brushes over training day, focuses on first meal and then on her host-family
5th food group - Packer and Tidwell (P and T) ignore this
admits she was unprepared
unlike the boys of the 80's, this girl wants to do things on her own (cooking, washing)
dressed up, loved by the young girls, so much unlike P and T, more like me and B
village not as impoverished
very easy prose, simple
AIDS here (not so much in 80's)
pg 16: speculation about what a girl is thinking about death, about AIDS
comparison to people of Abidjan (the capital) - but Erdman doesn't say how she knows about Abidjan (as I mentioned before, she says little of anything outside the village, though I know the outside world plays into the experience)
stereos have replaced drums - sad
again, how does she know about the cassette jackets from the capital?
she writes in First Person Omniscient, present tense
same with description of funeral on pg 17 - she describes it before she actually goes to one (this choice is obviously bothering me, though that's because I am not used to it)
interesting, she jumps around, shoots forward in time; pg 20: she has been sick...?
I'm only now aware this is her training village - not clear
pg 23: vague ideas
*I should write about my expectations - I had few - no real ideas about PC life, never read any books, only blogs of current PCVs - I feel I had nothing buy my imagination to go on - no history of PC, no pride or honor in it - just idealist vagaries - no JFK, Sgt. Shriver - am I a disgrace?
pg 25: sappy ending, "So sweet this night."
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