Corn and Spit, and Memories

Via KC Hophead, I learned that Dogfish Head Brewery is producing Chicha.

Chicha is a corn-based beer created when people chew corn, spit it out, let it dry, then mix it with water, boil it, let it ferment, and then drink it. I know, I know, it sounds more like a fraternity hazing ritual than a real beverage, but it's popular in the Andes.

A few years ago, I was in Bolivia on a service trip, and I really wanted to taste chicha. It seemed wrong to visit a country and not partake of one of the core experiences. Leonardo, our guide, was having nothing of it, though, because he told us the chicha parlors were dangerous, disorderly places where drunk Bolivians might want to take on a conspicuous, non-Spanish-speaking, non-Quechuan-speaking American. Given the near-incident that involved brandy, a drunken man, the "Girls of the Mountain" and Abba, I can't claim that he was being completely unreasonable.

Chicha was served in little huts and shacks on the side of the roads, and advertised by small white flags on long poles to announce that fresh chicha was available. When I saw a flag flying near the place we were staying, I told the guide that I was going to pay a visit, with or without him. I reasoned that for almost 2 weeks, I had been the largest person within eyesight; even if some chicha-soaked rowdy wanted a piece of me, I felt confident I could extricate myself and anyone who wanted to be in my posse.

Leonardo and Robin accompanied me to the local chicha shack at around 4 in the afternoon.

I don't know how rowdy the places get at night, but we were the only customers there. The proprietess was a tiny - I mean maybe 4 or 4 and a half feet tall - wrinkled old woman who looked like she would be whipped in a cage-match with Mother Theresa. There was also a chicken running around the place, scratching around on the dirt floor. There seemed to be no electricity, and the woman dipped a pitcher of chicha out of a repurposed industrial barrel, and brought it to us with a drinking gourd. It cost 12 cents for a pitcher, and, apparently, you could negotiate discounts if you were drinking multiple pitchers.

You don't just drink chicha. Before partaking, you pour a little from the gourd onto the dirt floor, as a respectful offering to Pachamama, the goddess of the good earth. I forgot to spill once, and earned a scowl from the old woman.

As for taste, to be honest, taste was such a tiny part of the entire experience that I neglected to taste with my entire attention. I was surprised how much it tasted like one of the wild-yeast-fermented non-fruited lambics of Belgium, thought it was a bit sweeter. It was only mildly carbonated, and the gourd was not an ideal vessel for careful observation of color, but I would say it was light-colored, kind of like a yeasty Belgian Wit. I don't think it was highly alcoholic, though it certainly was not a weak beverage; it seemed to be at about the same strength as a typical beer, or perhaps slightly weaker.

It is a strange experience to taste something without knowledge of what it is "supposed" to taste like. Given my knowledge of how the brew was traditionally produced, the scant rafts of foam floating on top were a bit of a hurdle to enjoyment, though my intellect knew they were carbonation and not remnants from the little old lady's brewing process.

On the day we departed Bolivia, Leonardo presented me with two of the only bottled examples of chicha that I saw. They were in brown plastic liter bottles, and labeled "Chernobyl Chicha". I stuffed them into my luggage and got them back to the States without having to explain them to anyone, for which I was grateful. By the time I drank them, they were more cidery and lacked the liveliness of the chicha I drank with a chicken at my feet.

Our best food and drink experiences have more to do with experience than taste.

Bolivia Imperiled by Riches?

Bolivia is a beautiful country with tremendous poverty, coupled with astounding, recurring wealth. It's sad, but that wealth has brought more misery than relief to the Bolivian people throughout history. Years ago, it was silver in her mountains that drew the Spanish to enslave the people and rob the country. More recently, it was water resources and a corrupt rightwing government that drew the multi-national corporations to kill the people and rob the country.

Now, it's lithium.

Lithium is a key component in the types of batteries used in electric cars, and Bolivia may be the "Saudi Arabia of lithium." In its vast salt deserts, Bolivia holds more lithium than any other country, and powerful nations want it. Notice the lede in the New York Times article - "a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily."

"Surrender it"?! Are they holding their own minerals hostage or something? Has Bolivia become an enemy because it has minerals we want? The subtle game of propaganda has begun.

Right now, Bolivia is blessed with a progressive leader who views himself as beholden to the people rather than the wealthy. He's no saint, and he makes mistakes, but he is a far better person and leader than W was. Is he strong enough and wise enough to survive the attempts by the truly powerful to destabilize him? Is he sophisticated enough to hold his country together while rapacious forces from within and without want to tear it apart and pluck its mineral heart out?

I fear that electric car I want may be fueled by the blood and misery of Bolivian peasants.

Consumers like me may be the modern-day equivalents of 16th Century Spanish royalty, waiting for our conquistador corporations to bring us the silver we crave.

Cuban Doctors Heal Cataracts for Che's Killer

Cuban doctors volunteering in Bolivia performed a free cataract surgery for Mario Teran, the Bolivian army sergeant who killed the legendary guerilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara in captivity, the daily Granma newspaper reported.

The Cuban medical system is obviously horribly deficient - any American insurance company would have found a way to deny him coverage . . .

Evo Morales on the Daily Show

Evo Morales is the President of Bolivia. He grew up poor, and wound up President of his country in a land which has been controlled by wealthy foreign interests since the time of Spain.

Last night, he was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The interview, handled through an interpreter, was odd and fascinating. Stewart's quick humor doesn't really play all that well through an interpreter, but his sincere interest does.



At around 2:00, Evo responds to Stewart's claim (having apparently forgotten Bill "God I Wish He Were Still in Office" Clinton's biography) that the presidency in the United States is rigged to favor those born into the upper class. With unironic simpliciy, Evo says, "So if it's rigged, then something needs to be done to change that."

There's something about the way he says it that skewers me. Part of it is the lack of humor - he doesn't find it funny to joke about elections being rigged. If you don't like it, fix it. And part of it is the eloquent simplicity of the man. There's a world of difference between simplicity and simpleness, and Bolivia's president has the former . . .

FIFA - Soccer is for Wimps

FIFA, the world governing body for soccer (football for the rest of the world), has recently decided that games should not be played at altitudes over 2500 meters - 8200 feet for those of us who call it soccer. This ban will prevent Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia from hosting home games where they would normally be played.

Next up, I expect FIFA to ban games played in warm weather, or in areas with pollen, or in stadiums where the crowds are loud.

This decision does not reflect a concern for competitiveness or the integrity of the sport. Soccer's strength has always been that it is the international sport, played everywhere under a variety of conditions. When I was in Bolivia a couple years ago, I got into a pickup game with the local kids. According to FIFA, I should have whined about the altitude when they ran past me, and refused to allow them to celebrate their victory.

FIFA is dominated by the traditional power-houses of soccer, and they want to see their favored teams play in comfort. That's understandable, but they owe a higher duty to the international spirit of the sport, and their decision to restrict the international sport to European conditions is a farce. They need to rescind their decision, or cancel the next World Cup tournament. Perhaps they can substitute a "Sea Level Cup" tournament.