12 Comments
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Richard Philion's avatar

Fantastic story. Thank you for sharing, Julia! I'm not sure what I would do, but these moments—everyday for some and so completely foreign to us—form the most vivid travel memories.

Julia Atkinson's avatar

For sure, this memory will be burned into my brain forever! Thank you for reading and for recommending me to your readers, too! It means a lot.

Benjamin Harnden's avatar

This is such a classic Peace Corps story!

Andrew L Brodsky's avatar

Thanks for this -- always appreciate great writing!

Paul Dotta's avatar

Good story! Does the Peace Corps TRY to send people to the place furthest from their experience and comfort zone?

Julia Atkinson's avatar

It felt that way sometimes!

Linda Jackson 🌏's avatar

Wow - you chopped the head off a goat. That's pretty bad-ass. When you started off with a Peace Corp assignment I didn't expect a machete wielding goat sacrifice.

With all the goats at the top of a mountain, for some reason I was envisioning it being a "throwing off a cliff" kind of event. Which probably would have been even worse, but that's what came to mind. I'm glad it wasn't.

Great story - thanks for sharing.

Julia Atkinson's avatar

Ha, glad the turn it took was slightly less gruesome than predicted! Thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it!

Brad Yonaka's avatar

Great story! And beautifully written.

Julia Atkinson's avatar

Thank you for reading and glad you enjoyed it!

TravisTravels's avatar

That sounds traumatic.

Julia Atkinson's avatar

It was definitely intense!