The Third Interview

Country report:

Geography:

Somalia is located on the east of Africa, which is bordered by Djibouti, Kenya, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. "It has the longest coastline on the continent, with a seaboard that stretches more than 3000 kilometers.(1)" In addition, its total area of constitutes land is more than 600000 square kilometers, with more than 10000 square kilometers of water.

Location of Somalia (image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LocationSomalia.svg)

Climate:

"Due to Somalia’s location, which is near the equator, it does not have much seasonal variation in its climate, and the maximum temperatures of mean daily range from 30 to 40 °C.(1)" Although the weather is hot throughout all year-round, the relative humidity has huge difference between coastal regions (humid) and the hinterland (dry).

Animals in Somali:

Because Somalia is located in the tropical zone, Somalia is home to wild animals. It has a large number of birds and has over 170 species of mammals. It is also home to a variety of marine life, including the endangered dugong, manta rays, the Nile crocodile, black marlin, cheetahs, ostriches and so on.

 cheetahs (image source: http://www.bing.com/featured/content/search?q=Animal+Moms%3A+Cheetahs)

Languages:

The official languages are Arabic and Somali, which is the mother tongue of the Somali people, and the second languages are English and Italian, which used to be a major language.

Religion:

Most of residents believe in Islam, which is the state religion. Less than 0.01% of Somalis are Christians. Islam is the monotheistic religion which is taught by Koran and Holy. And its adherent, called Muslims, they believe in the one and unique God, whose name is Allah. Muslims’ main purpose in life is to worship God, who sent many prophets to mankind, including Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus) and so on, but ultimately, Muslims believe that the last message is sent to prophet Muhammad. Islamic law actually touch each level of somalia’s life and society, from diet to law. 30% of muslims are located in South Asia, and 20% of muslims in Arab countries. Most of the muslim countries are Indonesia. Nowadays, there are about over 15 billion muslims, so the Islam has already become the second largest religion in the world, which is considered to be the largest growthreligion. 

Muslims from all over the world to pray together. (image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaaba_at_night.jpg )

 Cuisine:

Somali cuisine is influenced by native Somali, Ethiopian, Yemeni, Persian, Turkish, Indian and Italian. Usually, they drink tea (shaah) to start the day, and the main dish in breakfast is pancake. For lunch, "which is an elaborated main dish, somalisoften use spiced rice with cumin, cardamom, cloves and sage.(1)" In addition, pasta is also widely eaten, which is often served with a heavier stew than the Italian pasta sauce. Samalis often have dinner at 9p.m. However, during Ramadan, which is the ninth month of Islamic calendar, the regulations in Koran requires muslims must keep fast, and stop eating from sunrise to sunset, what’s more, they also need to pray before dinner, so sometimes they eat as late as 11p.m. after they are done with pray. During their dinner time, they often eat cambuulo. "Cambuulo, a common dinner dish, is made of beans mixed with butter and sugar. "(1)

Rice (image source: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Somalian+cuisine&hl=en&biw=1613&bih=813&tbm=isch&tbnid=AA3Sr8-fgq6ekM:&imgrefurl=http://www.pashtunforums.com/food-31/your-favorite-cuisines-21432/&docid=Nr4DxB_j5djOQM&imgurl=http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/11/25/20081125_somali_food_33.jpg&w=650&h=433&ei=-F6oTrqNHummsQKS9qTnDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1164&vpy=194&dur=1264&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=68&ty=49&sig=115048743504919728147&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=193&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0 )

Pasta (image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicknspag.jpg )

Cambuulo (image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Somali_food.jpg )

Education:

Since the war in 1991, the schools in Somalia are almost closed, adult illiteracy rate has soared 76%. However, in recent years, there is a significant increasing in the number of schools, many areas begin rebuilding primary schools. What’s more,it aslo remains the basic system of traditional religious instruction in Somalia, such as Qu’ranic schools. "They provide Islamic education for children, thereby filling a clear religious and social role in the country. "(1)

New Mogadishu University campus

 (image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mogadishu_university.jpg)

Economy:

"According to the data of CIA and the Central Bank of Somalia, Somalia has a healthy informal economy, which is consists of both traditional and modern production. About 80% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists, who keep goats, sheep, camels and cattle. The nomads also gather resins and gums to supplement their income." (1)

Government:

In 2004, the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs), the key foundation government,was installed. The TFIs includes the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC), the Transitional Federal Government, and the Transitional Federal Parliament.

