Interview #1

Patrick Murray

Lola Bello, Nigeria

Theophilus Giple, Liberia 

English 191

10/19/12

Report of country:

There are three countries that I am interested in and they are Cameroon, India, and South Korea. The reason this countries interest me is because I have friends from each one of them and I always enjoy hearing about the culture, history, and topography my friends came from. Cameroon is located on the central western coast of Africa and has a land mass about the size the of California. Cameroon was occupied by the French for a number of years and has had an influence of the culture of the country. Something that surprised me during research was that it is estimated that 70% of the Cameroon population identifies with the Christianity as their religion, considering that the population is roughly 20 million. Cameroon has struggled with war and corrupt government over the years but despite these things they have strong economy compared to their neighbors in the region and they have a presence internationally through things like exportation and competing in the Olympics. 

Cameroon.  12 Oct. 2012.  8 Oct. 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cameroon>.

Preparations for the interview:

The first thing I did was review the ten core questions and added additional questions under each category. I then made sure my laptop could record audio and for an extended period of time. I planned to conduct the interview in the library in an area that was open but not crowded. Since my interviewee was from Cameroon I wanted to have some pre knowledge of the country so I knew how to direct my answers, so I did some research on the country. 

Approaching the interviewee:

There was a guy in one of my classes from Cameroon so I asked him after class one day if he would be willing to do an interview about his home country and he agreed to it and we setup a time and location for the interview.

When, where, how I conducted the interview:

The interview took place in a study room in the library on Friday, October 19 2012 at 6:00pm. I Interviewed Lola Bello and Theophilus Giple. The student whom I setup the interview with was sick and unable to do the interview. I ran into Theo who I know from classes that I have had with him, at the Library later that afternoon. His girlfriend Lola volunteered to do the interview with me, but she did not feel comfortable doing it alone so Theo sat in on the interview so I got a study room and did the interview.

During the interview I used the list of questions that I had prepared, but under the circumstances I had to change the questions along the way and come up with different and additional questions. During the first portion of the interview things were formal and but as the interview went on the atmosphere of the room become more relaxed. Because Theo has lived in America for a long time Lola was the primary interviewee, but Theo interjected at times. The interview went well and we were forced to end at 7:00pm because the library was closing.

Whom I conducted the interview with:

I interviewed Lola Bello from Lagos, Nigeria (which is a neighboring country of Cameroon) and Theophilus Giple from Liberia. 

Lola has three brothers and her father is doctor in Nigeria, she went to a private high school in Nigeria and has only been in the US for her college education. Theo has been in the US since junior high and attended high school in Albertville, MN and has been at SCSU for three years where he met Lola. 

Description of the interview: 

I thought interview went well given the circumstances. I was not sure what kind of manners were acceptable and early on in the interview I was getting the feeling that Lola was slightly uncomfortable but I think that was because where she comes from eye contact is considered rude and I was making eye contact but then I stopped and seemed as if that helped the interview process. Nigeria and Liberia are near Cameroon so it was nice to have people from the same region of my first choice country. The interview was very enjoyable and I definitely got honest detailed answers to my questions and overall pleased with it. 

Transcription:

Interviewer: What is the value of family in your country?

Lola: Its priority number one and people value it a lot.

Interviewer: What is the structure of the family like?

Lola: Structure as in...?

Interviewer: Like how does it work, who is the head of the household?

Lola: Well obviously the dad is like the head of household, mostly, but I don’t know every very body kind of just runs it their own way. I mean yeah its just like how it is here I guess.

Interviewer: Okay, what kind of physical house did you grow in?

Theo: Teepee

Lola: Whats a teepee?

Theo: Its like a hut.

Lola: Oh ha ha, no I grew up in the suburbs in a house.

Theo: Suburbs? 

Lola: Its in an estate, its gated and you have to have a pass to go in and if you have a visiter and its like at 8pm then you have to have invitation or call to know if that person is coming, no 12pm, to know that person is coming in, because security is high

Interviewer: How many siblings do you have and how many kids does the typical family have?

Lola: I have three brothers, a nephew, and one that is going to be on his way next month, so I’m going to have a nephew and a niece by November and I’m the only girl, I’m the last child.

Interviewer: So are the families typically larger or are they a medium size?

