At Miguel and Eroria Payaguajes' house, the children are already awake, getting ready for school. A baby is crying. In the kitchen, mother Eroria has lit a wood fire and is preparing breakfast. She heats a pot of water for the coffee, which the children drink with lots of sugar. As on many other days, today's breakfast consists of a little rice with fish. It is now 6:00 am. Eroria hurries around and packs math books and exercise books, crayons and fountain pens into the children's backpacks. She tells Mayeli, who has been distracted playing with her cousin who is still too young to go to school, to hurry up and eat her breakfast. The baby is still crying.
On some days, they can go with their teacher and his family, who come from even further downstream. On other days, their father Miguel takes them to school in his canoe. Today it seems that the teacher left early and has therefore already passed by. Miguel doesn't have enough diesel to take the children to school in his motorized canoe, so they have to paddle 40 minutes to school in a small dugout canoe. His son Marley helps the younger children into the canoe, grabs a paddle and pushes off from the shore near their house. Soon they are out of sight, hidden by the trees that block much of the view of the river from the house.
As night falls and the sun retreats behind the horizon, the children do their homework. By candlelight, they help each other with their math problems. When they have finished their homework, it's time to go to bed. They need to get some rest, because another day at school awaits tomorrow.
