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
My Moms & My Dads
William Kershner
2014-03-27
I’m going to start off by apologizing for my initial “blog post.” Since removed, that previous collection of phrases and remarks was nothing more than a slothful offering from the seventeen year-old version of myself. I’m cringing at the ironically arrogant ‘self-deprivation’ comedy and clichéd excuses for taking a gap year. Again, I apologize for...
Read MoreHome away from Home
Shakhi Begum
2014-03-27
“Ban tubab? Ban tubab?” Every passing person from lamb bi, Senegalese wrestling match, managed to ignore the question Mere coco was asking. Mere coco was the nickname of a woman in my neighborhood, who I have become really close with and call mom, thought that I had gotten hurt. She, like some women in Ndianda,...
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Where in the world are my parents?
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2014-03-27
Here is a slideshow of photos from my parents visit to Ecuador. Hope you enjoy!
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The Connection
Madeline Lisaius
2014-03-27
The 90’s bus seat fabric is a steaming sponge against my neck, the air a thousand heavy weights against my lungs. With each switch back the bus takes, we descend deeper into the Amazon basin. Although I have left my window open, the humid breeze does little to cool my mom and I; it smells...
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Choosing What Really Matters
Rachel Teevens
2014-03-27
Going into this experience I expected that I would see the world in a new light and this would help me grow and change me in ways no other experience could. I was expecting to learn life lessons that would affect me forever. And that has happened but there have been a lot of simpler,...
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Teachings of a Little Calf
Ilana Marder-Eppstein
2014-03-27
Time seems to be moving in two directions and I feel lost in the middle. Today I have exactly one month left in my home stay. Four weeks. In the anticipation of another transition I feel caught. I pull time to slow the speed at which its moving, or in other ways, I push it...
Read MoreDear washing machine,
Soe Tha
2014-03-27
I miss you so much. I miss your buttons which I push every time my clothes are dirty. I miss your glass window through which I can watch you tumble and turn my clothes to wash them. I am sorry I neglected you before. Whenever I had to load you or unload you, I always...
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Three Months Left
Leah Mesh-Ferguson
2014-03-27
A video from a little while back. Hope you enjoy!
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Walking and Watering
Keaton Scanlon
2014-03-27
I can happily say that since moving to Thiabekaare, I have gotten to work more with the land than I ever have in my life before. Once the harvest season ended, around November, and all of the corn, peanuts and cotton fields were picked dry, we moved into the gardening season. I enthusiastically started my...
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Finding Meaning
Eva Ackerman
2014-03-25
-Written two months ago. I was extremely upset when I heard my six-month job was to teach English. I thought it was ridiculous; won’t analytical skills improve the students lives more than an English class would? My reasoning was solidified when I arrived to Paraiso De Amigos. All three of the teachers screamed based on students’ ill behavior in...
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Hola, Shalom
Isabel Burns
2014-03-18
The first time I ever realized that being Jewish was rare in some parts of the world was when I visited Mexico at age 13. In the border city of Tijuana, helping to build a house, one of the kids asked me if I was Christian or Catholic. To be fair, I was there with...
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Working with sugar cane
Edward Katz
2014-03-10
Already it has been 2 months or so that I have been working on farms in Macacu, Brazil. I’m finally starting to know what I’m doing and feel accustomed to the work. The picture above was taken as I was working with a Biluca, a man who with his father and other helpers makes cashasa from sugar...
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