Highlights of Peace House

So we got to Peace House Secondary School on Friday the 5th and rather than bore you all with another novel, I thought I would start with just a few highlights from our time here so far.

• Friday Night – Shower! We were thrilled to both get a hot shower in our guest house before going to dinner at Arusha Coffee Lodge. Dinner was great, it’s one of the best

restaurants in the city and very close to the school, but entrees are only 5000-20000tsh. I let slip that Mom’s birthday was Saturday and Tait, the volunteer coordinator, managed to get the staff to bring out a chocolate cake with “Happy Birthday Judy!” drizzled on the plate and a sparkler for a candle. It was very sweet!

• Saturday – The school was competing in their first ever rugby tournament so we caught a ride with the team and spectators over to the athletic complex. A local fitness center very popular with expats was kind enough to offer their fields for the games. The center was beautiful with a bar, fancy restaurant, nice pool, shop, coffee shop, and more. Definitely a place for the upper crust. Our first dinner plans were nixed due to a power outage and our second plans were nixed due to rain so we were at the Coffee Lodge again. Oh darn.

• Sunday – We started the day by going to church with the school director, his daughter, and our roommate. Arusha Community Church was about a 60/40 mix of expats and locals and we ran in to several people we’d met at the rugby game including Peace House neighbors and the librarian, Susan, with whom Mom and I would be working closely. Jeff, the director, drove us to a grocery store to get some essentials and as we were walking in the door, we ran into Lara and her two daughters! This big foreign city is already starting to feel like home.

• Monday – Our first day volunteering! We met Susan in the library and had a bit of a tour. It’s a fairly big space with four back rooms. They have a lot of books in boxes waiting to be c

ataloged, one of our projects for the next three weeks. I spent my time entering new students into the system and then attaching spine labels while Mom and Susan cataloged. They have entire sets of American textbooks for subjects like Elements of Writing, Chemistry and Biology. Some are in great shape, others look like they have been abused by high schoolers, which they have. For dinner we had our first meal in the dining hall – kande, beans, and watermelon. From what I was told, Kande is kind of a maize paste. It was mixed in with the beans. Though bland, it was surprisingly good and very filling!

• Tuesday (Today) – Another day in the library. I started by shelving books, a daunting task in

the current state of the library. Kids are still learning to use the library which means books are put away backwards and out of order. However, Mom says that’s a kid thing, not a cultural thing. We ate lunch in the dining hall and today it was rice, beans, and watermelon. There were some carrots mixed in with the beans and again, it was filling. A bit of spice wouldn’t go amiss. In the afternoon we helped Susan teach the new students learn about using the library. Most of these kids have very little experience with books so the lesson started with how to turn pages without folding them and ended with them checking out a book for the first time. I manned the

circulation desk and was overwhelmed by kids shoving books at me, all trying to check out at the same time. Eventually we got a line, but it was a constant battle between chaos and lines. At the end of the day, I was tired. Very very tired.

Tomorrow we’re heading to do some more shopping in town before working with Susan again. I’m learning so much about these kids as they learn about everything else.