Tuesday, June 4
Jun. 5th, 2024 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
How beautiful and green everything looks with the rain we've had recently.
Seeing goldfinches among the dandelions. I do not spray our yard, and it is a carpet of yellow. Some people would hate it, but I love it because it feeds the bees and we get tons of gold finches, who eat the seeds.
Our animals.
I had more of a phone conversation with Sister E today, more or less just chatting. She and her husband were on their way to visit with friends.
Then we had a sudden thunderstorm, so I waited that out before going outside to do regular chores.
I got some planting done in the garden. The ground is nice and moist now.
By then my Sweetie got home, and he wanted to bike out to the riding barn, so we did that.
River did well today. It was wet in the outdoor arena, so we only did walk/trot work. He did some very nicely shaped Liberty circles today, and was lighter in his responses for lateral work and such.
We felt very connected today, which is exactly what I want from all of this.
On our drive home from the riding barn, it stormed again, and there was a TON of hail on the paved road. So much that it was more like slush.
We came home, and it continued to just rain a bit.
We watched more "Boardwalk Empire". We are almost finished the show.
As the name hints, the Central African Republic is....not the middle of Africa. It is landlocked, and has about 5.5 million people.
in antiquity, the region was populated by Ubangian people (who lived along the Ubangi river) and Bantu people.
From the 16th to the 19th century, the region was heavily affected by the slave trade.
By the late 19th century, the European countries arrived, and the region was divided mostly between France and Germany. "After World War I France again annexed the territory (the part that was German). Modeled on King Leopold's Congo Free State, concessions were doled out to private companies that endeavored to strip the region's assets as quickly and cheaply as possible before depositing a percentage of their profits into the French treasury. The concessionary companies forced local people to harvest rubber, coffee, and other commodities without pay and held their families hostage until they met their quotas.[31]"
During the 1920's and 30's, France enforced the new policy of mandatory production of cotton, and forced local people to work in those fields, as well as building the railroads.
The modern borders of the Central African Republic were established by France, who colonized it, and it was once part of the huge region collectively known as "West Africa". It gained independence in 1960.
Not really peaceful after that, with lots of civil war, which they are now still engaged in (this one started in 2012). They are trying to still have elections, and they operate within the framework of a presidential republic.
They do have resources, but war is keeping them from being developed (they have diamonds). Thus the Central African Republic is overall quite poor, with very low human rights (things are BAAAD), and low human development index (as in schools, parks, health).
Though agriculture is not a huge export, the individual farmers can make some money from selling surplus, whereas the average person sees very little money from the bigger industries like cotton and coffee.
Livestock doesn't thrive here because of the Tsetse fly.
Central Africa is drier in the North (savannahs mostly) and wetter to the South (forests, and where the major rivers are). It has a tropical climate with a wet season and a dry season.
It is noted for having populations of forest elephants as well as lowland gorillas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_Republic
https://youtu.be/r4KyslvtOk4?si=V3bU_VLQhB0X6VDE
How beautiful and green everything looks with the rain we've had recently.
Seeing goldfinches among the dandelions. I do not spray our yard, and it is a carpet of yellow. Some people would hate it, but I love it because it feeds the bees and we get tons of gold finches, who eat the seeds.
Our animals.
I had more of a phone conversation with Sister E today, more or less just chatting. She and her husband were on their way to visit with friends.
Then we had a sudden thunderstorm, so I waited that out before going outside to do regular chores.
I got some planting done in the garden. The ground is nice and moist now.
By then my Sweetie got home, and he wanted to bike out to the riding barn, so we did that.
River did well today. It was wet in the outdoor arena, so we only did walk/trot work. He did some very nicely shaped Liberty circles today, and was lighter in his responses for lateral work and such.
We felt very connected today, which is exactly what I want from all of this.
On our drive home from the riding barn, it stormed again, and there was a TON of hail on the paved road. So much that it was more like slush.
We came home, and it continued to just rain a bit.
We watched more "Boardwalk Empire". We are almost finished the show.
As the name hints, the Central African Republic is....not the middle of Africa. It is landlocked, and has about 5.5 million people.
in antiquity, the region was populated by Ubangian people (who lived along the Ubangi river) and Bantu people.
From the 16th to the 19th century, the region was heavily affected by the slave trade.
By the late 19th century, the European countries arrived, and the region was divided mostly between France and Germany. "After World War I France again annexed the territory (the part that was German). Modeled on King Leopold's Congo Free State, concessions were doled out to private companies that endeavored to strip the region's assets as quickly and cheaply as possible before depositing a percentage of their profits into the French treasury. The concessionary companies forced local people to harvest rubber, coffee, and other commodities without pay and held their families hostage until they met their quotas.[31]"
During the 1920's and 30's, France enforced the new policy of mandatory production of cotton, and forced local people to work in those fields, as well as building the railroads.
The modern borders of the Central African Republic were established by France, who colonized it, and it was once part of the huge region collectively known as "West Africa". It gained independence in 1960.
Not really peaceful after that, with lots of civil war, which they are now still engaged in (this one started in 2012). They are trying to still have elections, and they operate within the framework of a presidential republic.
They do have resources, but war is keeping them from being developed (they have diamonds). Thus the Central African Republic is overall quite poor, with very low human rights (things are BAAAD), and low human development index (as in schools, parks, health).
Though agriculture is not a huge export, the individual farmers can make some money from selling surplus, whereas the average person sees very little money from the bigger industries like cotton and coffee.
Livestock doesn't thrive here because of the Tsetse fly.
Central Africa is drier in the North (savannahs mostly) and wetter to the South (forests, and where the major rivers are). It has a tropical climate with a wet season and a dry season.
It is noted for having populations of forest elephants as well as lowland gorillas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_Republic
https://youtu.be/r4KyslvtOk4?si=V3bU_VLQhB0X6VDE
