A Thick Stick

Yesterday I was standing at the bus stop across the bamboo bridge from the school when out of nowhere I hear a loud wail. I turn back to look and coming from my side of the bridge a small girl is pulling her leg to her chest and her dad has her arm tightly gripped in one hand and a thick stick tightly gripped in the other. I stared as I watched this father beat his child over and over with this stick. First her legs, then her bottom, and I squinted my eyes when he moved up to her head. I couldn't watch but I felt like I should do something. Her younger brother began to cry as well. The girls father held her for what seemed like, in my own eyes, a minimum of 20 minutes, when finally he let go of her and she ran back across the bridge and collapsed in the middle on her front. She was missing a shoe from her struggle to escape the grip of her father. Her mother walked across the bridge to meet her and knelt down and slowly pulled her up. At this time I barely noticed the bus that was waiting for me, then slowly climbed in. I couldn't stop thinking about it all day long. Then finally this morning the story was told and her parents had been trying to leave her after registering but she didn't want to stay. She wanted to go back home with them and began to cry. Her father didn't know what to do with her, so he did what any father in these parts would and beat her. He beat her until her legs were swollen and bleeding and her hands and arms had welts. I couldn't believe that any father could do such a thing. Was he emberassed of her behavior so he beat her? Or was he angry that she would act in this way? Was he sad to be separating himself from her, but didn't know how to express his feelings? I don't know.