The Ghost of Corporate Future

October 24, 2009

I just finished an incredible trip to Eastern Europe! I would like to say thank you to my Grandpa Bushuk for organizing most of the details of my stay in Poland and Belarus.

My first stop was Poznan, Poland, where I stayed with Grandpa’s old friends Mr. and Mrs. Kaminski. Mr. and Mrs. Kaminski are wonderful people and they treated me really well. I ate an obscene amount of Mrs. Kaminski’s home cooked Polish food, including her delicious pierogies and galompki (cabbage rolls). I think her favourite line is “Please, eat, eat…” and I did not disappoint her in this category. Mr. Kaminski is still teaching university classes at the spry age of 82. They also didn’t shy away from dancing to Russian music or drinking metaxa!

In Poznan I had a chance to visit the University of Life Sciences where I met many of Grandpa’s former colleagues and students. Grandpa would never say this, but he is HUGE in Poland. It was nice to meet his old friends and hear all the good things they had to say about him. At the university, I met Joanna and Agnes (the daughters of Magdalena who works at the uni), and they took me on a tour of the city. Joanna and Agnes were great tour guides and their English is excellent because they spent the last year studying abroad in Lethbridge. We saw many of Poznan’s sights, including the St. Peter and Paul cathedral and the beautiful Old Town Square. The square is surrounding by buildings that are painted with large colourful murals. For dinner, we met up with two of Grandpa’s former postdocs, Wiktor and Alicja, and ate a traditional Polish meal of borscht (with kaldunny) and pierogies. The pierogies were the best I have ever tried!

After Poznan, I took the train to Warsaw (pronounced varshava by the Poles) and met up with Alek Sowa, another friend of Grandpa’s. Alek and I had a great time touring Warsaw together. We saw the ominous Palace of Culture and Science, which was erected by Stalin during the 50’s as a symbol of communist Russia’s control over Poland and the power of the Soviets. It is still the tallest building in Warsaw and is the topic of much heated debate. Many Poles have wanted to level the building since communism fell in 1989, but others see it as a valuable reminder of Poland’s history. Personally, I really like the building and hope that it stays.

Alek and I visited the Uprising Museum, which was extremely interesting. It chronicles the 1944 uprising of the people of Warsaw against the German army that had occupied their city. At one point, the Poles controlled three-quarters of the city and there was hope that they could take back what was rightfully theirs. However, in the end the German’s superior weaponry and military organization won out (most of the Polish fighters were not even trained soldiers). Also, the Poles had anticipated support from the closely stationed Soviet army, but it never came. After the Germans took back the city, they literally leveled it. As a result, Warsaw had to be nearly completely rebuilt after the war. The uprising is an interesting piece of history, as it simultaneously serves as a point of national pride and a point of tremendous sorrow and grief.

We also visited the Old Town of Warsaw, which I love! It has a very classic feel to it, and is filled with residences, small quaint restaurants, shops and museums. The buildings are painted with murals in the same way as the Old Town Square in Poznan. Of course, the Old Town is not the original, but it was built in the same spirit as the first old town, and I think they did a good job recreating it.

Alek and I also took a day trip to visit the beautiful city of Krakow. Unlike Warsaw, Krakow was largely untouched by the war and has many old buildings and streets that have been preserved. My favourite part of the city was Wawel Hill, which is home to Wawel Castle and Krakow Cathedral. This was the first castle I had ever seen and it did not disappoint. The castle is extremely large and each room is decorated in a grandiose way. The walls are covered in large tapestries and the roofs are done in elaborate paintings. One room had a spectacular painting which depicted the submission of the Prussian King to the Polish King. It had a lot of similarities to the painting of the coronation of Napolean at the Louvre, with the intense central action and the detailed characters in the background.

Krakow’s Old Town is very large and the buildings are beautiful, but I was disappointed by how exploited it was. I find it hard to get excited about an “Old Town” that is filled with Hard Rock Cafés and Lacoste stores. The Old Town in Warsaw has a much more genuine feel. We also saw the Krakow University. As the 3rd oldest university in Europe and the former school of Copernicus, it was a cool sight to see.

After Poland, the adventure really started with a trip to visit my family in Belarus. I had plans to meet Grandpa’s cousin, Mariya, at the Brest station. I had never seen her before and all I knew was that she would be wearing a white scarf. Thankfully, white scarves are not a current fashion craze in Belarus, and I had no trouble finding her! I was also greeted by Mariya’s daughter Helen, Helen’s god daughter Kate, and, of course, my wonderful interpreter Tanja. It was sort of strange communicating through an interpreter at first, but I was so thankful that Tanja was there. Without her, it would have been impossible to communicate with my family, as they only speak Belarusian (besides Kate). Tanja is currently studying to be a teacher and she proved to be the bridge between me and my family on the trip.

I had a great time in Belarus, and really enjoyed meeting our long lost family members (I met about 25 in total!) and learning about our family history. My main motive for coming to Belarus was to visit the village of Yakovichi, where my grandfather grew up as a young boy. His family left Yakovichi in the summer of 1939, just before the start of WWII, when Grandpa was 10 years old. Yakovichi is a tiny village, consisting of only about 20 houses. The house that my Great-Grandpa built is still standing today, and we took a trip to visit it. I have heard stories about this house and it was incredible to see it in person. I saw the famous kitchen furnace that Grandpa and his brother used to sleep on to stay warm. The house only has two main rooms, and would have been a humble place for a family of five. The current owner of the house is a really nice woman who has lived in it since 1950 and has kept it in excellent condition (the two of us are in the pic below, standing in front of the furnace). She was happy to host us and served lunch to all 13 of us!

After our visit to Yakovichi, Mariya took me to a stream whose water is said to be sacred. They have created a small hole for swimming and Mariya urged me to take a dip. The temperature was only 4 degrees outside, so I told her that I would only go in if she did, thinking that this would probably keep me dry. Boy was I wrong! Mariya was in her bathing suit and in the water before I knew it, so, naturally, I had to follow suit. It was freezing, but I survived! Mariya loved it.

Another highlight of the Brest visit was a big dinner we had on my last night, where I met many more family members. Naida and Angleina (two more of Grandpa’s cousins) cooked us a wonderful meal and we said “Nas Drovia” (cheers) many, many times. It was incredible to meet all of my relatives and get a chance to learn about their lives and tell them about mine.

In some ways, it was difficult to hear about life in Belarus because their economic conditions are unbelievably poor compared to ours. I was appalled to learn that the average Belarusian only makes 200 dollars per month, and that education only increases wages by an incremental amount. These difficult circumstances create a very tight-knit group of people and I was impressed by their strong sense of community.

My experience in Belarus was truly unforgettable and I look forward to staying in contact with all of my new family and friends.

I want to say thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Kaminski, Alek, Mariya, Nadia, Helen, Kate, Ilya, and Tanja for all of their support and help during my trip!

Next up is a tour of Italy!

-MB