The Village of Waiting

Now restored to print with a new Foreword by Philip Gourevitch and an Afterword by the author The Village of Waiting is a frank moving and vivid account of contemporary life in West Africa. Stationed as a Peace Corps instructor in the village of Lavié (the name means wait a little more) in tiny and underdeveloped Togo George Packer reveals his own schooling at the hands of an unforgettable array of townspeople--peasants chiefs charlatans children market women cripples crazies and those who having lost or given up much of their traditional identity and fastened their hopes on development find themselves trapped between the familiar repetitions of rural life and the chafing monotony of waiting for change.