Sarah Meghan Lee leads a session with the students.

A soft rain falls in the forest between clear patches in the morning sky, sunlight streaming through cracks in the canopy.  It’s quiet this morning, though before 6 AM our students are already out wandering around the grounds of the hotel. The roosters haven’t even begun to crow yet, or maybe we don’t hear them anymore.  The other sounds of the rainforest are electric this morning.

Speaking of electric…at 6:30, someone conducts a sound check in our classroom, and fast techno music mixed with classical opera washes over the quiet like a cloud of exhaust over a flower garden. I thought for sure that some of the students had discovered the sound system and were going crazy with it. It seems this morning we’ll have electricity, at least.

Today is also our last hope of getting our cameras from customs. If the Save the Children staff can’t pull off a last minute miracle, then we won’t see the equipment again until we leave. Right now our students are each sharing a camera with another student, and a couple of the groups have three kids per camera. So far everyone is doing a great job sharing, with each student shooting and helping their partners impressively. We still have our fingers crossed that this will all get worked out soon!