Science Fair Planets in Rainy Yangon Courtyard

Cardboard spheres painted in deep blues and rusty oranges rest on a long table covered with exposed copper wiring and printed circuit boards. The setting is a wide courtyard in Yangon, where wet pavement reflects the dim morning light. Rain has washed the stone tiles, leaving them dark and glossy. Overhead, the soft glow of a projector illuminates the table surface, casting sharp shadows from the cardboard planets onto the wet ground. The sky above is a pale, clear grey, typical of a dry season dawn. Empty lecture hall doors stand closed in the background, their wooden panels dark against the fading light. A small puddle near the table edge mirrors the blue of a painted planet, holding the reflection steady without a ripple. The copper wires gleam faintly where the projector beam touches them, against the dull brown of the cardboard.