Me: Hi, umm.. can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your country?
Fac: okay, my name is Fasica, Fasica Stafanos…. Ummm… I came in the U.S. when I was sixteen. Umm… I’ve been around six years now and well, I’m from Ethiopia, umm.. that’s East Africa if you don’t know it and about me… ummm.. what can I tell you about me, I came here with my family and that’s kind of a big deal because most people come here by themselves . It’s kind of hard because we have a lot of culture thing. I came with my parents like my mom, dad, and sister. I still have some family back home like my brother’s back in Ethiopia, it’s kind of hard, but we’re making it. I go to St. Cloud. This is my last year. I’m excited. I didn’t go to college back home, I was only in high school.
Me: Cool, oh okay, let’s see.
Fac: umm… religion is a big deal, religion and culture, everything is like really really a big deal because most people down there, they believe that culture religion is shaping your whole life. Like if your religion, like most people are way religion, but I can’t say I am, but I do believe in a lot in God, but I don’t really got the time to go to church most of the time, but my mom is really really religion.
Me: oh
Fac: I’m Orthodox Christian
Me: oh, okay
Fac: So yeah, that’s the Roman kind of Christian. That’s all. I don’t think a lot of people know about that. But if you research it, it’s a lot of interesting things and we go to church when I was a kid in back home, my mom use to take me to the church almost every Sunday. And it starts really really early and it takes long and a lot of direction that goes with it. You can’t go to church with pants, you have to wear dresses, like girls got to cover their hair.
Me: Oh really
Fac: Yup and the church is different, like the guys and girls don’t mix together in the church. Like the guys have another door and the girls have another door, so you don’t even see each other, it’s kind of forbidden. You cover your face and everything.
Me: like your entire face?
Fac: No, just the hair.
Me: just the hair part?
Fac: You don’t cover the face. We don’t wear any makeup. You see here, like most people go to church dress up and you know, really really dress up, but there you have to wear something simple like long dress and you have to cover your hair.
Me: what’s the color?
Fac: It’s white, like if you go to the church..
Me: yes
Fac: it looks so beautiful because everybody wears white
Me: oh okay
Fac: It’s really really beautiful like you turn around and everywhere is in white. It’s our traditions clothing’s that people wear to the church.
Me: oh okay, does that symbolize anything? Like the color white?
Fac: ummm… pure, I guess.
Me: Oh, okay.
Fac: purity..
Me: Does the church last all the way until the afternoon?
Fac: ummm… it depends on like there are different days and different kinds of ceremony. Like Sunday, it usually ends around like 9 or 10, and it ends early because it starts early like 6. But there are some days you have to fast and that kind of stuff. It’s once a year, there are different kinds of ceremony and sometime it takes the whole day, you go to church and then it stays till 3 or 4 afternoon.
Me: Really
Fac: And you probably fasting, so
Me: Oh my god.
Fac: It’s a pretty big deal. We used to like doing it.
Me: Okay, thanks. Ummm. Okay, do you have different rules of eye contact and body language in your country?
Fac: Well, yeah, kinda because we are girls, we’re raise a lot in the culture and tradition, so like you can’t really see people eye to eye, that’s kind of forbidden. I can’t say it’s forbidden, but like you can’t do that, you know, it’s more like, that’s not our culture, you don’t see somebody like that, especially, if you’re a girl, they’re more focus on you because especially it’s an elder person.
Me: Oh
Fac: you can’t just stand there and stare at them and talk, it’s kind of you know, why are you staring, that kind of stuff.
Me: Okay
Fac: I can’t really say a lot about body language, I don’t know.
Me: yeah
Fac: I don’t see a lot of different.
Me: Okay, I see. Umm.. How are elders treated?
Fac: They are treated very well down there, very well like if you’re sitting and there’s an elder person, you have to get up and got to give them the seat. Otherwise, they will think you’re so mean and don’t respect them.
Me: Oh
Fac: They’ll be like, get up.
Me: They’ll say that to you, if you..
