Green Pastures Parents Day

On Saturday there was a Parents day at Green Pastures School. The Parents day started off with the little scouts marching, doing a little dance, raising the Kenyan flag and leading the national anthem. Then each class went one by one and did a little presentation. The pre-unit class (pre-schoolers) went up and did a little song about what they want to be when they grow up. So basically each kid in the class went up and sung a verse of the song-- it was something along the lines of -- when i grow up i want to be a ___ for my country Kenyaaaaa--- well thats a shortened version =P I videotaped it, so I will show it when I get back!
And another class did a song about how they love MATH!!!!!!!!-- say whatt!?!?! I doubt theyll have any desire to sing that song after taking calculus!!!
The 8th graders did a play-- It was a bit disturbing I must admit-- It was about teenage pregnancy, child prostitution, drug abuse, child abuse and there was a funeral in the play!!-- And the parents were laughing--- I asked one of the teachers later why all the parents were laughing and he said that these things are part of their daily life so the parents were laughing because they see themselves in the play-- apparently the point was to get parents to stop such behavior.-- Its sad that such problems are so common in this society!!
Then after the presentations were finished the principal of the school gave a speech. The speech was directed at the parents of the students and some of the things that the principla said were realllllllly shocking!!! Apparenntly most of the kids are beaten at home by their parents and the principal was saying that beating your kids will only harden the hearts of your children and they wont respect or love you. And then she said that one parent of a pre-school student had gone so far as to cut off the fingers of her child because he had stolen something!!! It is sad that such backwards parenting still exists in this world!!! I asked our group leader why the mother had not been reported to the police! She said that there is no child services here, so the mother would probably go to jail and the child would be left without anyone to care for them, so they were trying to change the behavior of the parent rather than punish them. That is so sad! The principal was also telling other stories about how some of the students had been kidnapped and hurt and was warning the parents to be careful of their kids and not send them out alone in the slums and such.
Its so different from the parents nights we had when I was in elementary school--- at those all the teachers did was praise the students, but I guess if such horiffic problems exist in the community, this is the teachers only chance to try to change the behavior of the parents..
Despite the gruesome stories that the principal told, the parents day was so much fun and the kids are all so inspirational and have such high aspirations for their futures!! I hope that the dreams of every single one of them will come true!!