Courtenay Engelke: Finding friendship, hospitality, enrichment in Mongolia
As a student at Central Bucks East High School, Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania, I can't honestly say that I ever planned a future in Mongolia.
Perhaps my destiny was sealed when a classmate shared her photos and experiences from two years of Peace Corps service in Mongolia before turning to business school. I remember thinking at the time how fascinating and exotic it all seemed. I tucked it away in my memory in the event I might ever be so fortunate to visit such a distant land someday.
So maybe it was destiny that more than 10 years and hundreds of thousands of air miles later, Mongolia is precisely where I would be.
For the past eight years, I've been working for the Millennium Challenge Corp., a federal agency seeking to reduce poverty in developing countries through programs aimed at stimulating economic growth. The agency picks a small number of poor but well-governed countries and provides large, five-year grants. The idea is to find countries that share our values and that can become closer allies and trading partners of the United States — ultimately helping both us and our partner countries.
Mongolia started its Millennium Challenge program in 2008, but the program got off to a rocky start and needed to be partly restructured. I first traveled there in the summer of 2009 to try to facilitate the restructuring.
Because Mongolia, lodged between China and Russia, suffers from especially long, cold winters, summertime is the best time to visit. In July, the entire country celebrates the "three manly games" as part of Naadam, an annual festive celebration of horse racing, wrestling and archery. Mongolian wrestling is an entirely different spectacle which somewhat resembles sumo (though with slightly more, and significantly more festive, clothing). The opening ceremony was a sight to behold with spectators adorned in their finest traditional clothes. Somehow my plain white shirt and chinos seemed grossly inadequate.
The time pressures from Washington to develop a viable investment program coupled with the most remarkable hospitality I had ever experienced in my career allowed me to pack more into that first visit than any ordinary person would have thought possible. There were countless meetings, lunches, dinners and events, and with each I became further immersed in this country I had only dreamed about so many years before.
I met government officials, diplomats, donors companies and people from nongovernmental organizations. I rode horses, practiced archery, slept in a ger (a felt-lined tent), used the outdoor toilet (a first on a business trip), held an eagle and ate Mongolian barbecue (a wonderful mélange of boiled mutton, salt, and, if you're lucky, carrots and potatoes).
Ultimately, Millennium Challenge's five-year, $285 million investment, which already included vocational education, health and property-rights projects, was revised to include a program to reduce road and air pollution. My work on the air pollution reduction program brought me to Mongolia many more times. Each time I was drawn closer and closer to the people and the culture. I extended my business trips to vacation at Huvsgol Lake and to participate in the celebration of the white moon, known as Tsagaan Sar.
I visited countless homes, monasteries, energy centers and the Gobi Desert. My colleagues also visited America, and I did my best to extend the equivalent Mongolian hospitality at home, only to have surely fallen short of an art the Mongolian people have perfected over thousands of years. For my work and partnership on behalf of the American people, I was ultimately awarded a friendship medal by the president of Mongolia, the highest honor bestowed on a foreigner.
The Millennium Challenge program in Mongolia successfully drew to a close in September. It has left the Mongolian people better equipped to take advantage of the economic opportunity at their doorstep. The Mongolian people have enriched me with new perspective and lasting friendships.
Mongolia is rising. Change is galloping rapidly across the steppe. Thousands of years of tradition are still present, but they may be disappearing as quickly as the handbags at the new Louis Vuitton flagship store in Chinngis Square.
Courtenay Engelke is a director in the investment and risk management division of the Millennium Challenge Corp., Washington, D.C. She is a native of Doylestown.
Perhaps my destiny was sealed when a classmate shared her photos and experiences from two years of Peace Corps service in Mongolia before turning to business school. I remember thinking at the time how fascinating and exotic it all seemed. I tucked it away in my memory in the event I might ever be so fortunate to visit such a distant land someday.
So maybe it was destiny that more than 10 years and hundreds of thousands of air miles later, Mongolia is precisely where I would be.
For the past eight years, I've been working for the Millennium Challenge Corp., a federal agency seeking to reduce poverty in developing countries through programs aimed at stimulating economic growth. The agency picks a small number of poor but well-governed countries and provides large, five-year grants. The idea is to find countries that share our values and that can become closer allies and trading partners of the United States — ultimately helping both us and our partner countries.
Mongolia started its Millennium Challenge program in 2008, but the program got off to a rocky start and needed to be partly restructured. I first traveled there in the summer of 2009 to try to facilitate the restructuring.
Because Mongolia, lodged between China and Russia, suffers from especially long, cold winters, summertime is the best time to visit. In July, the entire country celebrates the "three manly games" as part of Naadam, an annual festive celebration of horse racing, wrestling and archery. Mongolian wrestling is an entirely different spectacle which somewhat resembles sumo (though with slightly more, and significantly more festive, clothing). The opening ceremony was a sight to behold with spectators adorned in their finest traditional clothes. Somehow my plain white shirt and chinos seemed grossly inadequate.
The time pressures from Washington to develop a viable investment program coupled with the most remarkable hospitality I had ever experienced in my career allowed me to pack more into that first visit than any ordinary person would have thought possible. There were countless meetings, lunches, dinners and events, and with each I became further immersed in this country I had only dreamed about so many years before.
I met government officials, diplomats, donors companies and people from nongovernmental organizations. I rode horses, practiced archery, slept in a ger (a felt-lined tent), used the outdoor toilet (a first on a business trip), held an eagle and ate Mongolian barbecue (a wonderful mélange of boiled mutton, salt, and, if you're lucky, carrots and potatoes).
Ultimately, Millennium Challenge's five-year, $285 million investment, which already included vocational education, health and property-rights projects, was revised to include a program to reduce road and air pollution. My work on the air pollution reduction program brought me to Mongolia many more times. Each time I was drawn closer and closer to the people and the culture. I extended my business trips to vacation at Huvsgol Lake and to participate in the celebration of the white moon, known as Tsagaan Sar.
I visited countless homes, monasteries, energy centers and the Gobi Desert. My colleagues also visited America, and I did my best to extend the equivalent Mongolian hospitality at home, only to have surely fallen short of an art the Mongolian people have perfected over thousands of years. For my work and partnership on behalf of the American people, I was ultimately awarded a friendship medal by the president of Mongolia, the highest honor bestowed on a foreigner.
The Millennium Challenge program in Mongolia successfully drew to a close in September. It has left the Mongolian people better equipped to take advantage of the economic opportunity at their doorstep. The Mongolian people have enriched me with new perspective and lasting friendships.
Mongolia is rising. Change is galloping rapidly across the steppe. Thousands of years of tradition are still present, but they may be disappearing as quickly as the handbags at the new Louis Vuitton flagship store in Chinngis Square.
Courtenay Engelke is a director in the investment and risk management division of the Millennium Challenge Corp., Washington, D.C. She is a native of Doylestown.
Comments
Post a Comment