Lola: The average size is like 4 or 5 but you can find some large families like 9 kids or with one kid but I would say that the average is around 4 or 5 kids.

Interviewer: I have my questions categorized.

Theo: Get to the personal stuff.

Interviewer: That comes later so we will be switching to cultural stuff. How does your home country culture differ from the US culture?

Lola: For example, you know here people look into the eyes to show your confident and stuff like that but back home its kind of rude to stare one in the eyes and you don't call  people older than by their first name, you call them Mr. this or if its your aunt or uncle, uncle then name, but you never call adults by their first name, which is really weird.

Interviewer: What are the highlights in your culture? What things will make people immediately think about your country?

Lola: To be honest, okay well nigerians like money a lot, they like flaunting money so if their rich they will show that they are rich, if they are poor they will pretend they are rich yeah they do like flaunting it a lot, they love showing off and I guess the food too and every is really generous, so like if there is a party or something random people could walk and get food and no one will be like “I don't know you” and try to scare you away like your a crazy person but they are generous with food and other aspects just not money wise, they will use money to buy you food but just not give you the money.

Interviewer: Is there any historical stuff, like big events or anything?

Lola: Those are like the cultural stuff I don't know, even here the instructors know more about that than I do, it goes way back, 1950s 60s is when someone first went into power    and I don't know its really deep culture stuff.

Interviewer: What kind of holidays do you have?

Lola: We have Christmas, we don't have Thanksgiving, but all the muslim celebrations, new years.

Theo: Independence day. 

Lola: yup Independence day. 

Theo: Easter.

Lola: Easter.

Theo: So we pretty much have the same holidays as you just minus the US holidays

Interviewer: Okay so Independence day would be...

Lola: October first.

Interviewer: So thats Independence from...?

Lola: The British.

Interviewer: Okay. So how do people dress in Nigeria?

Lola: Well it depends it depends, normal people dress in tee shirts and jeans...and then the rest of the people dress in heals and showing off as usual, its kind of like, its so weird that like if you are just going down the street to the grocery store or market or to the gas station people will literarily dress up to go there and its stupid, but that just how like, its almost like they are just trying to copy the western culture but they do it so much and its just bizarre.

Theo: How about the traditional clothing? Isn’t that going down?

Lola: No, I mean its not really going up or down, its just if you want to dress up traditionally they do that but if not you just where normal stuff but like for weddings and celebrations and ceremonies people do dress traditionally...and the party goers where the tight skimpy clothes.

Interviewer: Alright, moving on to food. What is the most famous food in your country? 

Lola: Rice, you can eat rice with any type of soup oh and we have traditional food, but I'm not sure to call it, but they are made with corn flour, mace flour, but mostly rice and different types of stew.

Theo: So rice is the main type of food but you don’t just eat it by itself do you?

Lola: No with different types of stew, like tomato stew.

Theo: So rice is just the basics?

Lola: Yeah.

Theo: Thats what you gotta say man, hey thats kind of questions you gotta ask.

Lola: But he gets it! You don't just eat rice, its only Chinese people that eat rice alone.

Theo: No like most Americans, if you tell them you eat rice they literarily think that all you gonna eat is rice at dinner.

Lola: Really!? 

Theo: Like people don't always understand how rice is eaten.

Interviewer: Not necessarily, I mean...I feel like I’ve had enough exposure to the outside world but I think he is right.

Theo: Yeah go outside and ask five people what they think you eat rice with they’ll say “rice”, or maybe sugar, most people will think that or what they see at the chinese store but nothing in between.

Lola: Oh well that is different, like susan’s fried rice we make that too but if its just plain white rice that has no taste.

Theo: But what I'm saying is that general people who don't have other friends outside the circle wont understand that.

Lola: I guess, okay.

Interviewer: So then are there special dishes that are prepared for the holidays, because like in America people cook a turkey for Thanksgiving or something.

Lola: Well during the muslim celebration we eat a lot of ram, the male sheep, we eat a lot of that and well that because in the Qur'an/Bible thats what moses used instead of sacrificing his son and that animal in the bible is what we eat at that time and christmas is, I don't know,  yeah its anything basically I mean during celebrations we make a lot of everything. Sometimes we make special soups because there are some stews that are hard to make and it takes a long time so don't make that every day so  during special celebrations we make the hard/difficult recipes of food.

