Interview preparations:

I knew I wanted something different from previous culture, different culture for sure, I did Asia, I did east Africa I dint want to do an American because myself I will not learn anything from it, as I have been here for 4 years I know a little bit about the American culture, someone from Europe was not interesting either, so after my work in garvey commons I saw a group of students sitting having dinner speaking French, they interested me I went to them asked them if there was anyone interested in helping with an interview, one of them said yes so we went to seat somewhere else, was like I don’t even have anything on me, I went to look for a good phone and a text book and we started the interview it lasted 40 mins or something like that.

Interview report:

My third interview I should say was so far the best, first of all because I’m getting used to interview people it gets better with practice, it was comfortable because he spoke French so we started by a few jokes.it was really cool and then he was willing to share a lot as if he was talking to a friend, he didn’t bother sharing personal information, even when it came to the country being in war he told what happened how it happened, which school he went, his beliefs on politics about his president, the current situation in ivory coast and all that. And of course I understood him more than my previous interview maybe because there was no language barrier, he knew I was going to correct his mistake, and he was not even afraid to commit them, and the thing he’s just new here so his English was not that good.

Country report

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of 322,462 square kilometers and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be 20,617,068 in 2009.
Côte d'Ivoire's first national census in 1975 counted 6.7 million inhabitants .Côte d'Ivoire became independent on 7 August 1960. From 1960 to 1993, the country was led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny. It maintained close political and economic association with its West African neighbors, while at the same time maintaining close ties to the West, especially to France. Since the end of Houphouet-Boigny’s rule, Côte d'Ivoire has experienced one coup d’état, in 1999, and a civil war, which broke out in 2002.A political agreement between the government and the rebels brought a return to peace. Côte d'Ivoire is a republic with a strong executive power invested in the President. Its capital is Yamoussoukro and the biggest city is the port city of Abidjan. The country is divided into 19 regions and 81 departments. It is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, African Union, La Francophone, Latin Union, Economic Community of West African States and South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone. The official language is French, although many of the local languages are widely used. The main religions are Islam, Christianity primarily Roman Catholic and various indigenous religions.
Through production of coffee and cocoa, the country was an economic powerhouse during the 1960s and 1970s in West Africa. However, Côte d'Ivoire went through an economic crisis in the 1980s, leading to the country's period of political and social turmoil. The 21st century Ivoirian economy is largely market-based and relies heavily on agriculture, with smallholder cash crop production being dominant. Since 1983, Côte d'Ivoire's official capital has been Yamoussoukro then abidjan, however, remains the administrative center. Most countries maintain their embassies in Abidjan, although some including the United Kingdom have closed their missions because of the continuing violence and attacks on Europeans. The Ivoirian population continues to suffer because of an ongoing civil war .International human rights organizations have noted problems with the treatment of captive non-combatants by both sides and the re-emergence of child slavery among workers in cocoa production.

Although most of the fighting ended by late 2004, the country remained split in two, with the north controlled by the FDN.new presidential election was expected to be held in October 2005, and an agreement was reached among the rival parties in March 2007 to proceed with this, but it continued to be postponed until November 2010 due to delays in its preparation.

Elections were finally held in 2010. The first round of elections were held peacefully, and widely hailed as free and fair. Runoffs were held 28 November 2010, after being delayed one week from the original date of 21 November. Laurent Gbagbo as president ran against former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara^.

On 2 December, the Electoral Commission declared that Ouattara had won the election by a margin off 54% to 46%. In response, the Gbagbo-aligned Constitutional Council rejected the declaration, and the government announced that country's borders had been sealed. An Ivorian military spokesman said, "The air, land and sea border of the country are closed to all movement of people and goods.