Families

I figured I would do an educatoinal blog today on Gambian families and how they are different from those in the US.  First of all, polygamy is common in The Gambia.  According to the laws of Islam a man may have up to 4 wives and according to the laws of Gambia, there is no limit.  My host family in my training village was a polygamous family.  Between the language barrier and not being used to the family setup I am still a bit confused about how everyone was related, but from the best I could tell I had 3 host mothers.  Children in the family treat all of the mothers as a mother and all of the mothers do their part to keep the household running.  Like in my family one of my mothers cooked all the time and another was always washing things, be it kids or clothes- whatever. The kids are all considered brothers and sisters but often when someone is talking about their brother or sister they might specify same mother and same father. 
Unless they move to another town to find work, sons tend to live in the family compund their whole lives.  Wives move to their husband's family compound.  Often, husbands come to the city to find work but their families stay at home in the village.  There are a lot of circumstances where the husband (or son for that matter) will move to another country to find good work and send money back to his family. Family members here seem very comitted to the family unit. People with good jobs may suport their whole extended family.