GOINGS ON: SANTA BARBARA : A World Party : An international camp brings students from around the globe together to give peace a chance.

Every now and then, Peter Letwaba would stop in mid-sentence to exclaim, “This is wonderful, wonderful.” Then he’d shift from one leg to the other, do a little sidestep and sometimes walk in a circle to try and diffuse his excitement.

“My friend and I went to a restaurant a couple of days ago,” he said. “And we walked in and sat down, and we ate. No one asked me what I was doing there. No one told me to get out. This is wonderful, wonderful,” he said with a slight jig to the left.

A black man from South Africa, 20-year-old Letwaba said he is unaccustomed to such freedoms. “I feel like a new person here. I am acting differently. I feel I am in heaven.”

Letwaba and 45 other students from around the world arrived in Santa Barbara almost two weeks ago to participate in the second annual International Peace Camp. A dinner and show is scheduled Sunday, and the group will put on a musical performance Aug. 25.

The philosophy by which the camp operates is: If young people learn that children of other cultures are much like themselves, they will grow into adults who feel a bond with people throughout the world. And they will be predisposed to peace and unity.

“I feel that if people, not only blacks and whites but people from all different countries, could get together in their youth and share their ideas, then we could find solutions to the world’s problems,” Letwaba said.

“If people would get to know each other, then everyone would know we are all one family. There is nothing to be frightened of.”

To this end, this year’s international students from South Africa, China, the Soviet Union, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Zimbabwe and France will spend three weeks at the camp getting to know one another, listening to lectures and learning about each other’s culture. And rehearsing for the upcoming musical.

A group of 14 students and four adults from Latvia will stage a show of traditional music and dance Sunday. As well as the performance, Saturday’s event is “A Trip Around the World,” offering cuisine and entertainment from the countries represented at this year’s peace camp.

On Aug. 25, the entire group will perform a musical directed by Vladislav Drudzinin, president of the Children’s International Academy of Arts in Moscow.

“Underground Story” is a musical fantasy with a message or two.

“Our main purpose at the camp is to learn from and teach to each other,” said Brooke Robbins, the 17-year-old daughter of the camp’s founder, Virginia Robbins. “But the musical is a great vehicle for us to get our message out to the public. The environment and peace are very important to all of us, but most people don’t want to sit around and hear a speech about it. So we give them entertainment as well.”

“A Trip Around the World” will run from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Middle School, 2300 Garden St., Santa Barbara. Tickets are $20.

“Underground Story,” a fantasy musical, will be performed Aug. 25 at 2:30 and 8 p.m. at Santa Barbara High School, 700 E. Anapamu St. Tickets are $6, and $4.50 for children and seniors. For information on either event, call 966-3657.

While some people in Santa Barbara celebrate world peace, others may be considering some heavy shopping, as Nordstrom and the Broadway hold their grand openings Saturday. They are the first two stores to open at the city’s new Paseo Nuevo open-air mall, located between Ortega and Canon Perdido streets off State Street.

Santa Barbara, always a stickler for aesthetics, has insisted that all buildings blend in with the town’s Spanish colonial-style architecture. Years ago, the downtown McDonald’s wasn’t even allowed to put up its golden arches. And the city is so protective of its “artsy” ambience that the new shopping center will house an arts complex with a gallery and a theater.

The opening play at the 150-seat, “black box” theater is “The Boys Next Door.” This comedy, which examines the lives of four men who share an apartment for developmentally disabled individuals, will open Friday and run through Sept. 9. Tickets are $14.50.