Bill’s Copa America Preview

billkralovec

As my readers may know, I love sports and always wanted to be a sportscaster and journalist. This post is my thoughts on the Copa America with a Bolivian perspective. A great new sports website, Grantland, also did a preview on the Copa America.

This weekend was the start of the Copa America, which is the South American soccer championship which takes place between World Cups. The host this year is neighbor Argentina and Bolivia had the honor of playing the hosts in the opening game Friday night. They earned a surprising 1-1 tie, and were leading 1-0 in the middle of the second half. I say surprising because Bolivia has not won a game in the cup since they hosted it in 1997. That year they lost in the finals to Brazil, aided by the extreme altitude of La Paz. Argentina has won the cup 14 times, and this year features the best player in the world the past two years, Lionel Messi and a host of European-based superstars.

The Bolivians, whose only cup championship was 48 years ago, feature Marcelo Martins, “El Matador.” He is an aggressive, exciting striker from Santa Cruz, currently playing for Shakhtar in the Ukraine. They played a solid game last night, although Argentina controlled play and had many more chances at goal. Carlos Arias in goal for Bolivia, had an outstanding game. They play next Thursday against Costa Rica (with only 10 clubs in South America, the association invites other Latin American teams to play, this year Costa Rica and Mexico are participating) and they finish up the group stage against Colombia. Hopefully they can take the momentum from last night’s draw to advance out of the group stage, although judging by their history, chances are slim.

It is not really fair for Bolivia to compete in the cup. They are a small nation and the cup is dominated by the two soccer giants, Argentina (with little brother nation Uruguay) and Brazil. They have won 36 of the 42 cups. Brazil won the last two  Copa America editions, and outside of hosts Colombia and Uruguay winning recent cups, the two have won the past 7 Copa America tourneys. They should make Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay play in the European Cup and the other nations compete the Andes Cup. It would be much more competitive. I am surprised that Bolivians still follow the games with such low chances of victory. There was a festive atmosphere in the city last night, including our neighbors that were holding a big party to watch the game.

We’ll be following the games and I am looking forward to seeing the new Brazilian star, Neymar, who last week won the Copa de Libertadores, which is the Champions League of South America, with Pele’s former team of Santos. I also enjoy watching World Cup star Diego Forlon for Uruguay. My prediction is an Argentina – Brazil final with Argentina winning in extra time.

The Pleasure of Chewing Coca

billkralovec

Coca is a plant that is native to the Andes Mountains in South America. It is a small bush and the leaves contain alkaloids (chemicals) that protect the plant from being eaten by insects. The indigenous populations discovered this early and for generations, the leaves were chewed because the alkaloids have an effect similar to caffeine in that they energize the body and suppress appetite. Unfortunately after the Spanish arrived, modern people discovered how to concentrate the alkaloids through chemical processing to produce cocaine.
The chewing of the leaves in the traditional manner is legal in Bolivia. My father-in-law and I enjoy a bolo of coca leaves daily. Yesterday we went to a nearby market to purchase a fresh supply. The coca leaf industry is regulated by the government and there are officially licensed coca leaf venders in all the markets in Bolivia. According to my father-in-law, a license to sell coca leaves cost about $2,000.
In the Los Pozos market near the house, the 12 de Octobre Cooperative operates the market. Juana, a woman originally from La Paz was selling coca leaves in a small stall in front. She had two types of leaves, and we chose the higher-priced larger leaf variety. She said they were from Las Yungas, a region of lower elevation just east of the capital. We also purchased some packets of baking soda to go along with leaves. A kilo of leaves and soda cost around $4.

