Report of the first interview process

I have prepared about twenty five question for the interview and send it to the interviewee two days before the day of the interview so that my interviewee would know what I am going to ask her. I wrote my objectives and posted on my blog for some comments and after getting helpful comments, I edited my objectives by adding more things that I have to include in my previous objective. I did my first interview in the library reserved rooms. I chose the library because it is quite and there is nothing that could take our attention during the interview. For the interview I used a digital camera to record the interview after asking my interviewee the permission to record the whole interview.
The people that I chose for my interview are from Africa. I tried to contact as many African students I can to ask them if they are volunteers to do an interview but most of them gave me an excuse that they were busy. The first person that I approach was from Ghana I met her in the international students welcoming ceremony when she came here as a freshman. I called her and told her that I want to talk to her then I asked her if I could interview her for my English class, she told me she will do the interview and we arranged a time that she will be free. I send her the interview questions two days before the interview. The second person that I approached was from Nigeria, I met her when I was a freshman and we were in the same class. So when I ask her if I could interview her, she was happy to do it. But we didn’t make any arrangement when to do the interview because she was busy and she told me she will let me know by e-mail. The third person that I approached was from Ethiopia, we met when I came to St. Cloud for the first time. She was willing to do the interview when I asked her.
I conducted my first interview with my interviewee from Ghana. She was busy during school days so we agreed to do it during the fall break. I did the interview on Thursday, 10/22/09. I reserved a room at the library for our interview because it’s a quite place and there is no interruption during the interview. After we met on Thursday at the library we talked about the fall break and what she is going to do during the fall break and other common stuffs. Before we start the interview I thanked her for doing the interview and I asked her if it’s ok to record the interview. After I have got her permission to record the interview, I prepared my recorder and we started the interview.
I interviewed a student at St. Cloud State University who is originally from Ghana which is located in the western part of Africa. The student’s name is Nora Frempong. Nora came to the United States before a year for the first time to visit her uncle in Connecticut but she went back to Ghana after staying with her uncle for about seven months. But then she came back to the United States of America for school in January of 2009 and is currently attending her freshmen year at SCSU. Nora was the middle child for her family, she has two brothers; one elder and one younger but she doesn’t have any sister. Nora is a freshman student in the pre-pharmacy department she is hoping to finish her pre-pharmacy in St. Cloud State University and continue her pharmacy program in University of Minnesota.
The interview went well. I had learned a lot but there was a lot to talk about that I didn’t include in my interview questions. I realized those questions after I did my interview and I don’t want my interviewee to get bored by all those questions. There were some parts that impressed me for example when I asked her whether United States has affected her country in any ways, she told me that there are famous stores like Macy’s in Ghana and I was impressed because opening such kind of a store in Ghana was a big deal from my point of view. The other thing is when I asked her about dating at early age, she told me in Ghana, people at younger age date secretly without telling their parents and I was so surprised because it’s not a good thing and I asked her about the consequences that can be resulted from hiding from their parents. She said that their families do not allow the dating to protect their children but when you are at younger age you would not understand that. So the younger people continued to date still now and there were some youngsters that got pregnant or did an abortion or died while trying to do an abortion.

Ghana
Background:
Ghana was formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory. In 1957 it became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. The capital city is Acra. [1]
Geography
Ghana is a West African country bordering on the Gulf of Guinea is bounded by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. [2] It compares in size to Oregon, and its home to Lake Volta, the largest artificial lake in the world. It is also the second largest producer of Cocoa. [1]
Government
Ghana follows Constitutional democracy.
Climate
The climatic condition in Ghana is tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and humid in southwest; hot and dry in north. [1]
Natural resources
The main natural resources that are found in Ghana are gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone. [1]
Population
According to the 2005 census, the total population was 21,029,853. [1]
Religions
Ghana have a diverse cultures that follows different religions the most common are Christian 63%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 21%. [1]
Languages
The official language in Ghana is English but other indigenous languages including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga are the widely speaking ones. [1]
Culture
Ghana is an ethnically diverse country; thus, Ghanaian culture is a mixture of all its ethnic groups, the Ashanti, Fante, Akyem, Kwahu, Ga, Ewe, Mamprusi and Dagomba, among others. [3]
Cited sources
1. (http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcghana.htm.10/20/09)
2. (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107584.html.10/20/09)
3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana. 10/20/09)