Eve always wanted to join the Peace Corps but once she realized that she was all talk and that she wasn’t getting any younger, she finally arrives at the Peace Corps office only to find that her recruiter, John, is not only really cute but one heck of a nice guy too.  As they arrange for her two years abroad, she secretly wishes that she could stay home instead and try to win John’s heart.  So in a round about way she gives up her comfortable life in New York, leaves John behind, and heads to the jungles of Ecuador and hopes that this sentiment will be enough to prove to John that she’s the type of girl that he wants.

After living in Ecuador for a year and unable to recover from the now unburied memories that surfaced after her co-worker was raped, Eve returns to the busy and frantic States and finds herself overwhelmed just by shopping in the soup aisle.  But she’s happy to have her cappuccino’s and other comforts of life back.  John and Eve marry and it’s not long after that he get’s a job with CARE and they are packing for yet another adventure – this time to a remote outpost in Uganda.

I loved Eve’s experiences and the way in which she shared them with us.  Having a background in AIDS education, Eve had visions of doing great work among the Africans but instead found herself without work and playing tennis everyday.  The story got really good when Eve became pregnant but yet nobody could confirm the pregnancy.  The Dr. asked her if she felt pregnant and if so, then yes!  Eve joked around about needing to write a book about What You Need to Know When You’re Expecting In Africa because the only good that the American book did her in Africa was to smack all the bugs in the house.

The scene that will be most memorable to me is when she recounts that early in her pregnancy, she went to the bathroom, sat down and went about her business.  When she was done, she looked down and there was a creature in the toilet! Not just any creature, but a rat!  A rat that was in the toilet the whole time!    I loved it when she said, ” . . . I knew I would never enjoy a leisurely sit on the toilet again.”  Oh my goodness!

I loved Eve’s portrayal of all the people whom she met on her journey.  I imagine that the highlight of traveling and living in different countries would be all the interesting people.  I also loved how Eve showed that living abroad isn’t all fun and games but yet she had a lot of fun and played a lot of games.  There are ups and downs and she wrote about them with not only a great deal of consideration but with a lot of sass.  She’s fun and witty and the book was a real enjoyable read.  I imagine that she’d be the life of the party wherever she goes.

Links of interest:  Eve Brown-Waite website. Other blogger reviews.
Genre:  Memoir
Publisher:  Broadway.  April 14, 2009
Hardcover, 320 pages.  ISBN:  0767929357
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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