We went for a hike today in the Hickory Run State Park, located in Pocono Mountains of north eastern Pennsylvania. We walked the Shades of Death trail, which meandered along the Sand Spring Run (a run is what the Pennsylvanians call a creek). The Pocono Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountain chain here in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. Early pioneers called the area Shades of Death because it was full of swamps, hills, rocks, and thick, Laurel bushes that made travel through the area difficult.
The Hickory Run park was started by the late Allentown millionaire, General Henry C. Trexler, who bought the land and wanted to see it be a park where families could come and enjoy wholesome recreation, which we certainly did today. No one knows where the term “Hickory” came from as there are no Hickory trees in the area. The kids and Nadia and I were enchanted with the dark, misty, and green forests alongside the creek. It was prime time for the Mountain Laurel flower, the state flower of West Virginia and an icon of the Appalachians. The run had a couple of damns on it and in hotter weather, would make for a perfect swimming hole. I did go swimming at Hawk Falls, in another part of the park later on in the day. We had a nice picnic lunch and walked back to the park headquarters, which was a Manor House in the old town of Hickory Run.
The kids loved running along up and down the rocky trails. Ocean was thinking that a gnome or fairy would be seen in the misty, dark woods. Later on we drove to another part of the park to see Hawk Falls. It was pouring rain by the time we got there but that did not stop us. We ran back after swimming in the ice cold water. It brought back memories of the Bolivian jungle for Nadia and I! We hope to explore another park tomorrow in the Poconos.
For the second consecutive summer I am studying here at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. It is better this year to have my family with me! I love seeing Nadia and the kids when I get back from my classes. The class I am taking has been very stimulating and it is nice to spend time with family. I really love the atmosphere of a university town and the Lehigh Valley in particular.
We were here for the 4th of July celebrations although we kept it low key. We did watch the fireworks display in Bethlehem and say Happy 238 Years to the USA. We also went to the Kutztown Folk Festival in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. This is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch (German settlers to the USA) and Mennonite/Amish country in eastern Pennsylvania. The festival celebrates farm life (agriculture/livestock) and the “olden” days of America settlement. The kids watched a sheep shearing demonstration, saw many old engines for pumping water, sawing wood, husking corn, etc. I read to them a couple of books in Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and we particularly liked Little House in the Big Woods which is set in 1870s Wisconsin. I highly recommend the series for children and to see the stories come alive for them at the festival was really interesting. We also had some old fashioned kettle corn and sasparilla root beer.
One impression of the USA is the amount of space here for everyone compared to Europe. There is a lot of land for not that many people! As you can see below, the sports facilities of Lehigh University, which can be used by the public, are immense. I can just see the sports fanatical Serbs going crazy here with all this room to move. Nadia runs the cross country loop on the grounds while the kids play soccer.
I write this in the Panama City “Tocumen” Airport as we are in transit on our way back to the USA. It was another great visit to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We were very lucky with the weather, with only 2 days of surazo, the rainy, cold fronts, coming into Santa Cruz from the south. They are common in the southern hemisphere winter, but we had mostly sunny skies and warm weather.
It was great to spend time with family and friends and their warm hospitality was well received by the Kralovec family. Special thanks goes to Nadia’s cousins, Christian, Sabine, Claudia, Patricia, and Gabriela for hosting us. Tia Ge Ge always has great food, and it was nice to see Tia Babi and Tio Mincho. I would also like to thank friends Gabriela and Pablo, Ximena and the “campeon” Leo, Roxana and my sister-in-law Marita, for spending time with us.
