Dark clouds rolled in over the mountain peaks, bringing welcome shade as we walked again to the preschool after lunch. As the wind picked up, large clouds of dust were lifted into the air. The temperature dropped and icy rain began to pour. Though slow at first, the raindrops became large and stinging, causing most of the group to retreat under the preschool's awning.
As the rain poured on the in progress playground and thunder clapped admidst mountain peaks, my attention was turned to the project going om inside the preschool. Many were working to cement the floor of the school, mixing gravel with cement mix and water, mixing it together in a great circular wheel of shovels and feet. After the cement was made in a large pile in the middle of the floor, it had ro be spread across the existing dirt floor, as evenly as possible. Many of us working on this project soon realzed that hands were the best tools in which to accomplish this task. So, there we were, on our hands and knees, spreading sludgey cement in a small preschool in the mountains of Lesotho.
Busy with this thick and consuming work, I had barely realized the rain had stopped. I was beckoned outside by excited voices, where to my surprise there was a double rainbow, stretching end to end above the mountain across from the one in which were standing. To say this moment was one of most incredible of my life would almost be an understatement. I realized, again, where I was and what I was doing. Never would I ever had thought that one day I would be cementing floors, viewing thunderstorms and rainbows in Africa. The feeling of this realization was like no other; it was the feeling of living fully and completely as a human being on planet Earth.
-Mackenzie