Berlin’s Wall

Last night our old friend, Robert Galbavy, CEO of Vienna-based Cargo Partners invited Yuriy and me to dinner. Joining us for the evening at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant on a boat on the Dnieper River was Alexander Belov, Director of CP Ukraine, his wife, Alla, and Natalia Nazarenko, CP’s Manager of Business Development and her husband, Vladimir.

Vladimir is a retired Colonel from the old Soviet Red Army–Alexander is a former Lieutenant. Both speak some/not much English. Once the vodka starts to flow though, that is rarely a problem.

I mentioned earlier that one of the great pleasures in business is the people you meet/the friends you make. Robert and I met about 10 years ago and, while we have done some business together, in many ways we are competitors and do not do enough business together to “deserve” being such good friends. Cargo Partners is 10x the size of Logistics Plus. But in a big world with probably billions of shipments a day to handle, I’ve always maintained that there is enough business to go around–that you can compete some times, work together other times, and still be friends–kind of like when ex-college football player roommates get drafted by different pro teams and have to play one another–still friends.

Robert and I have a closer friendship than our business volumes would dictate. His son, Rene, interned for Logistics Plus in Erie for a summer about 8 years ago, while my son, Derek did the same for Cargo Partners over in Europe that same summer. Sort of an unofficial exchange program of fathers with sons looking for direction. Both kids loved the experience and, as 20 year olds at the time, it seemed to both Robert and me that it helped get each of them get more “on track” in their young lives. Something two fathers at the time had in common–trying to do the best thing for their sons.

In most cultures I’ve visited, and especially in Eastern Europe, there is a tradition of eating and drinking together to establish a closer bond between business colleagues. This was just such a night. Lots of good food, and WAY too many toasts of Ukrainain vodka (I know we demolished 2 bottles–maybe 3…

But what was particularly special about THIS evening is the fact that Yuriy was born in Ukraine, and left there for America 7 years ago when he was just 16. The Erie Rotary Club sponsored him to come to America to get a heart operation that he needed to survive. His Mom and Dad (those wonderful people I mentioned previously) had researched and searched desperately to find a way to save their only child’s life and then sent him to the US when Rotary offered to sponsor him. Any parent will understand what a selfless and loving (and difficult) decision that had to be for them. But I could tell on our visit to Yuriy’s home that his parents were glad with their decision and are so proud to see their boy doing so well, happy, healthy, strong and productive–leading such a successful life in Erie. NOTHING in life makes a parent happier than seeing their child doing well–no matter where he happens to call home. It is the parents’ greatest gift, I guess–to send their children out into the world prepared–whenever it is that they have to fly on their own. Yuriy’s parents had a much more difficult choice to make/gift to give Yuriy than Robert and I gave to Rene and Derek that one summer. But the intent is still the same–the happiness of our children.

Vladimir and Alexander, the 2 ex-Red Army officers, could tell that too. They fed us with traditional Ukrainian food and offered toast after toast to their guests:
“To friendship”
“To the women”
“To health”
“To happiness”
“To love”
“To one more toast”
And on and on.

We ate and drank and you could see Yuriy getting more and more emotional (ya think maybe all that vodka had something to do with it as well? : ) but when Vladimir called over the traditional Ukrainian musicians, dressed in traditional Ukrainian garb, to serenade our table with the traditional songs from Yuriy’s boyhood home in Western Ukraine, all the emotions–the love, the loss, the happiness, the sorrow–it seemed that all Yuriy’s boyhood memories came rushing back to him, and the 6 of us could see them clearly in his face, and welling up in his eyes–a studied silence at this table of 7 new friends– until Robert looked over at me, silently nodded towards the musicians, towards the satisfied, smiling, knowing look in Vladimir’s eyes, and then over at Yuriy–beaming/glowing as he quietly sang along to the childhood songs he remembered so well, and now came rushing back from the past to him again–and leaned over to me and whispered, “Good for the soul”.

So… Ukrainian soul food. Special.

Nastrovya!

JB

Our situation finding (or more accurately–Not finding : ) a hotel room here this week is, I think, a good indicator of life in Ukraine.

1. The place is full-full because of a banking convention going on here. There is LOTS of money here. in Kiev almost every car you see is a Lexus or a BMW or a Mercedes with Porsches and Bentleys sprinkled in. LOTS of money.

2. The rules are not well established yet though. We HAD confirmed reservations, but they got “unconfirmed” both times. Someone offered more than the agreed to price, and they take what they can get. Can’t really blame them, but it creates a chaotic, unruly atmosphere where things can be given and taken away without warning and “deals” are not truly deals, it seems.

3. There is still a push/pull effect from socialism and re: Russia. A lot of this country wants to gallop towards the free markets of the west, but nearly as much prefers the safety and comfort that they believe Russia and its style offer. You see that in the politics and in the language spoken and in the support of football (soccer teams).

4. One example I noticed that seemed to demonstrate this was the key ladies. Back in the socialist 70’s I travelled to the old Soviet Union a couple of times (that’s Another story : ) and they had this system where there was a desk on each floor where a lady would sit and give you your key (and keep an eye on things). It always seemed an inefficient/socialist “job-creation” (though quaint) system to me. Well, they still have them, at least here in Kiev. Only back in the day, these ladies were tough and seemed to take their jobs pretty seriously. Now that “freedom” has arrived here, they were often in the break room, chatting with other hotel employees, and we thought nothing of opening up their desk drawers and gerting our keys ourselves. I don’t think that would have happened in the olden days.

