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[Classic Pig]

As puffin has given an account of a wonderful country I would like to write a little about mine and make an opportunity for you to write about yours.

South Africa has gone through years and years of people claiming it to be their own. We will skip the Dutch and British colonization and the arrival of the African tribes from central Africa. Interesting note - The first colony in South Africa was not Dutch or British but Portugese. There was a ship going to India which ran aground in about 1511. They got to shore and stayed for a few months. During their time here they built two small ships and sailed back to Portugal. One made it back.

Our recent history however is amazing.

From being a country with strongly divided race hatred things are slowly changing as the nation becomes one. We have a HUGE crime problem which does not seem to be getting any better (despite official stats to the different :ranting: ). We also have about the biggest AIDS infection rate in the world and the largest number of people with HIV/AIDS.
This having been said it is a country which thrives on hope that things will get better (which they will in time).

Stats - Population (official statistics 2001 census) 44.8 million people - over 50% who live in the smallest province Gauteng (my province.) Total land area
1,221,040 sq km (471,443 sq miles) (thanks to worldatlas.com)

Sports - We excell in Cricket and Rugby but soccer has the biggest following.
We have a large variety of plant kingdoms and one of them is unique to our country - the Cape Fynbos. USELESS FACTOID ALERT!! The fynbos plant kingdom is the smallest (geographically) on the planet but has such a large variety of plants that it makes up 20% of all the plant varieties on the planet.

Our weather here is great - winter is a little cold in most places but hardly really cold by international standards. We don't have earthquakes, volcanoes, tornados or many natural disasters.

The current rand dollar(US) exchange is 5.775 rand to the dollar and 11.18 to the British Pound.