Interviewer: What are the meals like in sense of size and how many times you eat a day?

Lola: Three times a day, well my family is healthy, my dad is a doctor, well they are I'm not but 3 times  day  for the major of people and then people who work construction, there size is totally different, but generally normal portions I guess.

Theo: How big is a normal portion? 

Interviewer: Well here I feel like people eat way to much.

Lola: Okay the difference is that you guys eat a lot of fast food and we don't or even the snack, they are healthy and they fast food places serve rice or some healthy stuff, they sell burgers too but people really eat as much burgers as they do here or even pizza we just generally eat healthy stuff.

Theo: Or ice cream, thats a shot at him cause he works at DairyQueen

Interviewer: I do work at a DairyQueen and its ridiculous the people that come in there how much they eat and what they eat its just gross.

Theo: I’ve worked at Mcdonalds and the amazing thing is the different sizes of the people that come in there they range, even the age too the older people come in there still and burgers and stuff like that. 

Lola: The other difference here is because its a “free country”, which its not, I understand that you cant say something to them you cant call them fat, it is kind of rude but back home and your really fat and buying all this stuff they’ll tell you “that is not good for you, you should stop” they might say it in a rude way but most people will say it in way that will actually help you, and some people will heed their advice.

Theo: I got a question, are processed food healthy, cause I feel like in most international countries are more farming goods and food that eat instead factory produced stuff. 

Lola: Processed food isn't exactly healthier its just safer because we regulate what exactly is coming out of the soil where natural stuff is just what comes out of the ground, so its just being safe but at the same time with all the preservatives and chemicals it can cause side effects so its not a matter of being healthy or not. We don't have much of the processed food back home its mostly natural, the only thing that would be fake would be the pesticides they use on the farms and besides all the canned stuff we get from china and here. 

Interviewer: What are the restaurants like? 

Lola: The serve the same you would make at home, serve burgers and pizza.

Theo: It would be more like going to a family house or a party like an occasion they its setup its like more interactive, they way the serve food is how you would at home, with like plates and spoon so its more like a home setting or like a family friend visit.

Lola: There some places that are trying to be more like here with all their Styrofoam cups and stuff, just the same as here with different food.

Interviewer: Okay. We are going to education now, what is the education system like in your country? 

Lola: There is pre-k, I think the elementary here then the middle school and high school here is combined back home so it just six years of high school/secondary school, then there are some board-in, day schools, and they are split up, they are federal schools owned by the federal government and the public schools are owned by the state government and there are private schools, and we use British curriculum, well everything is British kind of.

Interviewer: How does college work?

Lola: University, same thing as here.

Theo: So is it more common to go to college?

Lola: Well yeah, it was when I got here that I realized that it was in option, back home you just go to college, the option is going to masters, now that is maybe an option which most people do anyway, but college is like  you have to go to college otherwise you get no job.

Interviewer: How is the college system paid for?

Lola: You pay it yourself, there is no financial aid what so ever, there are scholarships, for super smart genius people , I guess you could take a lone but hopefully you have a good background and your parents could help you take a lone, but otherwise its pretty much up to you to pay for it.

Interviewer: So culturally its expected to go to college?

Lola: Yup

Interviewer: Do a lot of people go to college outside of the country because they have to pay for it themselves? 

Lola: No, I mean here I have to pay for this myself, I cant get financial aid because I'm an international student and I pay more than you guys, I pay twice as much if you guys pay $4,000 I pay $8,000.

Interviewer: Why do you pay twice as much?

Lola: Because I pay as a nonresident, and I have to get health insurance which is $1,000 a year.

Interviewer: Okay going on to the social category, what are the top three social pastimes? What are things people do with there free time?

Lola: Depends, are we talking school students, college student, teenagers, adults?

Interviewer: I guess all of them.

Lola: Well the young adults and below party all the time, the married people with tons of kids my age either visit relatives or neighbors or chill out TV and same thing they do here, but back home it isn't as lonely as it is here, sometimes you can go visit people but not as much as back home, there you can randomly walk into your neighbors house help them with whatever they are doing, but here you have to call ahead and make sure its okay.

Interviewer: So are people much more laid back, they don't feel rushed all the time? No strict schedule to keep too?

Lola: No not at all.

Interviewer: What kind of sports do people play?