The city of Santa Cruz continues its rapid growth. In 1970, the year Nadia’s father, Hermes left for Germany, it had a population of around 100,000. When I lived there from 1997-99, the population was around 1 million. Today, in 2014, it is over 2 million. Most of the growth is coming from migration from the Andean cities of La Paz, Cochabomba and other places in Bolivia to Santa Cruz. It has the strongest economy in the country. Every year we come, there seems to be new buildings, roads, and businesses. This time we had a nice time at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is part of the new Ventura Mall (see photos). There were also new tall apartment and office buildings going up all over the city. This is good for my father-in-law’s scaffolding renting business. While we were there, his entire stock of scaffolds (andamios in Spanish) was rented. Rumor has it that some of this growth is coming from drug production and trafficking, but I don’t see the violence one sees in Colombia and Mexico. I doubt that significant sums are coming in, but I do see more Porsche and Hummers than I did before.
The View from the Ventura Mall (This is Santa Cruz???)
Much of Santa Cruz’s growth is across the River Pirai, the river that runs by the city. A bridge was put in several years ago and the area on the other side of the river, Urubo, has hundreds of new land developments, both big and small. Several of our friends have homes in the area and they are so much nicer than the other side of city. There is much more green space. Sadly, I see this side of river turning into the same, busy, scene as the old Santa Cruz. We spent a nice afternoon (see lead photo) in Urubo, at the Casa Del Camba Restaurant. “Camba” refers to the people of Santa Cruz and the eastern lowland region of Bolivia. As you can see from the photos, it is a beautiful, tropical garden setting and delicious food.
View from Casa del Camba restaurant
I really want to buy some land over there. I would prefer closer to the Amboro National Park as I have always wanted to own an “eco-hotel” bed and breakfast there. Nadia and I would like to have a nice retirement income like my father-in-law Hermes, some small business that brings in living allowance, but does not require a lot of work. The whole of Bolivian lowlands is really off the tourist track and is spectacularly beautiful. We are planning a trip next summer to head east out of Santa Cruz towards the Paraguay and Brazilian borders to visit the forests, savannas, and Christian missionary churches in the land of the Chiquitano Indians. Nadia’s family owns a big ranch outside of San Javier, which we visited when I lived there in 1998. The weather is great, although it is too hot and humid for some people, and easy living with affordable domestic help available. It is also good to be fluent in Spanish. I totally understand Latin American culture and can communicate freely. I forgot how nice it is to greet and say goodbye to friends with a kiss (females), and the Camba shake-bro hug – shake with men.
Cathedral at 24 de Septiembre Plaza
The negative points about Santa Cruz are the poverty, lack of education, and crime. Everyone lives behind large walls and security. Many of our friends have been victims of mugging or theft. It is not as bad as other Latin American countries, but it is a concern. There is a lot of corruption and incompetence in government. Evo Morales, the first indigenous leader of Bolivia, is doing a pretty good job, compared to past Bolivian presidents, but there is still a long way to go. One acquaintance of mine, a building contractor, was telling me of his work constructing government schools and other buildings for the government. He sees a lot of money wasted in corruptive practices. Articles in El Deber, the largest daily newspaper of Santa Cruz this week, had articles about the horrible water quality of Samaipata, a town near Amboro, the wasteful spending of natural gas revenues of the mayor of Villa Montes, the large number of children needing medical attention from attacks from stray dogs, and the sad plight of street children in the city. One evening we were playing soccer in the park in front of my father-in-law’s house, and the children from the local orphanage (hogar) came to play. It broke my heart to see the over 30 children, without sufficient parental care.
I have so much nostalgia for the city as it is where Nadia and I fell in love. Many streets and places bring back so many fond memories, that it will always have a special place in my heart. I hope to spend some more time there next summer. Viva Santa Cruz!
We can’t get enough of World Cup! It has really reignited my love of soccer. I always was attracted to the passion and pageantry surrounding the sport. This started back when I was in high school and longing to see the wider world. I remember watching the 1982 World Cup on tape delay on PBS, the only US network covering the cup. How things have changed 32 years later! In recent years I have been a bit down on soccer because of the lack of scoring, the dull passes back and forth, and most especially, the flopping or falling of the players attempting to get penalties.
