Cre8tive Play: Travel the World

This is the 31st week in my Travel the World personal challenge. Each week I am randomly choosing one country (there are 195 countries in the world) and doing a little research on that country. I then select one tidbit of information about the country as inspiration for the card I make.

This week's country is...

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa. The official name of the country is the Republic of Sierra Leone. It is bordered by Guinea to the north-east, Liberia to the south-east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south-west.

Sierra Leone’s terrain consists of coastal belt of mangrove swamps, wooded hill country, upland plateau, and mountains in east.

The Cotton Tree is a historic symbol in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. According to tradition, former African-American slaves landed on the shoreline and walked up to this giant tree and held a thanksgiving service, praying and singing hymns to thank God for their deliverance to this free land. They settled here, the site of modern Freetown.

Freetown has the largest natural harbor on the African continent. It is capable of receiving oceangoing vessels of all kinds.

The pews and rafters in Saint John's Maroon Church are recycled pieces of history, made from a ship that brought freed Jamaican slaves from Nova Scotia, Canada. The church was built in 1820, making it one of Freetown’s oldest churches.

Two-thirds of the population of Sierra Leone are directly involved in subsistence agriculture.

For almost all Sierra Leoneans, rice is the staple food, consumed at virtually every meal. A Sierra Leonean will often say, without any exaggeration, “If I haven’t eaten rice today, then I haven’t eaten!”

The official language of Sierra Leone is English. Although English is the official language spoken in schools and government administrations, the Krio language, an English based creole, is the most widely spoken language across Sierra Leone and is spoken by 97% of the population.

Sierra Leone is home to a giant snail called the Ghana Snail. It usually reaches 7 inches in length and 3.5 inches in width. The biggest on record have reached 12 inches in length and 6 inches in width.

Mammals commonly found in Sierra Leone include the African bush elephant, gorillas, bongo antelopes, roan antelopes, African forest buffalo, Diana monkeys, African leopards, olive baboons and hippos.

In 1972, the world’s third-largest gem-quality diamond was found here. It’s called the Star of Sierra Leone. This country is one of the top ten diamond producing nations in the world.

Football is by far the most popular sport in Sierra Leone.

For all Sierra Leone people, marriage is a mark of adult maturity and brings considerable prestige to both bride and groom.

Two thirds of the adult population of Sierra Leone is illiterate, and the country also has high infant mortality and low life expectancy rates. The maternal death rate of Sierra Leone is the highest in the world, at 2,000 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The Sierra Leone Police, established by the British in 1894, is one of the oldest police forces in West Africa.

I decided to let this Sierra Leone fact be the inspiration for this week's card... Because so many people in Sierra Leone do not know how to read, radios are very popular. About 85 percent of people have access to a radio and about 72 percent listen to the radio daily.