Lola: Soccer, its number one, number is basketball, then track, then cricket. Surprisingly we play cricket, we had cricket in my high school, but I think its number four. Soccer is obviously number one, video game soccer, I love video game soccer.

Theo: Ha ha I don't think video games are a sport.

Interviewer: I guess, it is an activity. Did you participate in any sports or clubs when you were in high school?

Lola: I was on the track team, I did javelin, high jump, long jump. I played basketball as well.

Interviewer: They allowed you to do javelin in high school?

Lola: Yeah, actually its a funny story, I never threw I never knew how to do that, so it was time for competition and we didn't have enough people house, a house is like a hall, and so I was like fine I’ll do it, and I took 3rd, I only threw once 

Interviewer: I did track back in high school I don't ever remember there being javelin because I don't think they allow it here for high school.

Theo: Yeah I don't think any school I went to had javelin either.

Lola: Its not coming my high school was one of the few that even did it cause it was private school, so that makes a difference and they get to do a lot of stuff that other schools don't do.

Interviewer: I think here they just consider it to dangerous. 

Lola: Yeah it is.

Interviewer: I don't see it being dangerous though.

Theo: I do, if someone was mad at a coach s*** could happen, its a shame that you have to think that way but its a possibility.

Lola: Well if your in the way it could go through you.

Interviewer: but like a shot put could kill someone if they were out there in the wrong place.

Theo: But it take a lot of force right?

Interviewer: Well they are twelve pounds.

Theo: I'm talking about discus, yeah shot put could kill somebody.

Lola: I did discus but that was dangerous, I saw someone get hit, I think those three field events are kind of dangerous.

Theo: You know whats dangerous? Pole vaulting, I seen some dirty s*** happen, its not pretty when you don't make it all the way up there.

Lola: I always wanted to do that, but we weren't allowed to do it cause it was to dangerous.

Interviewer: Thats weird cause here most high schools you can pole vaulting, well I went to a private school and...well it was really small and poor so we didn't have pole vaulting cause we couldn’t afford it, and having a varsity sport was kind of a big deal and track was the only one. 

Theo: You only had a varsity track team?

Interviewer: Yeah, we did have “high school basketball team” but we played against smaller schools, j-v teams, and we only won like half our games, we were not very good, but thats because we had like 10 people our on team and half of them were doing it just to do it and couldn't really play basketball.

Theo: It was to get the ladies, all five of the ladies at your school ha ha

Interviewer: Actually there were many more girls in my high school than there were guys, my graduating class there were six guys and fourteen girls.

Theo: thats a good ratio

Lola: so far for our largest graduating class was 90 people at once, that was surprising

Theo: 90 was better?

Lola: mine was 24, in public schools most people have like 50, and my high school when we were graduating we were the most but before that is 20

Theo: So what was the total number people at your school?

Lola: When I was a freshmen we were 500, can never forget, then the next year we were 600 something.

Theo: that would range from six different levels 

Lola: sure that includes middle school and high school including, the instructors, cooks, and pretty much all the people who work in the school, besides teachers

Theo: I don't think I could do that small school thing

Lola: you could know every single person.

Theo: that could be a good and a bad thing, if your one of those people who's up there its a good thing but if you’;re one of the shy ones laid back it could be rough

Lola: I was shy, dude, you know that and I loved that school 

Interviewer: Do people hunt or fish in your country? And if so what does that look like?

Lola: We hunt fishes...you see what I did there? Come on it was funny.

Theo: No it wasn't

Interviewer: ha ha.

Theo: ha ha.

Lola: you guys suck, yeah we fish. No one hunts.

Theo: not that I know of, the closest thing to hunting that I remember was trapping crab, and fishing...i lied we hunted chickens

Lola: how do you hunt chickens?

Theo: When I was younger my family raised our own chickens and every once in a while a kid would chase it and kill it.

Lola: Thats not hunting.

Theo: Is that not hunting?

Lola: But you it was yours

Interviewer: I think it could be considered hunting. 

Lola: hunting is of a wild animal that doesn't belong to you.

Theo: Fine, I guess I never knew about hunting until I came to Minnesota and I’ve been America too long, the closest I came to hunting was before I came here was watching it on cartoons and movies where they hunted rabbits and ducks. I just thought that was form TV until I came here and heard people talk about deer hunting.