Fac: Yeah, because they go like, this new generation kids, they don’t respect us and that kind of stuff. Elders are really big. You got to respect them. It’s all about respect.
Me: They’re kind of like the leaders?
Fac: Yeah, they kind of tie the family together.
Me: Oh
Fac: Yeah, you know, if even they’re not your family and you know them in the area. They live with you in that area, you got to respect them the fact that they are elders. If they ask you to do something, you have to do it for them or they’ll tell your mom and you’ll get in trouble.
Me: Oh, yes. I see. They’re really respected. Ummm… What are weddings like?
Fac: I think weddings are too expensive. I don’t think I’ll do it that way.
Me: Yes.
Fac: I think it’s really time consuming. Really really time consuming. It’s like a four to five day long wedding. There’s an engagement thing, your husband have to have to ask your family first for permission before anything happens, usually it’s the dad that’s asked. Back in the days they use to have arranged marriage. My mom and dad was not arrange in an arrange marriage. He has to buy you stuff.
Me: Oh,
Fac: He’ll have to buy you jewelries, like mostly gold. Not really silver.
Me: Oh, I see. In your country, what are the traditions for funerals?
Fac: Only families go to burry somebody.
Me: Right.
Fac: But there, the whole village goes to the house. The entire road will be close. The church will be full and everyone goes to the funeral. People are burry around the church. Even though you don’t know the person, you have to go.
Me: like the whole community
Fac: Yes, the road will be close and a bunch of people will wear black and our traditional clothings. It’s white, but it got color on the bottom. There are colors up on your hair, that represents funeral ceremony. But if it’s funeral time, the colors have to be at the bottom. It symbolize the funeral
Me: oh okay
Fac: yeah
Me: What kinds of sports are played in your country?
Fac: I think almost everything the play here, they play it down there, but soccer is the famous one. It’s call football down there. There all a lot of runners too.
Me: oh okay, how does your culture celebrate New Year? If so, can you explain what the tradition is like?
Fac: New Year is a big deal because it’s a start of a new year. They believe it’s a start of a new life, a new thing, a new change in your life, so it’s pretty much a big thing.
Me: oh okay.
Fac: We do a lot of culture things, you know, eat food, family get together, you eat like almost the whole day because everybody will be calling you to go to their home to eat
Me: oh okay.
Fac: yup, so you go around the communities to go and eat and we have a song that girls and kids that dress up and sing, people give them money.
Me:oh okay, how is the education in your home country compared to the United States?
Fac: It’s completely different. I don’t know, I don’t think there’s a lot of culture here because I don’t see a lot of it, there might. But we have a lot of traditions. Like you see a lot of teenager pregnant here, but we don’t have people pregnant down there unless they are marry. It’s forbidden.
Me: oh, okay. Any difference in how a man and a woman may contact each other? Anything that is not considered “proper”?
Fac: ummm… the guys always make the moves, the girl don’t do anything. It’s not a tradition for a girl to ask a guy out, it’s going to be crazy and dramatic if she does. It’ll be like, oh what kind of girl is she, you know
Me: yes
Fac: but, the guys always do
Me: oh, the guys does all the things
Fac: always play hard to get. Family looks at you so hard. You can’t have a boyfriend. I can’t say, dad I have a boyfriend.
Me: Does it matter whom you date or marry? If so, why?
Fac: Yes, it does.
Me: it does.
Fac: Ethiopian is divided in many ethnicity and everybody thinks their ethnicity is better than the other, they never get along, so it kind of hard, you have to marry somebody within your ethnicity or you know, your culture, otherwise if you go off your culture, you know, it’s kind of war
Me: oh okay.
Fac: People do get marry out of their religion, but it hard for the parents to take it in.
Me: I see, so what do you have for your diet, for example, breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
Fac: we usually have Ethiopian food, I can’t stay away from it. If I don’t have it in three days and three days past, it’ll be crazy. I like American food, but I still have to have Ethiopian food.
Me: okay, do you have any questions for me
Fac: umm… no.
Me: Thank you, Thank you.