I pose with Juana at Los Pozos Market

Coca is a controversial issue here in Bolivia. The President, Evo Morales, besides being the first indigenous president, is a former coca grower. The US government’s war on drugs a few years ago, consisted in part of eradicating the coca fields in the Chapare region of Bolivia. When Morales took over as President, he immediately expelled the US government’s Drug Enforcement Agency out of the country. The growing of coca increased dramatically to the point that today, there are more than enough leaf production to supply the legal market of the country. The excess leaf production obviously is going towards cocaine production.
I am glad that Morales kicked out the US government. I didn’t agree with the US policy of focusing on battling against drugs and “democracy promotion” which basically meant supporting the status quo of a white/mestizo (mestizo means mixed European and Native American heritage) dominated government. They should have been focusing on poverty eradication through improvement of health, education, and infrastructure. This is one of the major reasons why US influence in Latin America is at an all-time low. I was hoping with Barak Obama as president, there would be a change in policy, but I guess his attention is focused on the Middle East and Latin America has been largely ignored except for free trade agreements.
Coca chewing has its upsides and downsides. It is pleasurable and like a good strong cup of coffee, it perks me up, especially in the late afternoon. The bad thing is coca leaves have an odor slightly reminiscent of foot odor, which is disagreeable to some people, especially my wife. I made an instructional video on how to prepare and chew coca which I’ll post as soon as I can.

Miss Bolivia 2011

billkralovec
Miss Bolivia 2011 - Yessica Mouton Giarella

Beauty pageants are huge in Latin America and Bolivia is no exception. Last night here in Santa Cruz, they held the 2011 version of the Miss Bolivia competition. I’ve been seeing the 20 some “misses” being driven around the city on my runs. A Hummer limousine that is promoting the contest has been transporting them to the various photo opportunities and  promotional events. The local newspaper, El Deber, has a full rundown of the event here, although it is Spanish.

The event is absolutely hilarious and Nadia and I had a good laugh watching it on television. I can’t believe these girls take the event so seriously and put themselves through the ordeal. In the paper yesterday, they had the “lo bueno” and “lo malo” of each candidate like they were a soccer team. The writer or writers were quite blunt with the pros and cons of each candidate. For example, some of the comments were as follows:

For the winner, Ms.Mouton:

Lo Bueno – Beautiful. Without a doubt the best face in the competition. Her figure is in harmony (well-proportioned) and her hair is perfect. She is nice and active.

Lo Malo – She is about 4 centimeters too short.

Ms. La Paz:  Lo Malo – “She is missing fitness and has a few too many kilogramcitos”

Ms. Eastern Plains: Lo Bueno – “She displays a beautiful face, bust, and “behind”…everything in its place.”

Ms. Littoral: Lo Malo – “a forced smile.”

The winner was one of the favorites and all of the girls were quite attractive. If those things were written about my daughter, I would have a problem with it. I didn’t like the amount of make up the girls wore or the evening gowns and continuous smiles during the 2 hour+ competition. I also felt bad for them with the amount of steps they had to negotiate on the stage on high heels. The organizers should have taken this into account and done a better job with stage design. The format of the show was also very unimaginative and I would definitely improve entertainment value of the show by adding some different activities and adding some more video clips to the evening program.

It was an exceptional night of television viewing with not only the contest, but CNN in Espanol carried Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s announcement of his cancer treatment from Havana. Having lived in Venezuela for five years, I have some opinions on this topic but will save this for another post. It is so nice to be able to understand the language. I wish my Serbian was better so I could follow events in the country closer.

LIfe in Santa Cruz: Roving Fruit Salesmen

billkralovec

 

.

My father-in-law lives in a neighborhood in the north part of the city called “Las Hamacas,” which I don’t think needs a translation. We spend a lot of time in the park in front of his home and it has been very interesting for my children. One of the morning rituals is to wait for the call of the fruit salesman. This is a guy who sells fruit out of his taxi and drives up and down the side streets of the city, announcing his presence with a little song. You can here him at the start of the video as he is approaching me. He had a station wagon full of bananas, apples, papaya, among others. He prolongs the ending of the fruit which is hilarious. I didn’t stop him to ask how much fruit he sells in a day.

We also look forward to hearing the whistle of the neighborhood security guy. Everyone chips in to pay a private security guard to ride around on his bike and he occasionally blows his whistle to announce his presence to the neighbors and I guess the thieves that he is on duty and vigilant. A guard is doing this 24/7 and appropriately, he is known in Spanish as a “sireno.” Also yesterday, the kids pointed out a horse-drawn buggy.

Silvia Chavez Fashion

billkralovec
Yesterday we went to the headquarters of Nadia’s aunt, Silvia Chavez. She is a fashion designer here in Santa Cruz. Aunt Silvia is one of the big designers in Bolivia, and is still going strong at 75 years old. She grew up on a sugar cane plantation and ranch north of the city and was inspired at an early age with nature. She lived in the capital La Paz for 8 years where she was head designer for the diplomatic community, including a couple of presidents. She also worked in the USA for 25 years before recently coming back to Bolivia. She had a show “Volver” of her latest collection last spring at the Country Club. Silvia is known for her classic, feminine designs.

