Documentary Scholarship Trip

Up early for breakfast and we walk a few minutes into the village to the school. After a quick briefing on what has to be done, painting classrooms and the outside of the building we get to work. Whitewashing walls is a messy business but everyone is excited to get started and soon the transformation begins. As I’m here to make a film I alternate between painting and using the camera. The school principal wanders around with a wide smile and seems very happy we are here. There are no students today so I arrange an interview to find out a bit about the school, its history and what he thinks of the upgrade. Things go well but expressing yourself in a foreign language is difficult so I decide to interview others in Hindi with Angchuk as interpreter. I’ll find out exactly what was said when I get home and have the interviews translated. We break for lunch and head back to the camp. By now it’s searingly hot and after food we retire to the shade of a tree to wait out the worst of the heat. Dinner again is a smorgasbord of flavour and we can only marvel at the fact that such delicious food emerges from such a small tent, Tonight a billion stars watch us as we look for satellites and shooting stars. After a quick scorpion check it’s into bed.