MKM LHC, AZ

In the early 80s I took an assignment in Egypt for 2 ½ years. My employer, CH2M Hill, was the lead firm in a 4-firm consortium on a USAID project there, expanding and upgrading the wastewater treatment system for the city of Alexandria. My job was to manage the financial, administrative and logistical aspects of the project, in short, everything except the design function. My entire staff of about 100 people was Egyptian, and nearly all of them were Muslim. Muslims have 2 long holiday periods each year: Ramadan and Hajj. The project offices closed during those periods, and most of us Americans went to Europe.

.
On one of my Europe trips, my niece, Mary Kay Magistad, and I, arranged to meet in Copenhagen and go on from there to tour Sweden together. MKM was taking a break before pursuing an MA Rotary Fellowship at the University of Sussex in England. This was the first of many shared adventures and visits back and forth. I visited her in Boston and Beijing; she visited me in several OR locations, and now here in LHC. Last summer she joined Trish and me on our North Shore Drive (Lake Superior) excursion. She also climbed Mt Whitney with me – as did her brother Steve and my brother Pat - some 20 years ago.
.

If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s a radio journalist and a regular on the BBC/PRI program, The World. The program airs each week day on most public radio stations. MKM has lived in Beijing for many years, in Bangkok before that. She’s currently in the States to receive an award (not her first) for a 5-part series “Created in China”. The award presentation will be in Las Vegas – which happens to be the closest major airport to LHC. It’s great to see her again, and to indulge in our sporadic conversations about investments, travel, religion, politics, philosophy, and so on. I can’t think of any social or world problem we’ve not addressed and talked into total and abject submission.