Interviewer: So people fish, what is that like?

Lola: Well you have people who do it for their lively hood, but other people like my dad and his friends have their fishing rods, I’ve tried to use a stick and string but it didn't work, was what that book that was old? It was about this boy who was a rascal, it was a hill classic book, hunch back? No it was Huckleberry Finn, but what was the other one? 

Interviewer: Tom Swayer

Lola: Yeah I read that then tried it, they use the stick and string but it didn't work

Theo: If I remember correctly most people used stick and string and some people used rod and reel.

Lola: Most people do it for fun.

Interviewer: Do people ever use bow and arrow?

Lola: No but I wish!

Theo: I’ve never seen it.

Lola: I’ve actually never held a bow and arrow or seen back home.

Interviewer: People here do use it a lot to shoot fish.

Lola: I made my own bow and arrow from a broom stick and rubber band 

Interviewer: Well a I still have a few more questions for you. What are the different religions and which is the predominant one?

Lola: Christianity, Islam, paganism. There are pagans every where. 

Theo: Whats paganism again?

Lola: They worship objects idols, its probably mainly Christians and Muslims

Interviewer: So if you had to say there was a predominant religion which one would it be

Lola: I would say Islam because half of the country up is mostly muslim and the other half is a mixture of religions. 

Interviewer: Does religious affiliation ever cause tension or conflict?

Lola: Up north they say it does but its mostly about politics, oil, and money, but people use religion as their reason but they are really fighting about money. Down south its not the same, you find muslims in a church, christians serving in muslim festivities. You really cant what religion people are.

Interviewer: Do the muslim women dress differently?

Lola: Some do, I am muslim and growing up I didn't cover my hair, some did but I didn't,  you see some people with burka covering the whole face, you hardly see that but I have seen a couple, once in a blue moon it Just depends on how you grew up.

Theo: Would you say it was common to see families that have both christianity and muslim?

Lola: Yeah, I mean my family has that, my grandpa is a christian, and yeah people have changed to christianity and people have changed to islam. You have people where the dad is a muslim and the dad is a christian and some people call them a chris-mus as a joke, but for them it makes no difference, I do christmas at my grand fathers house and my cousins, and for the muslim celebrations they come to my house, eat and everything. Its kind of the best of both worlds I guess.

Theo: I think that is just interesting when you think about it

Lola: The problem is when people are getting married they are like “oh he is a christian and she is a muslim” and even just religion but culture, just culture makes people reluctant to accept it, but then after a few years of being married it doesn't matter to people anymore, but at the initial stage where they are engaged and want to get married its frowned upon. Its kind of funny though, you should see my mom freak out...Theo is christian and I am a muslim, and we’re dating and so my mom freaked out when I told her, but even you were to get a boy friend and not tell them back home the culture doesn't pr-emit that, here you can have a boy friend when your seven, but like the only time you should be dating a guy is when your gonna marry that guy, but it doesn't make sense because he might be guy you really don't know, and its not arranged marriage. Its the culture, its looked down upon to say you have a boyfriend 

Interviewer: Okay so I have just a few more random questions, what the vehicles like?

Lola: Like I said they like showing off so new vehicle that comes out here or china they would back home or sometimes even before it gets here.

Interviewer: So you have all the big name cars like Mercedes and BMW? 

Lola: Even the people on the streets have big cars and can you imagine I don't even have one.

Interviewer: Do people drive trucks or SUV’s?

Lola: Yeah there are a few of those.

Interviewer: Is gas expensive?

Lola: Yeah.

Theo: You don't know you don't drive.

Lola: Yeah but dude I had an ear full of my mom complaining all the time, it goes up it comes it goes up and so on.

Interviewer: Whats the public transportation like?

Lola: There are buses and taxis but people drive a lot. I guess there a lot of people who use the bus system.

Interviewer: Do people use trains?

Lola: No not at all, although I know they are trying get trains in

Interviewer: What is the economy like?

Lola: Its terrible, you have people who are in charge who are horrible, the politicians give money to other countries and neglect their own.

Interviewer: Is the government like a democracy?

Lola: Yeah it is.

Theo: You have elections?

Lola: Yeah they have elections every four years.

Interviewer: Well the library is closing I wish we could keep talking. Thank you so much for your time.

Lola: Your welcome.