This is a simple post to kind of explain the typical Zambian family. Above you see the photo of my family (minus myself of course). My daughters are sisters, everything makes sense so far, right. Now, here is where it gets a little tricky...In Zambia about 20% of children are not living with their parents. Their family is not the typical mother and father and 6.5 kids. Instead, it may be grandmother and one sibling as well as cousins in one home. Then, the mother and father may have 3 other children at home with them. The family is actually an extension of the immediate family we are used to talking about.
Look back at the bios of your sponsor children and you may see what I am talking about. The terminally ill woman and her husband for example:
They have 3 boys and on the boys' bios, it states they have 3 brothers and 0 sisters. However, these boys actually have a sister! The sister lives with the grandmother. Her bio says that she has 1 brother and 7 sisters. In actuality, these may be cousins that the grandmother is raising along with the sister. The cousins that may live in the home are treated the same as biological children.
This is something to look at when you are looking at your child's information. The children listed as brothers and sisters means that those are the children currently living in the home where the child lives. I wish I could live so close to all of my family. It would be nice most of the time :o)
Wow.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it basically makes sense to me, I can see where a western sense of the order of things could grow mighty dizzy trying to figure out who is connected to whom.
Children have always amazed me - with the resilience in which they accept (adult comlications) as no big deal, and just adapt, and carry on.
Twalumba!
jp