it's not always sunshine & rainbows, but sometimes.

2 march 2010

walking back to my house [after sitting through BOTH dinner shifts, hearing one of my wise-guy students call me muzungu as he leaves the cafeteria - I glare and give him the bird, he smiles and returns a thumbs up, being showered with a slew of "bon appetite", "appetite", "enjoy your meal" and the kinyarwanda form for the same] bouts of laughter ring through the campus, echoing off of the dormitory walls and rising up into the night sky - tonight, absolutely sparkled with the glow of stars of all sizes.

this laughter, as I make my way home, is the same high pitch, deep in the belly type, mocking my uncontrollable, tummy rumbling giggles - is so familiar.. not only because of its history of escaping my lips, my eyes, my smiles, but because it is the exact same form of teasing that those who have come to know (and hopefully love me) have used against, or maybe more so, with me - all over the world. at camp we made a film of Johnathan imitating my laugh, in high school, the swim girls would stir up the noise (Shea, Ashley..!) just to get a rise out of me - and me, I can't help but to respond with the original goofiness.

my eyes nearly filled with tears.

my students,

my laugh.

they hear it.

they mock it.

that has to be a good sign.

laughter knows no language barrier,

it overcomes all.

it makes me so genuinely happy!

And I'm not kidding, what I said about sunshine and rainbows.

After what seemed like weeks of heavy, non-stop rain, my spirits were drowning and my morale was low, but today - just a I sat down to wash my 2+ weeks worth of laundry by hand, not only do the clouds give way, but the sun, in a sky full of blue, is completely encircled in waves of color. I've never seen anything like it before. A rainbow, with a fire-burning center, on a day when rain is the farthest thing from Mother Nature's mind. How can that be?

So many mysteries.

Some things, like my endless rainbow, don't need to be explained.

They ought to be taken for what they are - or what they could be,

a reminder to appreciate the magic of the simplest, purest, most beautiful, natural things in life - whether they be greens beginning to sprout after a never-ending, frozen winter or the kind heart beating within your friend. don't let these slip through your fingers.

catch them for a moment. let them seep into your soul.