The Most Dangerous Ways to School

School lessons at the end of the world - without a computer or technical assistance, with just one teacher and always demanding extreme physical exertion. Ten kilometers there and ten kilometers back, on foot and every day. For Zuoh, this is completely normal - since he doesn't know it any other way. His day begins at 4:30 AM every morning. At this early time he gets ready to start his way to school. Only after an hour of non-stop walking, he is joined by others who live closer to the school. Until then, he is completely on his own, traveling along a amazingly dangerous path. It is a path through a dazzling landscape - deadly beautiful should one deviate from the way...

Over 30 degrees Celsius, barefoot and walking a distance of over 20 kilometers. For the children of the Massai people, this is the daily way to school. Their way to school takes them through the Dorn Savanna, past the warzen boars and the hyenas. It takes them pass their only source of water, the Pangani River. But the river is also the greatest enemy as well with the at times up to 4 meter long crocodiles that could attack them at any given time. When the ferryman and his boat are not there, they even have to swim across the river. All this for just one goal; to get to school.

In Oymyakon, the cold controls everything. The town is located in eastern part of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), which belongs to Russia and is know as the world’s Pole of Cold. Nevertheless every morning the children march to school, the youngest just 6 years old. Making their way by temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius. Such circumstances would seem completely inconceivable for Europeans, but in the coldest town in the world, it is the beginning of an ordinary day...

Lake Titcaca is the largest lake in South America and the highest navigable body of water. Here Bolivia and Peru meet. According to legends, the Incan civilization originated on its banks. A magical place, but today only the many temple ruins in the region give attest to the once high culture of the past. What is left are the Uro; an ancient people, described at times as the only decedents of the Incas. They are the people of the floating islands, a very small community of about 2.000 with a community consisting of fifty swimming islands. Every day from the furthest corners, the youngest inhabitants paddle their way in their small boats to school..

It's the journey in hell, through the Tibet’s mountains. It's 100 kilometers long and only with the help of their father do the children have a chance of getting it safely. The only way there takes them over a frozen river, through the Tibetan mountains, by icy temperatures; and all this for almost an entire week. It carries them past fallen avalanches while the sun beats down on the ice causing it to melt and making every step life threatening...

Every morning, the three sisters Julia, Yulissa and Kenya climb into their dugout in order to row to school. They live on the east coast of Nicaragua, one of the world’s poorest countries, and the youngest of them has just turned five; the oldest is nine. They row across the Rio Escondido. Not only is it one of the largest rivers in the country, it is simultaneously one of the most dangerous routes to school. While they have to watch out for snakes lurking in the trees over the river, the three sisters also struggle against the current and must ensure the dugout does not fill up with water - because it has multiples holes and could sink at any minute. Other classmates do not necessarily have it easier, because they live far from the river - and their journey to school takes them through the deep jungle...