But this World Cup has had goals galore and aggressive, attack-minded style of play. There still has been some of the usual suspects (Uruguay/Italia/Spain) of “weasel flopping” which is defined as a player falling purposely to deceive the referee in order to get a either a penalty kick or free kick. I regard this as worse than biting, and I don’t understand why FIFA doesn’t come down harder on floppers. I also think fans should voice their displeasure more on players that practice this. The games and characters have been so exciting, from the Netherlands destroying Spain, to Luiz Suarez’s biting attack, to the Team USA win against Ghana and near win against Portugal. I hope the knockout rounds are as entertaining as the group stage has been.
Soccer is king in Bolivia as it is in much of Latin America. They do not much have much success however in World Cups. I am not sure why because they have a population of 10.5 million which is decent size, but they just can’t seem to produce great players or teams. Neighboring Chile, 17.5 million, does much better on the world stage. In the photo above, Luiz, one of the neighbor kids joined us for a game.
It is nice to be back in the tropics (18 degrees south latitude) of Santa Cruz, Bolivia and seeing the lush vegetation, especially palm trees again! I have much nostalgia for this place because this is where Nadia and I fell in love! Seeing all of the places brings back specific memories of our courtship. The fall of 1997 until the spring of 1999 will always hold a special place in my heart. I spent a good portion of my life in Latin America (13 years in Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela) and as I get older, I like Latin America in only small doses. We come here to be with Nadia’s father, Hermes, who is a wonderful host and the best father-in-law one could ask for, so it always makes our trip enjoyable, not only for me and Nadia, but for our children to spend time with their beloved grandfather, as they affectionately call, Popa. I don’t think we would come here if it was not for him.
Santa Cruz is the richest city in Bolivia and the capital of the eastern lowlands section of the country. The people in this, and neighboring departments, are known as Cambas and it has a distinct culture and feel. It is more similar to the culture of Paraguay than the altiplano Bolivia, but slowly, the city is being taken over by Andino immigrants. I am always impressed with the rapid progress commercially and economically Santa Cruz is making. Every time we visit there are more businesses, highways, housing estates, especially on the other side of the River Pirai. The city has changed much since we last lived here 15 years ago.
Santa Cruz has a unique cuisine with its Amazonian/Chaco fruits and native dishes. I will be blogging on life here for the next week and a half and will be featuring several of these foods. The first is the most refreshing fruit juice I have tasted, Lima. The lima is a member of the citrus family but I am not sure what is the species or variety. As you can see in the photo below, it is yellow in color but looks and feels more like an orange than a lemon. It tastes like a moderately sweet laundry detergent. I know that sounds unpalatable, but it is truly refreshing and different. I would expect the acidic bite of a lemon or orange, but it is really smooth. On a hot day, there is not a better drink than an ice cold lima juice. The fruit juice is made from the peels in a blender. I am posting a video on Youtube. You can also eat the fruit itself and it has a more bland sweetness than detergent taste.
In trying to figure out the species, I did a quick search on the internet and my research is inconclusive. In the supermarket, there are several kinds of lemons/limes. That is another issue is the Spanish translation for both lemon and lime is limón. Some think that it is the Palestine Sweet Lime, but I would like for an expert to tell me.
Latin America has not changed with its sexist advertising, as you can see below in this advertisement at the local supermarket. Tomorrow is the Feast of San Juan, traditionally known as the coldest night of the year. San Juan is the patron saint of the nearby village of Porongo, and people in Santa Cruz celebrate the event with roasting hot dogs (salchicha). I will make a BBQ tomorrow night for the kids and we might even shoot off some fireworks. The sexually suggestive advertising does not offend me, but I would like to see a bit more intelligent and creative advertising than the same old woman ready to swallow a hot dog.
