What would you do if your spouse was going to be deployed to a remote location, fighting daily to make the world a better place, and you were stuck at home to wait? Well I did what any self-respecting girl would do. I cried for a week, and then I went to Paris and cut my hair off. Let me tell you, it was a very liberating thing, and I highly recommend hair therapy to anyone who is facing life without their beloved.
Besides cutting my hair off in Paris, I also attended my very last class to receive my undergraduate degree in Humanities. The class was a week long and we spent that week talking about Picasso and asking the question that everyone must ask themselves when faced with modern art…what does a urinal have to do with art?
I also continued to teach yoga. These are a few pictures taken by the base photographer for the newspaper. These weren’t the pictures they ended up publishing, but I liked these best.
In late October, Jim and I got to meet up for the time between his training and his actual deployment to Afghanistan. We took that time to go to Savannah. It was wonderful and a much needed vacation from the reality that we were facing. I won’t go into more detail about the trip because Jim posted the pictures earlier this year. You can check them out here: http://www.jimanna.com/archives/000163.html
For my 29th birthday I said goodbye to my husband for the next 9 months and boarded a plane to take me back to my empty house in Germany. In November, I decided I was going to go snowboarding with a friend. Mind you, I have not been snowboarding since I was about 20. I am not 20 anymore, but I seem to forget that occasionally. I brilliantly decided that I should go off the jumps. If the 12 year old boys could do it, I could do it, right? Apparently that logic had some flaws to it because I did not land my jump quite right and fell back on my arm, acquiring my first ever broken bone.
Ok, so it isn’t the best picture, but without my own personal photographer around, the pictures of my life have been very limited. So please bear with me for the rest of the photos. Some of the photos are mine, and others are from other people, but none are as great as Jim’s. Keep that in mind as you continue to read.
The rest of November and most of December I spent healing up and teaching modified yoga classes. While it is more difficult, yoga can be done with a broken arm. Christmas time came, and I spent it with my family. This Christmas was an unusually snowy time for Wisconsin. So I got to enjoy a very white Christmas and somehow managed to not crash my father’s car into the ditch. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures while I was home, but I’m sure you get the idea. Before I left for Wisconsin, I enjoyed a couple girls nights. Here is some evidence.
The weekend after I broke my wrist, my friend Jessie broke her opposite wrist, doing the same thing I did. Snowboarding is a hazardous sport. We still managed to make it out to the Trier Christmas Market though, along with Doris, who kept us from breaking anything else.
In January, I decided to take a trip to Amsterdam. The teacher who taught my last class in Paris was teaching a class on Van Gogh in Amsterdam. Even though I was done with school, she generously agreed that I could come and hang out with her class. I spent most of my week in Amsterdam by myself, wandering around the museums and entertaining myself with the always colorful people watching. I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit, and learned a little more about Van Gogh in the process.
Notice how this car is as long as the bike the girl is riding on.
As I was taking pictures of the car, the owner came up and got into it. I was so embarrassed, but she didn’t seem to mind and she obligingly let me take her photo.
Only in Amsterdam…
Upon my return to Germany, fate stepped in and united me with my new best friend. Sheena was looking for a new home, and I was looking for someone to talk to. So it became official. I am now a crazy cat lady, and Sheena and I couldn’t be happier.
The rest of January and part of February I spent getting ready for the Prague Half Marathon and also trying not to rub it in that I was meeting up with Jim in South Africa. It was great to be able to have a trip like that to break up the time and reconnect with Jim. Again, he has posted tons of pictures from the trip, so I won’t add extra. I just wanted to add that of all the trips we have taken together, South Africa may have been my favorite. If anyone is considering taking a trip there, do it! They have everything you could possibly want in a vacation, adventure, culture, interesting flora and fauna, as well as lovely warm people.
After my return from S. Africa, I turned my attention back to running. In March I went with some friends to Prague to run a half marathon. All the training paid off, and I ran the half in 2 hours and 2 minutes. It was a great race and all of us had a wonderful time together. Since I was so close to beating the 2 hour mark in Prague, I decided to sign myself up for another race in May. The Luxembourg half marathon was the race I chose to see if I could beat my time. Unfortunately, I did worse in Luxembourg. I won’t put my time on here, but I’ll just say that I still would love to beat my Prague time by 2 minutes. Someday…
After the race, and still smiling.
I will continue April through July on the second half of this post.
Anna 🙂
Month: July 2009
A Year in the Life- part 2
In April three significant events took place. First, I went to the Herrmann haus to celebrate Reinhardt’s birthday and second, my mom came out to visit. After that, I took a trip with some girlfriends to Sardinia, Italy. April was a bit of a blur, but a happy one.
