My Classmate Rowaida Abdalla - Interview Project Report

Interview Project Report

For my interview project I decided to interview my classmate Rowaida Abdalla. Rowaida

and I met last fall at a school event and became friends. I was always curious to know where this young beautiful woman was born and how and when she immigrated to the United States. Even though we just met recently we didn’t know much about each other which, not only were we super comfortable around each other but I also learned a whole lot more about her. Rowaida and I met up at a coffee shop and before we got into our interview we just sat there chatting about life and laughing at each others joke. It was just good vibes all around and things just flowed very smoothly and naturally. The conversation wasn’t forced and we were really able to have a deep ended conversation rather just going down a list of questions and answering them.

I started off by getting to know a little bit about Rowaida’s childhood and how she immigrated to the United States with her family. Rowaida immigrated to the United States in 2008 when she was ten years old. She was born and raised in Aden, Yemen "which is a really big city so I never got the experience of the country-side." Her home country is a really hot place but everything they ate was fresh. “The meat was always fresh because it would be slaughtered in front of you most of the time, the vegetables and fruits are always fresh." It was really interesting to learn how people in Yemen, would not buy groceries for an entire week or so like we do here in America instead they would buy fresh groceries everyday for the meals they were cooking that day. "The farmers there would come to the supermarkets everyday with fresh foods." Rowaida’s childhood in Yemen was very different from what her little siblings are now experiencing in the

United States. Her childhood was full of electricity going off every day for 5 minutes which made all the children in the neighborhood go outside to play. "It was more of us running out in the rain and playing in the rain rather than staying indoors. I had an amazing memorable childhood even though it was not luxurious at all it was really fun." I really connected with Rowaida on this, as my siblings had a similar childhood to what she had. We were really able to compare each other’s childhood and since I was raised in America I didn’t have those issues or worries as my siblings did. It was really interesting that even though we are from different parts of the world how many similarities we still had.

Following that Rowaida and I talked about what her family was like and what their socioeconomic states were like. Everything that Rowaida stated was exactly what I expected since most Muslim families are very similar in size and the way we bond with one another. Her family was a very close nit family and they all seemed to be involved in each others lives. "My family was so huge that we had a whole neighborhood/block to ourselves. My father had 17 siblings and they all had children and their children also had children so you can imagine how huge that is." When I heard her say 17 I sarcastically laughed and said wow my mom just needed ten more kids to make it 17 as well. Rowaida seemed to love being around so many family members. As for their socioeconomics status she stated "our socioeconomics status was okay I guess. We weren’t super rich but we all owned houses and owned the land we lived in. Everyone is always helping each other out and sharing. For example, some families would even live together if one’s house is big enough, and I think that’s because everyone is so close and their bond is really strong that they value family very much."

Proceeding with that and getting to know a little bit about her childhood and family we moved towards identity and what she knew about her identity before migrating and after. Rowaida didn’t know much about her identity back in Yemen and didn’t think about any identity beyond ethnicity and nationality. This is very interesting because from the videos and things we’ve learned in class I have noticed most people never think beyond of what their identity is but when they move to America things just seem to change all around and people are more aware of who they really. I believe that this tends to happen because you’re surround by people from different cultures and religions. Whereas when you’re living in a country that you were born and raised in you are most likely to only be exposed to people similar to you. Just like most people Rowaida found out that her religion wasn’t the same as everyone else’s after moving into the states and saw that it added to her identity. "I found out that my religion is not the same as everyone else’s religion and I saw that added to my identity, I also learned that being a female and my age, my socioeconomics and political views are all factors that contribute to my identity and who I am. And that’s where I see a lot of intersectionalities happening as well."

Awaited the most burning question, why immigrate to the U.S.? Rowaida migrated to the United States with her family for two main reasons. The first being that her mom’s side of the family all lived in the states since the 90’s, and the second being a reason that most people immigrate for which is, better educational and life opportunities. Her family coming to the U.S. made it possible for almost all of her family members to go to college without worrying about financial difficulties. After moving to the states her race and ethnicity didn’t change but she feels that it was more limited for expression. I wasn’t sure of what