Finally, I went for a run this morning with Hermes’s dog, Lulu, We enjoyed the run, but I am disappointed in the design of cities here in Bolivia and throughout Latin America. They are not made for runners or bikers. The sidewalks in Santa Cruz are the responsibility of the individual land owners, not the city, so they are not uniform and have many elevations, making it impossible to ride a bike. It would also be dangerous to ride a bike with the amount of traffic and the disregard for traffic laws in many of the drivers here. There are no designated bike lanes or paths. There are many parks, however, they are self contained and more in the Spanish design of sitting on benches with semi-manicured gardens and very small walking loops around the park. There are many gorgeous mango trees that provide shade. As regular readers of my blog know, a big criteria I judge cities is in the quantity and quality of bike/running areas. Santa Cruz would be very low on that account.
It is really nice to be on holiday with the kids. We are totally into the World Cup, watching the games and then playing in the cancha in front of Popa’s house.
I am preparing for our move to Japan by reading as much as I can about the country. During the flights to South America, I read, “How to Japan: A Tokyo Correspondent’s Take” by Colin Joyce (2009 NHK Publishing) He is an English journalist and worked for the Daily Telegraph and Newsweek Japan Magazine and lived in Tokyo for over 15 years. The book is explaining Japan for Westerners, but was first published in Japanese for the local market in 2006. This is the English translation of the book.
The author’s love for Japan shines through and it gives insights into the culture from someone who has lived there for a long time. As with all foreign correspondents, his personality and personal tastes color the topics and views expressed. I liked him being touched by the politeness, empathy, pride, and sense of community most Japanese express in their daily lives. He was truly changed by his experience and I hope to be influenced as well.
There are some things I learned from his observations that I will definitely be thinking about when I live there. He loved going to the public baths (sento) and I recall the spas of the Baltics that I enjoyed, so I will be checking these out. Joyce also pointed out the well-thought out design of things, ranging from way people read a newspaper to the actual book, which is small to be portable and cheaply made, which is savings for the consumer, and not to have Western publishers “adding value” (greed) to books with fancy covers and hard covers that add to the price of books. I also learned that Japanese are “foodies” and appreciate and discuss food in detail and seriousness.
The two best chapters in the book are “Gaijin Dilemmas” and “Letter to an Incoming Correspondent”. The first applies to all expats, and the eternal question of how much of the new culture does one adapt to their own life. He suggests moderation and not to “go native” or to culturally isolate oneself, but to adapt some things and question others. He gives several examples of choices one has to make when put in a situation that the culture dictates one acts contrary to the home culture. In the last chapter, he gives some great advice to his replacement. These are as follows:
• buy slip-on shoes, which will save loads of time when entering/leaving Japanese homes.
• learn 20 words before you come, he suggests adjectives like oishii, atsui, natsukachii, sugoi, kirei, omoshiroi, – the people will appreciate it.
• honne and tatemae – the gap between what people actually think and what people actually tell you
• In England, you probably try to own as much stuff as possible, in Japan, this urge must be tempered by rigorous reference to how much space you have in your apartment.
• Japanese people in a Japanese company can’t leave without doing hours of overtime, you can.
• Don’t swim after mid-August, because the jellyfish stings last for months; walking and eating is considered rude
Basil Hall Chamberlain (19th century British Japanologist) “Do not fail to write down your first impressions as soon as possible. They are evanescent, you know; they will never come to you again, once they have faded out; and yet of all the strange sensations you may receive in this country you will feel none so charming as these”
Jared and I celebrate our 7-0 victory at the 2014 Diplomatic Community Tennis Tourney
This morning I played in the US Embassy’s Tennis Championship at the Novak Tennis Center on the banks of the Danube River. The US Ambassador to Serbia, Michael Kirby, is a keen tennis player and he organizes a social tennis outing a couple of times a year. I was invited to play this year as a substitute for a player that backed out. I am not a diplomat, so was grateful for the opportunity to play. The Novak Tennis Center is located underneath the fortress of Kalemegdan in the downtown Belgrade suburb of Dorcol. Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic has a gift shop, a trophy room, and a nice cafe. There are 14 clay courts, and with him playing in the finals of the French Open today, I was pumped up to play. It was a 25-minute round-robin, “speed-dating” doubles tennis format, which was fun, because you got to meet a lot of people and play against and with many different styles and levels. I really enjoyed the rounds with four strong players. I ended the day with a 22 wins – 20 losses record. There was bright sun and temperatures in the 90s (32+ C) so was glad when my final round ended around 1:30 PM.
