Lewis recommended this non-fiction book to me after he read a review that said it was pretty cool. I read it on the Kindle and it took me quite a while to finish it. Part of that was life getting busy, part of it was ... it sometimes wasn't that interesting.
Eve graduates from high school and goes to the Peace Corps recruiting office to see about a career there. John Waite is her recruiter who leads her through the selection process, and they fall in love. They date for several months while she works on getting a peace corps placement.
When she's shipped off it's with a mixed heart as she's now set up to be away from John for 2 years, at least. But she has a panic attack and is sent home, and they are together again.
They end up getting married, and he takes a job with CARE that sends them to Arua, Africa. The rest of the novel is her experience there and how her pregnancy went and how a civil war forces them to leave.
But here's the thing ... his tour with CARE was only 2 years to begin with. And then he extends for one year, and then they move just after three years. So, to my ears / eyes, that to me meant they lived out their obligation and were going to move anyway.
And her getting "sick" in South America was due to repressed memories. I'm a cynic. I don't have a lot of repressed memories. It just felt ... silly. She spent like 6 weeks in a hospital for panic attacks? Those are some serious attacks.
It was just an "okay" book for me. John did most of the actual work with the needy, etc. and she kind of spoke about it like, and this is my impression of it, that because she was living in Africa and doing without Starbucks, she was morally superior to those of us who watch movies at Tinseltown and have running water.
I didn't get that impression the entire time, just a couple of points. It's worth the read if you're interested in Peace Corps or overseas work, but it felt kind of shallow. She gets all sorts of job offers helping with HIV / AIDS and I never understood why. She didn't really talk about why she was so reverred in those fields. It would have been nice to hear more about what she did early on and why she has such a valued opinion in that area. Which I'm assuming she still does.
Anyway ... glad I read it. Definitely a different read for me. But just okay.
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