Around the World in the Hetzel Kitchen

Location : Central Africa (shockingly) Area : Over 620,000 sq km; 45th largest in the world          Slightly smaller than Texas Geography : Landlocked Population : Almost 5 million; 117th largest in the world Capital : Bangui Infant Mortality Rate : 99 deaths/1000 live births; 7th highest in the world Official Language : French Constitution : Ratified in 2004 Trafficking : "...source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forces labor and sexual exploitation."  (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ct.html) Poverty : Considered one of the poorest countries in the world Human Development Index : Ranked 179/182 countries with data Source: CIA Factbook And thus begins our second African country in a row.  And we are not over yet. The national dish of the Central African Republic is Cassava.  "But cassava is not a dish!" you say.  If you didn't tha...

Independence : 1966, from the UK Location : Caribbean, northeast of Venezuela            Easternmost Caribbean island Area : 430 sq km, 200th in the world           2.5 times the size of DC Elevation : Ranges from 0 m to only 336 m Population : over 280,000; 180th in the world Capital : Bridgetown Nationality : Barbadian or Baja (this is important!) Ethnic groups : 93% black Airports : 1 Language : Officially English, although a variant called Bajan is spoken colloquially.  Depending on the accent and slang, it can be unintelligible to English speakers. Famous People : Rhianna is from Barbados, and Wikipedia tells you this with a scantily clad picture of her wearing a Mickey Mouse hat... Barbados is a pretty big milestone for me.  It is the first country in this that I have actually visited!  It was one of the stops on our honeymoon cruise.  That was the ...