Ambassador Kirby Addresses the Players at the Awards Ceremony
I really love playing tennis and would like to play more often. It is stress relieving, challenging, active, and a great way to interact with people. I would like to work on my game this summer a bit, I need a better second serve, better fundamentals at the net and just overall, work on all my strokes. I didn’t grow up playing the game, and only picked it up in my 30s. I would like to thank Ryan from the US Embassy for asking me to play this year. Hajde Nole!!!!!!
Last night I took some time out from my hectic school schedule and packing, to go for a bike ride with my son Owen. We did a big loop through Topčider Park, to Rakovica, and up Dedinje Hill behind the Royal Palace. It was such a refreshing break and a good bonding experience with him. As I get older, I appreciate the simple things in life and a bike ride through the countryside with my son on a beautiful late spring evening, nothing better! We are in the process of closing our family’s time in Belgrade and these kinds of activities help this sense of saying goodbye. I will certainly miss the parklands of Topčider, Košutnjak, and Haid, all near our home in Senjak.
This is a special day for the ex-Yugoslavia because it was the Day of Youth and the celebration of former dictator, Tito’s birthday. It is also my birthday so I always try to do something with the family with a Yugoslavian theme. This year since we are leaving Serbia, I wanted to get a family photo with the traditional national costumes of Serbia.
Rural people actually wore these clothes into the 20th century, but like all traditional, locally made clothes, modernization has homogenized clothing for much of the western world. In some ways I see why people don’t wear these. The course woolen fabric of the pants is a bit uncomfortable and on this humid, early summer, day, it was difficult to get the kids to cooperate. The shirts had intricate embroidery, the red stitching symbolizing the blood lost in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. A distinctive feature for both men and women is the jelek or waist coat, which looks good, even today. You can’t see in the photo above, but I am wearing opanci, which are leather sandals with hooked toes that the peasants wore for climbing. They are similar to North American Indian moccasins.
My favorite part of the costume is of course, the national hat of Serbia, the Šajkača. The hats originated with Serbian soldiers, stationed on the Danube and Sava Rivers by the Austro-Hungarians to protect the empire against the Ottoman Turks. The hats are in the shape of an overturned Serbian boat, a šajka. The hat eventually became popular with the rest of the Serbian army and also with non-military farmers. The Bosnian Serb army during the wars of the breakup of Yugoslavia brought it back into popularity. Today it is only worn for special occasions, like Serbian national soccer matches or by folkloric dance troupes. I think they are very hip and would like to see them made popular again. They are very distinctive and instantly recognizable as Serbian.
This morning Owen, Oliver and I completed a 5 kilometer run with the school’s Boys On The Move program. My wife Nadia for years has done the Girls on the Move, which is similar to Girls on the Run, with her elementary girls. One of the elementary male teachers did Boys on the Move this year so Owen was able to participate. We ran the approximately 5 kilometer course in 25:00 minutes, which was the second fastest of the group. Oliver also got in the action and ran was well, finishing the course with our school’s Athletic Director, Damian Hart and his daughter Abigail. Nadia was busy with her running buddy and organizing the whole event so I didn’t get a picture with her.
I didn’t want to have Ocean miss out on this blog post, so she is shown below riding a horse at the Belgrade Hipodrom. She has expressed an interest to ride horses to I took her down to the race track. It is a really nice setting near our house and is the oldest sports venue in the city. They hold harness racing, or the trots as they say in Australia, on summer Sunday afternoons.
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