Sundays are usually pretty busy for me, but today I decided to stay in for the morning and read. As I was reading a collection of essays from other Peace Corps volunteers about their experiences, a typical Peace Corps experience occurred. My eight-year old neighbor came up to the window, knocked on it and shouted,

“Ryan!”

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“You know there’s goats all in your backyard!?!”

“Goats!? Alright let’s check this out.”

And with that I threw on my slippers and walked with him and his older brother around back. In one of those moments that nourishes my love for being a Peace Corps volunteer, my little neighbors and I found an army of goats grazing on the bushes in my backyard.

As we walked up to them they became frightened and ran away. In the rush, the group left a young straggler behind. Not knowing what to do, it ran to the corner of the fence and let out a few high-pitched bleats in distress. The young goat’s effort failed to rally the rescue team it was looking for, so one of the kids picked it up and brought it back to the herd.

This isn’t the first time there’s been a herd of farm animals in the yard either. Once, shortly after I first moved in, I was cooking and I heard the rattling of chains outside my window. I looked out and was greeted by a family of massive cattle heading towards the backyard for some grazing. The same kids ran outside in their underwear and threw stones at them to shoo them away, back to the grazing fields at the end of our street.