2020 Travel the World - Week 15

I started a Travel the World Series last year. (It should be noted that I did a similar thing in 2018, only it was the 50 states.) For 50 weeks in 2019, I visited a different country (virtually) and shared facts about that country. I then selected one tidbit of information about that week's country as inspiration for a card. Fifty weeks; fifty countries... BUT there are 195 countries in the world so that was just a little over 25% of them. Of course I couldn't stop, so this year I'm continuing with fifty more countries, one per week.

This week's country is...

Somalia

Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Its official name of the country is the Federal Republic of Somalia.

It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest.

Somalia is a rather small country in comparison to other countries in Africa and around the world. If you look at the square footage of Somalia, it is a little bit less than the square footage of Texas in the United States.

The terrain of the country is mainly broken into plateaus, plains and highlands.

Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa’s mainland – 3,300 kilometers (1,879 miles).

There are mountains in northern Somalia that reach heights of 6,500 feet.

Somalia has a lot of beautiful forests and waterfalls too.

The Somalis perfume their homes when they are expecting guests. The fragrance they get by burning Frankincense (or any oil) inside a soapstone pot stays in the house for several hours. The procedure takes no more than 10 minutes.

Restaurants are popular in many cities in Somalia, however, women very rarely dined out with men until the late 1990’s.

Even though there are lots of restaurants where one can enjoy a good meal in the company of a friend, the Somalis prefer eating at home.

While dining at home, it is customary for the women to serve the men first. After the men have finished their meals, they will sit down and eat with the children.

When eating, people in Somalia scoop the food from their bowl using their first three fingers. Some will roll a banana leaf and use that for scooping. 

The Somalis are constantly short on food. About 6.9 million Somalis are malnourished or don’t know where their next meal is coming from. This is mostly due to the drought problem in the country, causing the crops to stop growing.

Ancient rock paintings, dating back 5000 years, have been found in the northern part of Somalia.

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world.

More than half of the residents of Somalia are self-employed. They are farmers, herders, and independent business owners.

Agriculturally Somalia produces bananas, corn, sorghum (type of grain), coconuts, cattle and also fish.

The country exports livestock, hides, fish, bananas and charcoal.

The life expectancy for Somalian men is only 53.5 years while that for women is 56.6 years one of the lowest in the world. Years of civil wars and violence, an unstable government, high levels of poverty, a harsh climate, and other factors have combined to produce a lethal environment in the country where the citizens are highly prone to death due to communicable diseases and violent crimes.

Somalia has one of the highest fertility rates in the world. An average of about 6 children are born per woman in Somalia. 

When people in Somali get married, there is not just a bond between the man and his wife, but also between the clans and the families.

When a family has a wedding, a birth, or a circumcision, it calls for a huge celebration which involves food. The family would slaughter animals, make bread, and prepare food for guests as well as for the poor who are invited to the celebration as well.

The camel is the most important animal to the Somali people. They use it for so many different things, including transportation, food, and earning money. Sometimes the status of a person is determined by whether they owned a camel too.

Somalia has a lot of different exotic animals, aside from just a camel. They have baboons, giraffes, cheetah, lions, and elephants too.

About two-thirds of the adults in Somalia do not know how to read and write. Meanwhile, there are some fortunate Somalis who are highly educated and speak as many as 5 languages.

I decided to let this Somalia fact be the inspiration for this week's card... Somalia is infamous for its pirates.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp: Nellie Snellen Parrot stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Recollections 110# White and SU Blueberry Bushel and Real Red CS and DP from my scrap file

Embellishments: Brads from an unknown vendor