don’t know.” Yesterday, though, I headed out with Ricardo, the...
Read More