First Comes Love, then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life

“Eve Brown-Waite writes as she lives – with verve and humor and a fine sense of the absurd.”  --  Martin Troost, author of Lost on Planet...more

“Eve Brown-Waite writes as she lives – with verve and humor and a fine sense of the absurd.”  --  Martin Troost, author of Lost on Planet China    Eve Brown’s dream is to join the Peace Corps … and maybe solve world hunger and win a Nobel Peace Prize along the way. But she secretly fears she isn’t tough enough to survive the bug-infested jungle, much less life without toilet paper and decaf cappuccino.  Then she falls head-over-little-black-heels in love with John--a dashing Peace Corps recruiter whose do-gooder passions outshine her own. She becomes more determined than ever to get into the Peace Corps – and to win John’s heart in the process.                Assigned to Ecuador, she yearns for warm showers and cold beers (instead of the other way around!) .  And though she occasionally  finds herself overwhelmed  by her work  reuniting homeless children with their families,  she  learns to delight in small successes.  But a year into her service, a tragedy befalls one of her fellow volunteers which unearths troubling memories from Eve’s past and causes her to return, rather unceremoniously, to the US.   Back home, Eve attempts to settle down with John and get reacquainted with the joys of sushi and supermarkets.  But faster than she can say “pass the malaria pills,” John accepts a job with CARE in a remote corner of Africa and Eve gets a second chance to test her mettle in the Third World.    With uproarious wit and candor, Eve Brown-Waite details the (mis)adventures that ensue.  From intestinal parasites and guerrilla warfare, to culture clashes, and unexpected friendships, First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria captures the thrills and absurdities of global humanitarian life in a story any globetrotter - armchair or otherwise - will love.      less