The flag of Somali (image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Somaliland.svg )

Work cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

http://www.listofcountriesoftheworld.com/so-animals.html

(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalian_cuisine

Preparation:

For my third interview, since I asked lots of questions about religion in last two interviews, I thought I needed to know more information about their real life and culture. Thus, I decided to focus on the parts of their life and change my contents of my last questions, I added some questions about their family, traditional clothes, job and so on.

Then I printed out two copies of my new questions, and I looked for some people who were free in library. At last, I found a girl who was sitting on the sofa in the first floor, and I approached to her. Her name is Nawal, and she is from Sudan, which is part of Africa. She is very nice and glad to help me. After we introduced our each other, and chatted for a while, we both felt relax and comfortable, then I started to interview her.

Interview:

Interviewee: Nawal

Interview: Qing Ren

Location: first flood in library

Time: 11/16/2011

Me: What’s your name?

Interviewee: I’m Nawal.

Me: Where are you from?

Interviewee: Sudan, the country in Africa.

Me: What’s the weather like in your hometown?

Interviewee: It’s very hot and warm, hot all the time, no winter at all. First time I came here, it’s autumn, and it’s white and so cold.

Me: When did you come to the U.S.?

Interviewee: 2002, I am going to stay here for 10 years and graduate in 2012.

Me: What’s your major?

Interviewee: My major is Biomedical Science, and minor is chemistry.

Me: So after you graduate, what kind of job would you like to find?

Interviewee: I want to be a doctor at school.

Me: That’s cool, so what do men or women usually do after they graduate/ what kind of jobs do they look for?

Interviewee: I think it is really dependents on people who take the majors are. Like me, my major is Biomedical Science, and I am looking for a job in chemistry school. Most of them are looking for jobs.

Me: When do men or women usually get married in your country?

Interviewee: Now it’s a little bit different. But before they used to get married early, they got married between 17 to 22-years old, but it was just for females. Usually, males were a little bit older. Because males usually went to university, they needed to graduate from university before they got married; they needed to make money for their family. For females, they just graduated from high school, and then they got married. However, now I think the time has changed, females also study in the university, and they may get married later than before. I don’t really know the exactly the age, but I think it’s between 23-year old to 25-yeear old for the female. Women also need to find jobs.

Me: So most of female are working after they get married, right?

Interviewee: Yep, that’s what I’m talking about. But this situation may just happen in the U.S. In my country, most of women are house wives.  Women like to be house wife, it is a traditional culture, women like to take care of their kids, it’s good for their kids, but people think it’s bad for women to stay at home here. If men and women are working outside, then no one can take good care of their kids, so women do not want to go to the work.

Me: I think it is sweet that at least one parent stay with their children at home, I think it’s good for their kids.

Interviewee: Yep.

Me: Then how many family members do you usually live together?

Interviewee: We live very closed to each other; our houses are very connected with our relative. The whole family lives around one area. I think most of people live in this way. It’s very nice, and I really like it.

Me: Could you please tell me more about your family?

Interviewee: Yep, but what kind of question do you want to ask?

Me: Such as ‘how many sisters or brothers do you have, and what are your parents do?’

Interviewee: I have two sisters and one brother, and I am the middle child, the third one. My mother does not work, she is house wife, and my father is businessman.

Me: What’s a type of sport in your country?

Interviewee: I think it is soccer, we also have other sports but soccer is the number one, everybody plays it.

Me: What do you usually do during your free time?

Interviewee: I like to hand out with my friends and I also have relation in city, I usually go here and stay with them.

Me: Do you like watching TV show?

Interviewee: I do like it.

Me: Do you like reading?

Interviewee: Now I do not read novels a lot, because I have to read my biomedical textbooks, it’s difficult, and I do not have much time to read some interesting books which I like. But as I was young, I read as much as I wanted to.

Me: What are your traditional clothes looks like?

Interviewee: For male, they wear long white clothes; it’s just like Sudanese clothing. They also wear different types of hoods between old men and young men. For female, the clothes are very similar to the dress of Indian women; they have long, colorful cloth that can cover everything.

Me: Ok, I think that’s all, and thanks for your time.

Interviewee: No problem, I hope it’s helpful.

Me: Have a nice day.

Interviewee: You too.

Personal impressions report:

To be honest, I felt really comfortable about this interview. In my view, it was not only because of my experience last two times, but also because of the talkative girl. Before we started to interview, we chatted for a while, which made me feel as we were old friends. Therefore, we had a smooth process for the whole interview; I also could hit on one or two new question that I didn’t add to my original question paper. However, nothing is perfect, during the third interview, I noticed that I had some questions that made Nawal difficult to answer, and I didn’t show my questions very clearly, so it might confuse her. I need to pay attention about this detail, if I have chance to interview somebody in my future. All in all, I had a wonderful time during my third interview.