The Village of Waiting

I have been a fan of the writing of journalist George Packer, notably his reporting for The New Yorker and his book of reporting on the Iraq War, The Assassin's Gate. When I heard that he wrote a Peace Corps memoir, The Village Of Waiting (1988), about his experiences in the West African country of Togo I was interested to read his perspective about it. Already his reporting and narrative story telling was strong. The reader learns a lot about the country, community, and the exasperation of Africa from the perspective of a white westerner. It was a powerful experience in the per-internet days and it was a testament to his resolve that he lasted over a year-he did not complete his assignment, he failed to return for his last six months after taking a trip to Europe. Similarly another Peace Corps inspired book from another writer I liked, Chasing The Sea by Tom Bissell in Uzbekistan, also was ultimately about a failed Peace Corps stint where he basically had a nervous breakdown and was inspired to go back and find closure in the country. This is a different book from that one, but in the Afterword by the author we learn about how the country and the people he met there continued to be a significant part of his life as he returned to report there and help the friends that he made there over time. These experiences were exasperating and soul crushing in the recounting of struggles and set backs these people encountered over the years. In that sense the last part calls to mind Paul Theroux's exasperation with Africa in his last foray into the country that defeats him and sends him home packing before he planned to go home in Last Train To Zona Verde. There's also a Foreword by Philip Gourevitch, another reporter and writer about Africa that I respect. I found this to be a powerful first person account full of detailed descriptions of life in Africa in the early 80s from the point of view of an idealistic Peace Corps volunteer.