We stopped by the office to see her and her employees were quite busy. She took time out to show Nadia how to make a “rosca” her favorite Bolivian pastry. She always has time for us and adores the kids, especially Ocean.

Silvia Chavez talks with Nadia

Latest Reading: “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson

billkralovec

With the long flights I was able to finish my latest book. It is a historical fiction that focuses on the US Ambassador in Germany during the first several years of Hitler’s term as Chancellor in the early 1930’s. Larson is so good at making history come alive and I couldn’t put the book down. He did so much research and weaved so many facts and actual diary/memoir entries into the narrative that makes it almost read as a non-fiction.

It made me re-think the rise of Hitler and the ordinary German citizen’s role in the rise of the Nazi party and the eventual start of WW II. In hindsight it is easy to criticize how American officials acted, knowing that Hitler eventually would want to wipe out all Jews and take over the world. There were many people that realized this, especially those living in Germany at the time. I loved the book also because it is a book about expat life, and I could easily empathize with Ambassador Dodd having his family overseas. His daughter was quite an item back then, and she dated many of the Nazi officials and even a Soviet spy (all true).

I didn’t realize how much fighting there was within the Nazi party. This was especially true while Hitler was establishing himself and re-arming Germany. Hitler and his inner circle were all a bunch of young (my age) psychopaths leading the country to war. I don’t understand how his view point could be adapted by so many people. The “brown shirts” with their marches, strict laws against the Jews, and his speeches full of rage… There was something obviously off about the guy and I don’t understand how the conditions Germany after World War I, could allow the opportunity for someone like that to come to power.

Many in the government were critical of the US Ambassador, William Dodd. But in hindsight, a policy of appeasement or more neutrality would not have given us any influence on the Nazis. To tie it in with Serbia, this would eventually lead to the April 6, 1941 bombing of the city.

The book is moving up the NY Times Best Seller list and I highly recommend it.

Boca Juniors Winter Soccer Camp

billkralovec
We enrolled all three kids in the Boca Juniors camp taking place on the grounds of the Hotel Buganvilla, here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Boca is the most popular professional soccer club in Argentina with 23 titles.Like their counterparts in Europe, they have developed a regional network of summer camps to develop a fan base. The camp is very low key, with only a few players this week participating. The Bolivian schools are still in session this week and they don’t expect bigger numbers until next week. It will give the boys something to do in the afternoons.

The weather has been as low as 8 degrees celcius (46 F) as June and July are the coldest months for the city. Santa Cruz is 17 degrees south of the equator and firmly in the tropics and much closer to the equator than Miami, but they do get these weather systems coming from Patagonia called “surazos” that bring a damp, cold to the city.
I lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia from 1997-1999 when I worked as a biology teacher at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School. Coming back to the city always brings back great memories because this is the place where I fell in love with Nadia. We see the places where we first met, the gardens of the Hotel Tajibos where I proposed to her, etc. We have come back every few years since then, the last being in 2007 for the birth of Ocean. The big impression is the incredible growth of the city. The metro area is now up to around 2 million people, that is almost double from when I first arrived in ’97. Most of the growth is internal, as many people are coming from La Paz and Cochabomba. Santa Cruz is the economic capital of the country with lots of jobs in agriculture, petroleum, etc.
We have also noticed a construction boom fueled in part by the increased cocaine trade. The president, Evo Morales, is a former “cocalero” or coca leaf grower, who kicked out the US Drug Enforcement Agency and promoted the planting of coca. He says that coca has many uses including tea, bread, chewing the leaf, etc. Statistics show however, that three times as much land is devoted to coca than the market needs. All that excess coca might be going to illicit drug production and sales. In my opinion, the temporary boost to the economy is good, but with all illegal trade, the violence and crime will soon follow.
I am finally beginning to relax and enjoy time with my family. I’ll try to blog as much as I can about Bolivia and our holidays. Below is the photo of the kids at breakfast the other day.We are trying to improve their Spanish and enjoy the culture and food of Bolivia.

