Family

There's this guy, Vieux who's been asking me to come over at night to chat. He lives right across the street and my family is cousin to his. So, in my mind, I saw nothing wrong with going over to chat, but I know that there are rules here, so I asked my Adama about it. I asked her what she thought about Vieux and if it is okay to go over to house and chat with him at night. She said that Vieux is a good guy and he's nice, but at night all Malian men are bad! I found this hilarious, but I knew she was not kidding. She told me that if he wanted to chat with me then, he should come over here because my family can protect me.

As much as I hated being treated like a child, I knew she was saying this out of love and this was the first time she referred to me as family! I mean, I've always referred to them as my family because they take care of me, but to hear that I'm a part of them, it made me feel all gushy inside.