Country of the Month: Finland!

 

 When I think of Finland I think of Christmas. I guess it is mostly because it is so snowy there and they have reindeer! Here are some fun pictures of Finland.

Greeting from FINLAND!

Perhaps this is Blitzen?

I wonder what kind of fish they catch?

Can you take me to the North Pole and Santa's workshop?

I would love to meet one of these!

Beautiful!

Traditional Finnish costumes

Helinski

Ok ok I need to see more pictures of African Wildlife

I just couldn't stop saving pictures. Rather than taking up the whole webcam blog I decided to post more African animal pictures in their own blog post.

Vervet Monkey. So stinkin cute!

Dik Dik

Jackals!

Eeeeeeek baby Zebra!

Wild African Dog

Lions playing

Yellow Mongoose

Bat Eared Fox cub

Who doesn't love this! African Buffalo

Cape Fox

Gorgeous Cheetah

OMG CUTE!!!!

Gemsbok

Ok ok I am obsessed with baby animals!

Who has hippo love cause I don't so much. 

Everyone loves the meerkats!

Just plain awesome!

These are such cool animals!

Waterbuck

African Wild Cat. Can I have one?

Wildebeast and calf

Lion love

Ok I think this is the cutest thing ever!
Baby Hyena!

Penguins

Warthog.
I just can't resist a good "bird on the back of an animal" picture 

South African Wildlife

I am a huge animal lover. One of my favorite parts about writing blogs for the SP Country of the Month is looking at pictures of different animals found in that country. Some of my past favorites are the Siberian Tiger from Russia and the Arctic Fox from Canada.

The vast continent of Africa is particularly special because of the spectacular wildlife that can be found roaming the land. How cool would it be to live in South Africa and share your home with animals such as the Elephant, Giraffe, Lion, Rhinoceros,  Leopard, Zebra, Hyena, Antelope, Blue Crane, Cobra, Porcupine and so many more. This list makes me think of all the animals we go to see in a zoo, not animals that I share my home with. While pictures are fun it would be so cool to actually live with the animals. While we can't do that the internet contains the next best thing. Live webcams. A quick search brings up many cameras meant to share the wildlife and enlighten viewers from around the world. Go online and watch a herd of elephants walk by. Find a cam that supports animals on the endangered species list. Here are a few cameras I have been watching the past few days.

1. Located at Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa, this webcam keeps an eye on the Big 5; lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. http://www.zulucam.org/ 
2. This webcam shows Kruger National Park. http://www.camvista.com/watch-live-video/africa/southafrica/kruger_national_park_streaming_webcam.html
3. Cool interactive site that offers pictures and webcams http://www.africam.com/wildlife/index.php

And just because I love pictures of animals here are a few for you to enjoy!

Country of the Month: South Africa

A few years ago, after I graduated college, I took a trip to Greece with a tour group. This group consisted of mostly people from English speaking countries such as Canada, The United States, Australia and one South African. Actually, South Africa isn't necessarily an English speaking country. I didn't know this until I met this South African on my trip. I knew a little of the history of South Africa such as apartheid: a policy of political and economic discrimination to keep non-European groups separate from Europeans in South Africa (Britton; pg 38)  but I never realized how different the people of South Africa are from each other and that the majority of them are not British settlers or English speaking. Here is a brief overview of the people of South Africa.

The country of South Africa is made up of people that come from Africa, Asia and Europe. Due to Apartheid, the people of South Africa needed to be legally classified into different racial groups. Here is a list of the different groups of people in order from the most populous to the least populous.

Zulu Village

Jan van Riebeeck

1. Africans- The majority group in South Africa. The two largest African groups are the Zulu and the Xhosa. They came to South Africa starting around the year 200 and ending around the year 1000. They migrated from northern Africa. 
2. Afrikaners and Whites- Afrikaners are made up of mostly white descendants of Dutch settlers. The Dutch came to South Africa in the 1600s. Jan van Riebeeck built Cape Colony on Table Bay and the settlers started farming. They were known as Boers or farmers in Dutch. They formed a new language that combined Dutch and local African languages. This language is called Afrikaans. Also included in this group are the rest of the white settlers from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and France.
3. Coloureds- The third largest group in South Africa is made up of different races that had children together. This group of people is hard to define. Really it just means anyone who is not fully African. Today these people are often referred to as the Rainbow Generation since they are changing the face of South Africa and trying to avoid apartheid ever happening again.  
4. Asians- Most of this group is made up of people who came to South Africa from India. 

The Rainbow Generation

1. 

Britton, Tamara L.. South Africa . Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub., 2003. Print.