Here are some photos that I took at the Herrmann’s:
Only in Bavaria would your friends be in a traditional style band. They came out to play some songs for the festivities and wish Reinhardt a happy birthday. They were wonderful and some people even got out and did a polka later in the evening.
There was a lot of beer drinking, along with the wonderful food that Christina made.
I finally got to meet the illusive sister, Nina, and her new family.
It was a wonderful weekend away and I had a great time with the Herrmanns as always.
The Mom visit:
The first four days of Mom’s visit we went to see Juan, our family’s exchange student from Spain, and his wife, Sonja, in Barcelona. They showed us all around Barcelona, and had us taste all the delicacies of the area, even pig’s feet. I can’t say they were my favorite, but now I can say I’ve tried them.
Some more photos from the trip.
Our house.
Spring fever.
My friends, Jessie and Ali, and I went to Sardinia, which is an island off the coast of Italy. We just drove around and saw the sights. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as warm as we were hoping it would be, but we still managed to find some great food and unique experiences.
Sardinian traffic jam.
This island has been inhabited since about 6000 B.C. and the ancient people made these structures that are still standing today. They are called Nuraghi and they are believed to have been used as fortresses. People can just go into them and explore. So that is exactly what we did.
Jessie
In May, my other Mom, Nancy, came to visit and to be my support as I attended my graduation ceremony in Heidelberg. Before we did that, we took a short trip to Switzerland, where I introduced her to my favorite little town in Switzerland, Muerren. As I expected, she fell in love with Muerren, and also the fresh mountain air. The wonderful reception at the B&B we stayed at, Chalet Fontana, helped her come up with a brilliant idea of starting her own B&B in Wisconsin. We had a great couple of days hiking around in the mountains, but alas, eventually we had to come back down. Then it was off to Heidelberg, where I was officially graduated. Although I had really finished my classes in August, it helped me to gain closure from my life as a college student. I was glad I attended the ceremony and also incredibly grateful to have Mom there to support me.
Mmmm, fondue
This is where the brilliant idea to start her own B&B surfaced. It is an idea that is still in the process of coming to fruition, but I know it will be a great B&B as she is quite possibly the best hostess ever.
Back down to Earth and on with the ceremony.
Mother’s Day brunch
A little antique shopping
There is nothing quite like the canola fields in Germany that grow in the beginning of spring. The intensity of yellow is unparalleled.
Later in May I agreed to participate in the first annual Diversity Day held at Spangdahlem Air Base. Diversity Day is an event meant to celebrate all the various backgrounds and cultures that are represented by the military members here and throughout the world. So I was asked to do a yoga demonstration, highlighting the 2,000 year old tradition. I somehow convinced the other yoga teacher on base, Amanda, to join me on stage. Since I didn’t make it to any of the planning meetings, I got to go first for the day. Those of you who know me well know that I am not a person who likes to be center stage, yet there I was, right in the center of the stage doing yoga. Although I was incredibly nervous, I had to pretend like I was completely calm and controlled. Apparently I pulled it off because after people said I looked very zen-like. The biggest thing I was worried about was falling over during my headstand. As I was about to go up into headstand I can’t tell you what was going on in my mind, but I can tell you it was not very zen. Regardless, the 15 minutes of yoga demonstration passed without either Amanda or I messing up, and in the end I did not die of stage fright.
The end of May and early June I decided to go home to spend a little more time with family and to help my sister Emma prepare for her wedding. I am truly grateful I got to be a small part of the preparations and can’t wait for the big day to arrive. In the end of May, Switzerland called me back again, and my friend Deb and I participated in a Frauenlauf, or women’s run. It was a 10K race that took place in Bern. Before that we went to visit Muerren again, and it was gorgeous as always. We had a great time together and actually enjoyed the run. It was a nice change of pace to not have to elbow through sweaty, stinky men during the race. Everyone was very polite, and it was an incredibly civilized and fun run to be a part of. Maybe I can do it again next year. You never know…
My last adventure before Jim’s return, was a trip to Nice to be the support crew for my friend Jessie. She did the Nice Ironman competition (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a full marathon which is 26.2 miles) and completely rocked it. I was so inspired watching all the people push themselves to their absolute physical limits and still survive. It was fun to be a part of the race, but not actually have to do the race myself. Doris, who was the other person on the support crew for Jessie, and I spent the day watching the race and cheering. The rest of our time spent in Nice, we went sightseeing, hung out at the beach, and of course went shopping. It was a wonderful trip to take before Jim’s return, and also I was really glad to be able to support Jessie in her monumental achievement.