Arrival To Bolivia

billkralovec

 

Modesta and Owen, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

After a long trans-Atlantic flight and layover in Sao Paolo, Brazil, we finally arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was an uneventful flight. We were surprised that we couldn’t leave the airport upon arrival to Brazil because we didn’t have a visa. We had an 8 hour layover and we planned to check into a hotel, but immigration officials wouldn’t allow us pass them. We ended up buying a day pass for the AA Admirals Club and had a nice day together.
Our second night in Santa Cruz was the Festival of San Juan or Corpus Christi. This is a big Catholic holiday here. It is traditionally celebrated with a mass held at the soccer stadium. It coincides with the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. Bolivians have fires in the evening and eat hot dogs and drink singani, the Bolivian rakija (brandy). Tempatures got down to 11 C last night. We cleaned out the BBQ area and had a big fire. The Mayor’s office outlawed individual fires for environmental reasons. Instead, officials organized big public campfires. We told stories and had a nice time.
The origin of the Corpus Christi dates back to 1263 where in Italy, a priest named Pedro de Praga was celebrating mass and the host (communion bread) began to bleed. This is proof of the transformation during the mass the communion bread and wine actually turns into the body and blood of Christ. The host is still preserved and was tested in 1971 as well as blood crystals in the wine. There is human tissue on the host as well as an AB blood type in the wine. I don’t believe it but it does make for an interesting evening in late June.

During the day, we visited the Santa Cruz Zoo. Owen loved seeing the 10 jaguars because earlier this year, he made a poster and gave a presentation on the jaguar. The zoo had a nice collection of Neo-tropic birds and Amazonian fish. The kids also like the spider monkeys with the prehensile tails. We are all still suffering a bit from the jet lag.

Summer Holidays Begin

billkralovec

 

Ollie, Ocean, Mom, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia is shown above with the kids at our favorite place for pizza in Belgrade, Brodic. It means “little boat” in Serbian and it is basically a boat and raft, moored along the Sava River, near the Sajam Fair. They serve a sesame seed crust pizza that is absolutely delicious. It is more a hangout place for beers, than a family restaurant, but it has a friendly atmosphere and serves Paulander Wheat Beer, which is a favorite of mine. I highly recommend the “The Pizza Boat” as the expats call it.

We are busy packing for our summer holidays. I’m wrapping things up in the office at school. We bought a new car as our beloved “Eidelweiss” is on her last legs. It is a 2005 Town & Country and it is THE family vehicle. I love that both rows of seats can be stored underneath easily and it is quite luxurious compared to the 1996 Honda we are currently driving. We are trying to figure out a name for the car. The paperwork is taking forever however, and we won’t get our license and registration until we return to Belgrade in August. That is one difficult part of living in Belgrade, sometimes simple things like transferring a car title and registering for a license plates take forever and require several trips to government offices. It is one reason why the economy is bad here, is that it is hard to do simple business transactions because of too much bureaucracy.

The New Ride

I took the kids to the zoo on Sunday while Nadia was getting her hair and nails done. We had a great time. I recommend visiting it with the family. I am ambivalent about zoos. It is good the kids can see the animals and learn about them, but it is basically a prison for animals. The conditions for the animals in the Belgrade Zoo are not great, but in my travels around the world, I’ve seen worse.

Vestiges of Communism in Belgrade

billkralovec
"The Messenger" - A Sculpture by Stevan Bodnarov

There are reminders of the 50 years of communism all throughout Belgrade. Above is a sculpture by Badnarov, who has several statues around the city including the one in the center of Slavija Circle. The one above is of a Partisan soldier in WW II and it is entitled “The Messenger” but I am not sure what he is referring to. Is there a Paul Revere in Yugoslavia? The work is located outside the Center for Culture and Sport “Šumice” here in Belgrade. Our ISB boys’ basketball team played an exhibition tourney there on Friday. The German School invited us and Public High School #13 to play and they rented the facilities. It was a beautiful basketball arena and there seemed to be some other sport venues in the complex. The Serbians love their sport and it is nice to have such a facility like this owned by the city and open to the public. It had that communist architecture feel to the place. Below is a photo of the gym. I wonder how long it will take to eliminate all signs of the communist era. There are so many cement apartment buildings, parks, and monuments that will remind future generations of that period in Serbia’s history. I like it because it is so different than anything I see in Michigan.