Parents' meeting

This Thursday there was a parents' meeting at my school. Some visitors had announced their coming, they were going to talk about morals and advise the children in class 6, 7 and 8 as well as their parents. Supposed to be there at 10 am, the visitors showed up at 2 pm, however, those things don't surprise me much anymore. I had a relxing day at school while waiting for the guests (old, wise people, pastors from various churches and so on), the children were not there at all(who would then look after the house and animals when their parents attended the meeting?). I spent a day in the shade with the female teachers who prepared food for the guests, we had a very nice time, chopping tomatoes, discussing life and relaxing. The male teachers were hiding (as I would call it) to get away from any kind of work. Maybe I'm exaggerating now, but something that upsets me more and more here is the strict gender roles. Women might have a job (many female teacher), but she is still expected to do all the cooking, cleaning, housework in general and raise the children. I quote: "My husband won't even pour himself tea in his own home." I can tell I'm well on my way into changing my topic, so I'll leave the gender roles for now.

When the meeting finally started (at 230 pm, the visitors had to eat before they could speak of course), I was placed on a chair in front of everybody (because I was the only white person, they are so proud to have me here, it's a bit embarrasing) even though I tried to sit with the pupils, or the other teachers. After 2,5 hours I had to leave, although the meeting hadn't finished. Can't really say that I learned much about morals though, most of the talking (except when they adressed me) was in Swahili or Kipsigis.

The pictures should speak for themselves.