Jessie and Michea, the other girl from Spangdahlem doing the race, right before the swim start.
They even had their own cheerleaders. They rotated through different girls and different outfits all day, but there were cheerleaders urging the competitors onward from morning until night.
Chillin at the beach
Doris, Jessie and me.
Riding one of nature’s most fearsome beasts, the squirrel. (I just saw “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”)
The sights
I know I am in danger of being sappy, but as much as I loved all the things I got to do this year, I would have given all of them up if I could have spent the time with Jim. As I could not, these things I did throughout the year more than kept me busy, they helped me reconnect with myself. As I am readying myself for our next step, I think this past year has helped me become a stronger and more self-sufficient woman. Also the lesson has been driven home to me that you have to take care of yourself and love yourself first before you can love others. I know this lesson will help me throughout life, and I hope that you all understand that it is necessity not luxury to take care of yourself. Go ahead, give yourself a hug. 😉
So to sum up my last year, it was hard and it was fun, but it was just a year in the life…
Anna 🙂
Afghanistan — July
We finally made it to the final month, July, which marked the arrival of our replacements. So, we had a very intense few weeks trying to educate the new engineers on everything they needed to know to be successful. Perhaps the most important task was getting the engineers out to all our project sites. That was something our team didn’t get to do, so it was my top priority during the transition.
This boy was very curious to see what we were doing … inspecting one of our road projects.
As usual, southern Kapisa was a wealth of interesting sites and people.
No, this is not India, but there were cows roaming the market.
This well is very typical of the wells throughout the province. Clean drinking water was a priority, and unfortunately not enough people have access.
Jon took the opportunity while we were speaking to the contractor to speak to this group of kids. He was doing a little education and giving out small tokens (pens and paper) to the kids.
These guys were helping on one of our school projects.
Joel was being forceful with this contractor to ensure he made necessary changes to the school facility.
As usual, the valley was beautiful.
The road we’re building here will enable all forms of transportation.
Same on this road.
July was also the time to harvest the winter wheat. As you can see, they collect the wheat by hand (with a sickle), but often have a mechanical thresher.
These kids had never seen a Frisbee before, but once we showed them how to play with it, they were quite excited.
This was another one of our projects. We helped refurbish the main traffic circle in the district bazaar. Joel had the good idea to add a welcome sign. We also added another solar light. These lights stay on all night and help provide security to the shop keepers. In addition to this project, we also built a couple public restrooms for people using the bazaar, and refurnished the main mosque. These projects, while not very expensive, will provide a little improvement to the quality of life to the people who live and work in the area. Again, we target projects that are developed and prioritized by the people of the area.
The fruit of Afghanistan is absolutely delicious. Personally, my favorite are pomegranates from TagAb, and second are the Afghan mangoes. The mangoes are a little smaller than traditional mangoes, and yellow. And third, are watermelons like the ones this girl is carrying.
This is another photogenic worker on a school project.
So, that concludes my images from Afghanistan. It was an amazing year, filled with hardship and turmoil. But, also left me with hope for the future. The people, government and construction companies are all working toward a better Afghanistan. There is much work to be done and all aspects of the country need improvement. Nonetheless, I believe that we are on the right track. Development of infrastructure, in concert with improved security by Afghan security forces will spur economic and commercial growth, thereby improving the efficacy of the rule of law. Finally, these things all aid in increasing people’s faith in the ability of the government to help them. Once this happens, we as a coalition will be able to pull back and let Afghanistan continue on its path with progressively less international support.
So, my adventure in Afghanistan has come to an end. Now, I get the opportunity to return to Germany and my Anna. I can’t wait!
Until the next adventure…
–Jim
Afghanistan — June
On my final trip to southern Kapisa, we again stopped at the dam. This time, the water was flowing in full force.
Our contractor told us that the water is turned off for a few minutes each week, so that people could gather (not really catch) fish.
Here are the road workers picking out large rocks for the sub-base on the asphalt road. Progress is slow, but mostly steady.
Another view of the water, complete with rainbow.
This is construction of a culvert. The bad news was the quality was bad. The good news was the contractor identified the deficiencies himself and made corrections.
For some of the guys, this was their last mission outside the wire. So, near the end, they were understandably excited.
After we finished our inspection of southern Kapisa, we went to Kabul. While there, I had the opportunity to meet Mitch and Jen. Mitch had just been selected for promotion and had to re-enlist. I was honored that he asked me to perform the ceremony.
