It finally rained. But it wasn’t your typical pitter patter of rain, no. It was the most amazing rainstorm I have ever seen. When it rains in Africa, it really rains. At least here in Gashora. That old school song by Toto popped in my head about the rains in Africa.The girls and I looked out of our dorm into the darkness watching as the rain came down in heavy sheets, listening to the crashing of water against our tin roof.  We chatted and looked out as flashes of lightning lit up the sky and caused our campus to go black due to brief power outages. It was eerie and awesome. I hung out with some of the wonderful girls of my dorm and we talked and laughed about silly things. They talked about how funny it would be if a physicist was proposed to for marriage and she just ended up cutting the diamond in a lab to examine it’s total internal reflection effect. The total internal reflection effect, as they explained to me, is a physics phenomenon that occurs when there is light within an object (such as a diamond) that creates an effect of reflection even though it is undergoing mostly refraction, more or less. (Click this blue text for a better understanding of the TIR effect.) The girls really excel in physics here at our school. To say these girls are bright would be an understatement. I just know they’re going places no matter what they do. Whether they become physicists, doctors or lawyers like many of them want to be, they’ll do great things. But they might not realize the power of a profession in teaching or business or creative career. As long as they remember who they are is what is most important, not just what they do, i think they will be very happy. I’m excited for them.

The rain continued through the night and all sounds were washed away by the loud, white noise of rain hitting the roof as I slept. The next day brought the freshest of fresh scents of recently quenched earth.