2021 Travel the World - Week 23

I started a 50-week series in 2019 that I called Travel the World. Each week of the series I visited a randomly-selected country, sharing bits of information about that country. I then chose one tidbit of information about that week's country as inspiration for a card. As I explored those 50 countries in 2019, I knew I would continue on until I've visited every one of the 195 countries in the world, so I continued the series in 2020 and here I am in 2021, the third year of traveling the world. 

This week's country is...

Nauru

Nauru is the smallest island country in the world. It is the third smallest country in the world, right behind Monaco and Vatican City.

The official name of the country is the Republic of Nauru.

Nauru has two official languages: Nauruan and English.

It is a tiny oval-shaped island in Micronesia, northeast of Australia.

Previously known as Pleasant Island, the country occupies an area of about 8.1 square miles and has a population of 11,347 people. Its closest neighbors include the island of Banaba, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. 

Nauru does not have an official capital, but Yaren is the largest settlement and the seat of parliament.

Nauruans enjoy a tropical climate, with a monsoon season from November to February.

The terrain here comprises a single sandy beach, rising to a fertile ring around raised coral reefs and a phosphate plateau in the centre of the island.

The island is surrounded by a coral reef, which is exposed at low tide and dotted with pinnacles.

Command Ridge is the highest point of Nauru, with an elevation of 213 feet.

Almost everything in the country is imported.

There is only 1 major fresh water lake on the island, Buada Lagoon, so residents rely partly on rainfall and desalination of seawater to survive.

The country has no rivers, no world heritage sites, and no protected regions. 

Nauru has a road that is about 18.6 miles long and an old 2.4 mile-long railway which the government built for phosphate mining purposes in 1907.

There is only one airport in the country. It also has its own airline, with a fleet of only two Boeing aircraft.

There are only two hotels in Nauru.

Nauru is the least-visited country in the world, with only 200 tourists visiting the country in 2011.

Nauru is listed among the sixteen states with no armed forces. The Australia military is responsible for the defense of the country under the informal agreement between the two states. However, the country does has a large police force which is responsible for security within the state.

Due to its small size, the only commercial crop on Nauru is coconuts!

The most important animal found in Nauru is the "Fregata Minor," commonly known as the great frigate bird. 

The whale shark, which is one of the most huge creatures in the sea, can be found in Nauru. Other huge fish that can possibly be found in Nauru's surrounding seas are the long-finned and short-finned mako shark. Aside from the various kinds of sharks, marlins such as the black marlin and the indo-pacific sailfish have an abundant population in Nauru.

In the 1960s, Nauru was one of the wealthiest countries in the world, thanks to its bountiful phosphate reserves.

The phosphate deposits originated from the droppings of sea birds.

A majority of Nauru's population relied on the phosphate mines for employment, and therefore many were left jobless after most of the mines closed. The unemployment rate in Nauru is over 90%, and therefore the government does not collect taxes. 

The leading employer in the island is the government, and with no other source of income, Nauru depends heavily on external assistance.

Nauru depends on financial aid – the majority of which comes from Australia. This is said to be in exchange for housing Australia’s asylum seekers.

Phosphate mining has destroyed over 90% of the island and a large percentage of the island no longer has topsoil. The only fertile place in Nauru is a coastal strip where coconuts flourished. The government announced in 2000 that they planned to rehabilitate the entire island, although the project will take more than twenty years and cost over three hundred million dollars.

My inspiration for this week's card is based on this fact about Nauru... It is commonly believed that the name “Nauru” comes from the Nauruan word Anáoero, which means “I go to the beach”.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp Set: CC Designs Bikini stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Paper: Cougar 110# White and SU So Saffron and Taken with Teal CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies: Gina Marie Stitched Sky and MFT Stitched Rectangle

Embellishments: Flip Flop Brads from an unknown vendor