“Lost Boys, " Cousins and Aunties: Using Sudanese Refugee Relationships to Complicate Definitions of “Family”

In June of 2005, I sat in the living room of a Sudanese refugee family that I had recently begun tutoring. The family consisted of a mother and father, both in their late twenties, a 5-year-old girl, and a nearly-3-year-old boy. Akhlas, the mother of the family, was working diligently on her ESL homework, which dealt that day with the concept of family. Akhlas stared at the workbook page, momentarily stumped. She was supposed to fill in the blank in the statement “There are people in my family.” Akhlas confirmed that she understood what she was supposed to do, but she could not count up all the people in her family because there were “a LOT!" I told Akhlas that in America, this sort of question usually refers to the people who live in one household, and I suggested that she just count the people in her home.