Good question, guys. The family structure here is really interlaced... the eldest male of the family is sortof like an Italian Godfather figure; he has to make stuff work for the whole family. The balance is, he also is prettymuch boss and everyone has to do what he says. With bad heads-of-household, they are despotic and cause strife. The good ones rule with a looser hand (like Nas), but still have to clean up after the messes any family members get into.

I guess there really isn't a way to explain it so that we can understand. It's just a part of how they live- the family supports everything, even trips to the hospital. And the father supports the family, even if it drains the bank account.

Incidentally, Nas is very respected in the entire community, and people just about always follow his recommendations. You may remember in a post a long time ago that a mysterious "respected community leader" got up and convinced the entire village that it was a good idea to have us... that was Nas, weeks before we ever met him.