My energy and wherewithal since arriving at Peace House have improved slightly, but have still not recovered completely. I imagine, at this point, I don't have long enough left for them to reach capacity until I return home. None the less, the experience has been (and will continue to be) a blessing.

As a part of developing volunteer activities and problem solving curriculum for the students, Dan, one of the state-side Peace House staff who is here visiting, brought some activities to have me work through with small groups of students. On Sunday, I watched teenagers who had never seen legos before construct houses and helicopters and cars and taught a few older students how to do sudoku. Yesterday Kyle, another volunteer and I encouraged second year students to see random, useless items as a product to market. The students and I both thoroughly enjoyed these activities.
I had intended this week to be teaching Introduction to Computer Technology and had spent some time developing a lesson plan and making a power point to teach typing skills to each class of students here at peace house. However, on Monday, when I walked into the computer lab, I found their regular ICT teacher starting class despite my understanding that he would not return for at least a week. I was a little discouraged in the afternoon, since ICT had been my game plan for being productive this week, but I tried to quickly shake it off and asked Rose, the history teacher, if I could continue assisting her in her classes.

Last night, the graduate students, the volunteer coordinator, the two other volunteers, and I all ate dinner together. We ate chips and salsa, pasta with pesto sauce, there was cheddar cheese involved, and we made oatmeal, chocolate chip, almond cookies. I mean, I should hope this sounds delicious to any one, because it was. But then imagine it's been two months since your last chocolate chip cookie, at least as long since you had eaten cheese plain, and despite all the rice and beans you'd eaten over eight weeks, you hadn't even seen salsa. I have not in the least minded what I have eaten in Tanzania, I love most of the food and have grown tired of none of it yet, but what I don't eat here gets to me sometimes and indulging in those things has been a saving grace this week.


Today, Rose suggested that I prepare a lesson for the second year students, and so today I taught two 40 minute class periods on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was really my first time in front of a classroom teaching history, which is something I've imagined doing for a career, and I have to admit, I really, really enjoyed it. In addition, despite the chilliness of the past few days and this morning (not to mention the downright cold at night) the late afternoon gave way to clear skies which not only warmed up the air, but with the clouds gone, I could see Kili in the distance next to Meru from my porch.

The big mountain on the left is Meru and between it and the small hill on the right you can maybe see the glaciers on top of Kili. It's so hard to get it to show up in a photo, but I definitely enjoyed it in real life.

All in all, I don't really know how to feel about anything just yet. It's a blessing to be here, the next week will fly by, then home, and I know that this fall will be an adventure in it's own right. As my friend Katie toasted before we left each other in Arusha, "To the next safari."