Kyzyl-Adyr sky

Minus twenty, no light in the valley between five and midnight, and the sky is a different place. The Milky Way goes over our roof like a road in snow. On a night like this the club counted seven satellites in one hour and a faint, quick glow that we think was a flare from an Iridium. I have not seen so many stars since I was a student, on a field trip in 1982.

The headmaster has allowed the club to use the gym for a "warm station": a stove and a kettle, between the roof and the ladder, so the children do not freeze.

I know what this winter means for the people. I am an old schoolteacher. I carry both things.