Students Rehearsing Speeches Library Night

White projector light cuts across the dust-free wooden tables of a Mukalla campus library reading room. A stack of papers rests near a clear plastic water bottle, catching the cool blue-white glow from an unseen screen. The deep night outside the tall windows reflects only the dark wet season sky. Clean surfaces show no clutter, only the focused arrangement of notebooks and pens. Shadows fall sharply across the grain of the wood, defining the edges of the empty chairs. One sheet of paper lies flat, its printed text illuminated against the darkened room.