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

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: district health educator, Peace Corps, Santo Domingo, Auntie Lucy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

College graduate Eve is looking for a meaningful endeavor and settles on the Peace Corps. Though she’s not sure a life without creature comforts is for her, she is certain of one thing: John, the Peace Corps recruiter, is the guy for her. The couple faces a two-year separation when Eve receives a placement in Ecuador. Reluctantly, Eve leaves John and heads to South America where, after a time, she finds her niche reuniting lost children with their families—until a coworker’s rape brings up traumatic memories for her and she’s sent back home. Though her stint in the Peace Corps is over, a future with John means a life less ordinary, and soon after their marriage he accepts a job with CARE in Uganda. Once there, Eve finds the people welcoming but the lack of amenities—the power is turned on for only three hours at night—and the persistent insect population daunting. With an appealing, down-to-earth voice, Brown-Waite chronicles her adventures abroad in an accessible, humorous tone sure to appeal to armchair travelers. --Kristine Huntley

Review

“Eve Brown-Waite writes as she lives—with verve and humor and a fine sense of the absurd."
—J. Maarten Troost, author of Lost on Planet China

"A must, must, must read. You will laugh, laugh, laugh at this account of how you can do good and laugh away your stress all at the same time."
—Loretta LaRoche, author of Kick Up Your Heels Before You're Too Short to Wear Them


"Eve Brown-Waite had me at "Jambo." Her hilarious, charming, and honest memoir about evolving from someone who merely shops at Banana Republic to someone who wants to save banana republics is an un-putdownable must-read."
—Jenny Gardiner, author of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver

"Eve Brown takes you on a wild, engrossing, and totally unpredictable ride with laughs and tears along the way. A wonderful debut!"
—Mia King, author of Good Things

"First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria is infectious! Once you start it, you can't put it down."
—Eileen Cook, author of Unpredictable and What Would Emma Do?

“Proof positive that you CAN help the world, fall in love, survive malaria and a civil war AND laugh all at the same time. Eve Brown-Waite is a talented debut writer who’d better be writing a sequel because I want to know happens next!
—Gail Konop Baker, author of Cancer Is a Bitch: Or, I'd Rather be Having a Midlife Crisis


"First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria is a hilarious, smart, and compelling debut. Eve Brown-Waite vividly captures the ex-pat experience, the paradox of trying to save the world while desperately craving a cappuccino and proves that, in some locales, you can be “a little bit pregnant.” The result is a grand adventure, love story, and journey of self-discovery that you will not be able to put down."
—Danielle Younge-Ullman, author of --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767929357
• ISBN-13: 978-0767929356
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,025 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Travel > Africa > Rwanda & Uganda
  #12 in	Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Ecuador & Galapagos Islands

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally Authentic, April 11, 2009

By	B. McEwan "yellokat" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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The promotional blurb for this book promises that it will make readers laugh, and while there are definitely funny sections I didn't laugh out loud. I did, however, tear up at the end, when the author describes leaving the village in northern Uganda where she, her husband, and eventually their baby, had spent three years working for CARE. (The Africa assignment followed a year-long stint in Ecuador for the Peace Corps.)

The power of this memoir is its apparent emotional authenticity and the effortless yet deeply felt language through which Eve Brown-Waite tells her story. By the time I had read through the book's 300 or so pages I shared a bit of her attachment to Uganda and the people she met there. What's more, I could perfectly understand the decision of the author and her husband to remain "in country" for an extended term of service, even though Uganda offered plenty of hardships, especially for Brown-Waite when she was pregnant with her first child. Not only was she ill with bacterial dysentery much of the time, but she also contracted malaria; hence the book's title.

Near the end of her narrative, the author writes that, like malaria, Uganda will remain in her blood for the rest of her life, and you firmly believe her. This is an absorbing story about an idealistic young couple that wanted to make the world a better place. Not so remarkable, except that these two actually went off and did it.

Don't miss First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria. And please do make a contribution to fight that disease, as the author suggests. She lists several good organizations to which you can donate in the Author's Note at the beginning of the book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, April 14, 2009

By	Amy Leemon (North Fond du Lac, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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A funny thing happens at Eve Brown's interview for the Peace Corps - she falls in love with John, her recruiter. And after her time in Ecuador, she comes home and marries him. Of course, she never dreamed of the unlikely direction her life will take with him! Soon after their marriage he gets a job with CARE and is assigned to Uganda!

And that's where the book really gets interesting. Uganda is certainly not the honeymoon capitol in the world now and it sure wasn't then. Electricity 3 hours a day (if they were lucky), no telephone, rebel bombings around the corner are just a few of the things they encounter. Shopping for food in an open air market takes some skill. Hint: you're better off to take the beef (its unwrapped, of course) with flies all over it and there's a very good reason for that.

Along with all this,she goes through a very difficult pregnancy. Just getting the diagnosis was an achievement.

There are funny parts (she has been compared in reviews to Erma Bombeck but I think Uganda would have tested even Erma's humor) such as her efforts to get a package before the Post Office closed. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy.

And there are frightening parts such as when the police officer who was guarding their house went berserk and threatened them and their dinner party guests with an AK-47!

Eve Brown-Waite has a great website with pictures. She is definitely a person worth reading about. I hope she is writing a book about their next posting which was to be Uzbekistan.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very witty and engaging memoir, April 10, 2009

By	Jan Dahlin Geiger "Author of 'Get Your Assets... (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This is a witty, engaging, and always interesting memoir and it is easy to see why the author has garnered several writing awards. I had the book stationed on my kitchen counter intending to read just a few pages each time I sat down for a meal alone or for a coffee break. However, each time I picked it up, I had trouble reading just a few pages and had to keep reading and laughing.

While the book is entertaining and enjoying throughout, the second half is much more interesting than the first half. While it is obvious that the author is very bright, talented, and highly trained, she presents herself with an excessive dose of self abnegation in the opening chapters to the point that you wonder what it was that her Peace Corps recruiter found to be so special about her. However, she begins to emerge as a more multi-dimensional person as the book progresses and becomes a very likable "heroine".

The initial chapters are the least interesting as she focuses on her peace corps recruiting experience. It picks up as she describes her peace corps time in South America, and really becomes fascinating as she describes her 3 years in Uganda while her husband works with CARE. The book is a combination of her descriptions, very witty dialogues, and letters written to the folks back home describing their experiences. It is very well put together and beautifully edited.

I debated a long time on whether to rate this book a 4 star or 5 star and finally decided that it is just a notch below those memoirs that I found to be most outstanding, such as "The Glass Castle" and "Hands of My Father." If I could, I would rate it 4 ½ stars. It is really fun to read, laugh out loud funny at times, always engaging, but just a tad lacking in any in depth character development.

Jan Dahlin Geiger, Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies