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
Well, Water
Emily Hess
2011-04-05
Water and power outages are a really big problem in Senegal. I’d go so far to say that it could very well be the biggest problem in Senegal, but I never put anything number one on any list because I’m usually proven wrong. So let’s just say that as far as I can tell right...
Read MoreSo you speak Saafi-Saafi?
Erin Lang
2011-04-05
I live in a Wolof neighborhood, and work at a school where the majority of the students are of Wolof origin, therefore speaking Wolof as their native tongue. I had never visited any other elementary school in Sébi, except for the one on the same side of the national road as Sebi Route, that is…before...
Read MoreHambi Wasi’s Grand Promotion ¡Celebración!
Alberto Servin
2011-04-04
These are a group of photos that I took of Hambi Wasi’s grand promotion and inauguration of the vertical birth clinic on March 12th in Otavalo. The event was an overall success and many people and groups attended, including officials from the Ministry of Public Health, the municipal authorities of Otavalo, university presidents, and indigenous...
Read MorePetite Souris
Clara Sekowski
2011-04-04
A couple months ago, I thought I had a really good idea. At the maternity ward, I was watching the sage femme, Mariama, work hours after everyone had gone home to copy in the patient log-in information by hand into three giant USAID booklets. I asked her if she had to do it every year,...
Read MoreA Proud American
Gus Ruchman
2011-04-04
Turn on your favorite news network. Whether you watch CNN, Fox, The Daily Show, or WalfTV, the images are largely the same. The world is falling apart at the seams, and anti-American sentiment seems as high as ever. Yet here in Senegal I have had an optimistic encounter with my national identity. I am always...
Read MoreShorts
Madeleine Balchan
2011-04-04
My friend told me I have 2 faces, “sometimes you’re white, sometimes you’re red.” The Poussal or Peujot is a public transportation pickup with a canopy to hold produce and more people. Today there were a few sheep lying peacefully on top of the canopy with their legs tied – I didn’t even know they...
Read MoreAdmitting
Emily Hess
2011-04-04
As I carefully write out the date on the top of the blackboard on a cool afternoon, kids are filing in, shaking my hand and greeting me with “good afternoon” and “how are you, today?” and the like. And as the usual bustle of murmurs and laughter dies down, I step back. I look at...
Read MoreTick Tock
Clara Sekowski
2011-04-04
My first couple weeks in Senegal, I woke up at exactly seven o’clock and I didn’t know why. I hadn’t set my alarm, and I certainly wasn’t the type to wake up without one. On a Monday, I woke up late. My host-mother explained to me that, every morning at seven am., my host-sister Deyfama...
Read MoreTour Of the Coffee Farm
Liza David
2011-03-31
Welcome to my farm! After living here for a while, I have now become able to distinguish between different crops and their ages. (It’s a very important skill to have). Besides coffee, yucca, guava and papayas, we also have begun to grow carrots, radishes, lettuce and more garden types of food. We have orange trees...
Read MoreA Tour of the Hambi Wasi Clinic
Alberto Servin
2011-03-29
This is a video I made for my high school because they were interested in knowing about my apprenticeship. In this clip, I explain a little bit about the clinic’s history and what services they offer. I hope you like it!
Read MoreStrangers With Candy
Gus Ruchman
2011-03-28
It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and the sun was broiling the earth beneath my feet. Sweat ran down my face and began to soak through my shirt. I could smell the swarming heat. “Why are you laughing?” asked a bewildered co-worker as we walked through the streets of Sangalkam. “It is difficult to explain,”...
Read MoreUnplanned Parenthood
Tess Langan
2011-03-28
I came to Senegal with high hopes of embarking out on my own and weaning myself off the comfortable interdependence of my family. There were my dreams and then, there was the reality. I am now an eighteen –year old, self-defined feminist …with a two-year child. Alaine and I walk hand in hand to school...
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