So, a contrast–enterprise flourishing, corruption a larger part of the deal than you’d get in Europe or the US, lots of ostentation, and still vestiges of the old Soviet socialist mentality.

Interesting…

JB

We found a homeless shelter for the night. At least we won’t freeze to death or get locked up.
Thanks for all your help.

Well, thanks to our good friends at Cargowise we were able to secure a couple of rooms in the Hotel Ukraine. Thank you, guys.

One of the things I enjoy most from business is the people you meet/the friends you make. Cargowise is the folks who wrote our global forward operating system, lpworldplus.com. They are a world leading company, headquartered in the US, in Chicago, and we have gotten to know their CEO, Cris Arens, and some of his team over the past year.

A lot of their programmers are Ukrainian and were trained and still work in their office here in Kiev, and this was a chance for us to get to know them as well.

But when our reservations fell thru because of overbooking due to a bankers’ conference here this week (Everything is sold out) Volodya Vilanovski, VP of Eastern European and Middle East Development for Cargowise, and his team went WAY above and beyond the call of duty to pull a few strings and get us a place to stay, so we didn’t have to sleep on some park benches.

That will make our trip to Kiev much more comfortable and enjoyable.

So, thanks, Volodya. Great team, Cris.

JB

But not like you’re picturing it.

Upon landing in Kiev I was going to title this entry “Dirt to asphalt to highways” since we had gone form the cratered dirt roads of the Poland-Ukraine border to the broken-but asphalt roads of Ivanofrankovick to the wide, beautifully paved 8 lane highway that runs the 25 miles from Kiev’s airport to downtown.

We were taking a(nother) minibus and got stuck in the usual bumper to bumper traffic on this 8 lane highway when our driver turned, climbed the (pretty high) curb and continued alongside the highway traffic on the sidewalk.

We were pretty much laughing in disbelief when he yelled in his thick Ukrainian accent “you’re not in America now!”.

He then proceeded the next several miles through sidewalks, fields, parking lots, cross exit ramps and entrance ramps to get us past the entire traffic jam and into downtown. We were laughing so hard we were crying, and that helped him REALLY get into it.

He did 180’s in the middle of the road. He sped down back alleys, drove into oncoming traffic, and inches from pedestrians.

At one point he suddenly turned around on the fly and sped down some back alley and triumphantly proclaimed, “Nukto tak probku kak ya obyezat ne umeyet!” which Yuriy translated for us roughly as “NO ONE evades traffic like ME!”

In what Yuriy swears was record time he got us to our hotel. Only now they tell us it’s booked/no rooms.

The adventure continues…

JB

PS–we saw 80 Lexus’s in our first 10 minutes here. Yowsa!

Heading to Kiev tomorrow morning. Today was a nice relaxing day in Ivanofrankovsk spending time with Yuriy’s Mom and Dad, visiting the beautiful local mountain resort, eating way too much wonderful food and then talking world politics with them.

Yuriy’s father is an engineer and his Mom is a librarian, and they were both very up on the US presidential election. It’s amazing what interest that is generating worldwide.

Fun day.

We even had fun shopping (which I normally hate) as we had to go out and pick up some new suits for an upcoming business meeting. Yuriy’s Mom was a big help and we got a great deal and will look pretty damn sharp, even if I do say so myself.
Wonderful visit. Wonderful people.

Dakujem!

Onto Kiev,
JB

So, now we’re in Ukraine, heading to the town of Ivanofrankivsk for a couple of days so Yuriy can visit his parents before we head off to Poltava and Kiev to visit customers there.

Jan and I had been to Cuba once and I have been all over, so we were not too concerned about Yuriy’s cautioning us about the horrible road condtions in Ukraine. But “road” conditions implies an actual road, and for most of the 4+ hour drive from the border (see the previous blog) to Yuriy’s hometown–@100 miles away (yes, I did say a 4+ hour drive to travel @100 miles–that should tell you all you need to know about the Ukraine roads–at least coming from the Polish border) we were constantly amazed at the giant potholes (Jan–HOLY SH*T!) and wildlife (Jan–What the F¤*& was THAT?”) we saw and occassionally avoided.

That’s when we also began to realize that our driver had no clue where he was going (we could tell because every time he’d make a turn–there are NO highway signs in Ukraine–he would start uttering a series of expletives in Polish that sounded to us much like what Jan had been constantly exclaiming in English (see previous paragraph).

Anyway, 10 hours after we left Rzeszow, and only about 250 miles east of there, we finally arrived in Ivanofrankivsk at Yuriy’s parents’ home around 3:30 in the morning.

Time for some shuteye.

JB

Do They Take Mastercard in Ukraine?

How does one get from Rzeszow, Poland to Ivanofrankivsk, Ukraine? (Check it out in your atlas or Google it if you think it’s easy).

Rent a plane? $6,000. No way.

Rent a car and drive? Would have to bring the car back. Won’t work.

Hire a minibus for $450. Bingo!

Drive 3 hours to the border and find out that your driver took his son’s passport by mistake and have to turn around and go back and get it?

Priceless!
JB

Getting there…

In Southern Poland. Been coming here for the past 10 years, and amazing how well this country (and much of the old Soviet bloc) seems to be doing.

One thing I’ve noticed is that all the old thatched roofs have been replaced by nice aluminum ones. The improving life in much of the developing world surely affects the supply/demand and therefore prices (of many things) worldwide.

Just the way it is, I believe.

JB