First Day in Zimbabwe

It is considerably hotter in Zimbabwe then it was in Chile like ten degrees hotter. Zimbabwe is quite a politically problematic country. They have a population of about 12.3 million. Of these people about 72% live below the poverty line. In Zimbabwe the average life expectancy if you pass 5 years old is 51.4 years. They have an unemployment rate of 80%.



 These are the main religions. Syncretic is a mix between Christian and Indigenous beliefs. They had a population growth of 0.62%. In Zimbabwe they have a lot of natural hazards, these include recurring droughts, floods and severe  storms. The land use in Zimbabwe is: 8.24% arable, 0.33% permanent and 91.43% other. A great amount of the other 91.43% is quarries as Zimbabwe is a gold mine for a lot of metals including gold. The industries in Zimbabwe are: coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, metallic and non metallic ores, steel, wood, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing, footwear, food stuffs and beverages. They make and grow: corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts, sheep, goats and pigs. The country has only 317,00 telephones, 423,600 mobiles, 1.14 million radios, 370,00 televisions, 820,000 internet lines and 404 airports.
I am looking forward to venture further into this beautiful countries landscape and wilderness to meet another tribe and try to find another endangered animal.

Leaving Chile

This is my last day in Chile I am catching a plane later to Zimbabwe where I am going to find another tribe and animal. I am really enjoying this adventure and am enjoying meeting the new people and seeing how their cultures are different from the one I am used to at home in the Scottish Borders. Chile is a very diverse country with some problems but the good I saw always outweighed the bad. I got to try tribal life and discover some of their beliefs. The bar is very high and I don't envy Zimbabwe as they, unknown to them, try to better the experience. Now I say my goodbyes to Chile and move on to my next challenge in Africa the second of the continents on the Tropic of Capricorn. I will reflect more deeply on the subjects at the end where I compare the countries, their people and their animals.

Animals in Chile

While I am in Chile I am hoping to encounter some endangered animals. I had my first one of these encounters today. It was a white chinned Petrel. 
 
Today I met some conservationists who were out in a search for this bird to do a 'head count' of how many they still had in their area. I only spent some of the day with them so I don't know the total they counted, but they were telling me that overall in the world there are only about 3 million of these birds left. They told me about what the main problems and reasons as to the birds falling numbers. The biggest problem is that the white chinned petrel has some characteristics that mean that they end up in prime fishing spots at the wrong times, so they end up being by-catch. They have no real safe place or time as they have been reported all year round as being by-catch somewhere. They have started cutting this down by creating bird-scaring lines, streamer lines and night-set lines and these have all been having a good outcome. They have cut down the number of the birds become by-catch by 14,700 from 2003 to 2009. What the conservationists were saying was that the birds have a very diverse living area. This makes it hard to prevent by-catching of the white chinned petrel. So at the moment we are going to have to deal with cutting down the numbers in important places such as breeding habitats and so on. 
I was very privileged to have met those conservationists today as they have told me great problems that many endangered species are having in Chile. This really opened my eyes to greater problems. In my other countries I am also going to look at different endangered species and compare but mainly contrast the problems different climates and places can create in animals lives. 

Tribal people in Chile: The Mapuche People

In my journey around the country of Chile, I wanted to meet a tribe who have their own style of life. Before I left I did some background information checks and discovered a tribe called the Mapuche people. They are spread right across the middle of the country of Chile and are broken down into little groups with their own names.

But I decided to look at them as a whole. The Mapuche people all have the same beliefs even if they are rather spread out.

They have Machi ceremonies for warding of evil, for rain and for cure of diseases. The Mapuche people have an extensive knowledge of Chilean medicinal herbs, certain people who have this knowledge are called Machitan.

Most Mapuche people are being forced into labour so they can get food and less than 3% of them have a higher than primary school education. They struggle form problems such as poor housing, malnutrition, illiteracy, alcoholism, tuberculosis and a high rate of infant deaths.

They speak Spanish as well as their own language called Mapudungun. This language is become more of ancient history as the tribal people have to start trading more with the rest of the country. Very few children growing up will be taught Mapudungun now as they mainly comunicate by Spanish.
I know this because today I met my first tribe of this journey. They are a rather welcoming tribe and invited me into the tribal village. This consisted of mud huts and great, big spaces for tribe meetings and such like. When I had gained there trust they told me about one of theri many beliefs, a story which I am now going to tell to you.
The Mapuche people believe in things called the Ngen spirits. These are the spirits of nature. The word ngen translates to mean owner. They believe the Ngen spirits mange, govern and arrange the different features of nature. Nature, because they do this, takes care and protects the spirits. They are very important as they keep order and make sure The Mapuche don't break the laws of admapu. Admapu are the rules of the mapuche traditions. THere are different Ngen spirits such as for rain and trees. So when the tribe want something, such as an end to the drought, they must respect it and give an offering to the particular Ngen spirit.
This is a very interesting belief and I will look at other creation/nature belies in the other two countries on the Tropic of Capricorn, and will compare them at the end in another post.  

First day in Chile!!!

The first impressions of Chile are amazing the heat maybe a bit to hot but the rest is lovely. Now background information on Chile. It's climate is desert/Mediterranean. The population is 17,269,525.It's main land use is 2.62% arable, 0.43% permanent crops, and other takes the rest with 96.95%.

The population growth is 0.94%. The amount of the population below the poverty line is 18.2%. The unemployment rate was 8% in 2005. The main religions are Roman Catholic and Protestant.

The main industries in Chile are copper, other minerals, food stuffs, fish, iron and steel, wood, transportr equipment, cement and textiles. They grow and make the following resources: grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans, beef, poultry, wool, fish and timber. The country has 5.6 million internet connections, 3.15 million televisions, 5.18 million radios, 3,318,300 phone lines, 9,566,600 mobile phones and 363 airports.  

The Journey Begins

I am about embark on a journey around the Tropic of Capricorn. I'm going to be focusing mainly on lifestyle changes around the Tropic of Capricorn, in the countries of Chile, Zimbabwe and Australia. As well as touching on the subjects of animals and tribal people.The journey will take me traveling around the world and will give me new experiences exciting and scary. Over all I'm very excited and am looking forward to the new experiences and the differences I will find. There are some bits, such as meeting the new tribes, that worry me but I will overcome those when I get there. My first country is going to be Chile. When I am there I am hoping to focus on the Mapuche people and some of their beliefs. As well as the endangered species of the White Chinned Petrel. After that I'm hoping to head to Zimbabwe where my focus will be on the Chewa people and their beliefs on spirits. Then moving on to the animal called the Eurasian Curlew. Finally heading over to Australia where I'm hoping to find and look at the Gumbaynggirr people and their beliefs on the 'Rainbow Serpent'. Then moving on to look at and try and find the endangered animal called the Katydids.I have done some background research such as facts and am hoping to do a conclusion round up post at the end. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to meet loads of different people will try and post again soon.