On December 04, 2000 I meet a man by the name Balla Dieye and he was from Senegal, Africa. Balla was very tall, dark, intelligent, and handsome Senegalese man. Balla and I meet at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College while I was a co-op student in the International Student Office. My position was to help the international student with the application process to the college. .
As time went on I started spending so much time with him and we became good friends instantly, something about him made me so curious of wanting to know everything about him. He always fascinated me with interesting things about his country. As our friendship grew everyday I learned so many new things about him and his family. One day he asked me what I thought about the Muslim religion and Muslim men. I told him that I disapprove of there religion and the thing they believe in. When he told me that he was a Muslim my heart instantly started beating out of control. I looked at him as a totally different person. From my understanding I was always told that Muslim were allowed to have more than one wife and that they were evil people. .
While on our first date, he asked me whether I was interested in marriage, because he was not interested in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. I was very surprised by his question, but I did not want to laugh at him. I basically I told him no. I was not even thinking of him as a marriage candidate because he was a Muslim, but I was definitely impressed by his sincerity, and I continued to date him. As I spent more time with him I developed mixed feelings toward him.
As days grew into months, I learned so much about the Muslim religion and learned how to accepted it as being a regular religion just as if he were Baptist or Christian. As I started to study the Muslim religion I learned so many interesting things; however the main thing I was so eager to learn is why in the Muslim religion men are allowed to marry more than one woman.