It was reminiscent of Guam, when he asked me to perform the same ceremony the last time he was promoted.
Next stop was out to Western Parwan. However, instead of a long drive, it was a short flight.
This is one of the district centers we are building. This complex will house the sub-governor and his staff.
Yeah, I agree, this construction is BAD!
The green valley is a sharp contrast to the austere mountains.
This walled fortress housed one or several families and is known as a qalat.
Next stop for the day was a school. Here you can see our ride and the mountains that surround the school. It was over 9,000 feet, and the altitude was noticeable with all the gear we were carrying.
Although plain, this school will enable two villages to have a building to hold classes in.
You can see we attracted a crowd very quickly.
Our interpreter is ethnically Hazara, as are the people in the area. So, he felt a strong affinity and even gave them a little money out of his own pocket.
The kids loved the pens. This girl immediately tested it on her hand.
This girl had very striking eyes, don’t you think?
Perhaps influence from Alexander the Great’s army?? I’m not sure, but there seems to be strong evidence of Caucasian influence.
A piece of grass makes fine dental floss.
This is one village I felt very safe in. The people were very appreciative that we built the school and were pleased that we made the trip all the way out to come check on it.
That was my final trip in June, but July marked the arrival of the replacement team and our final month in Afghanistan. Although we are right in the middle of construction season, it was nearly time to pass our projects on to a new team. Before we did that though, there was much work to do.
–Jim
Afghanistan — May and June
Some of our development projects are in villages without roads. So, when we go check on them, it requires a bit of a hike.
That even means crossing rivers. I *almost* stayed dry. Not surprisingly, this was the first place we went, so I spent the next 8 hours with wet feet. By the time I finally got to change my socks, my feet were a bit pruny.
This road needs lots of work. It’s going to be rebuilt as a major road over the next two years.
Hiking along a little trail coming back from a project.
Off to see another site with the guys.
Although it’s hard to tell from this image, the building in the back is actually a mosque we refurbished. Although we don’t build new mosques, we have rebuilt a number of them. In fact, one of the most requested projects was to repair a major mosque. This is a huge counterinsurgency point for us. The bad guys are not building any new mosques and to repair or build a new mosque flies in the face of the insurgent’s claim that the coalition is fighting against Islam. Or, the other argument is that we only build roads to help ourselves. These mosques are unequivocally for Afghans and only for Afghans. Regardless of religious affiliation, support of these devout people’s religion, which is such a huge part of their life, is paramount.
Walking through the winter wheat fields.
This little guy came up to each of us and shook our hand. He was very cute.
Walking to another mosque site.
This is a basic health clinic we are building in Kapisa. This clinic will be staffed by Afghan health care providers and provide critical medical care for the region. Since there is no electric grid (yet), the main power is via generator. However, as a backup system for critical equipment and lights, there is a solar array. We have begun focusing on clean and renewable energy sources as a part of all our facility construction.
This is inside the clinic where I am pointing out a few construction deficiencies to the contractor. The quality is mediocre, but we work very hard to increase the capacity of these companies, but still ensure our tax dollars are being spent well and effectively.
This is another road we are building. This asphalt road is the main thoroughfare for the province. Before this construction, on average, 500-600 vehicles traveled on this road each day. One of our measures of effectiveness is to determine if there is any change once we complete the project. We’ve already seen the travel time cut in half and taxi fares drop 9 times after the first phase of construction finished.
To increase the effectiveness of the government, we’re building some of the Kapisa ministries a complex to house their staff and equipment. In this case, we have built this complex for the Kapisa Ministry of Education. It will permit them to function more effectively, train teachers, provide tutoring and more efficiently run their department. As you can see, it’s nearing completion and ideally, it will be finished in the next week or two.
I was also fortunate to be able to tour Kapisa via helicopter. It afforded not only magnificent views, but also a chance to inspect our projects from the air.
These mountains are the foothills of the spectacular Hindu Kush range.
An aerial view of a typical Afghan Khana G’lee (Farsi for mud house).
More Afghan natural beauty.
This is down in Kabul province (just south of Kapisa). It’s interesting that this landscape is so close to the major city of Kabul.
Here is another perspective of the Naghlu Reservoir that you’ve seen in earlier posts.
The road in the foreground is one of the roads we are building. It began as a rugged trail barely wide enough for our vehicles and will end early next year as a major asphalt highway.
Another valley in Kapisa.
More winter wheat fields.
You can see why irrigation and water in general is so important to the people of Kapisa.
One of my best friends, Jen, came to visit me at Bagram. She was supposed to deploy to Iraq, but got diverted to Afghanistan. Although her mission isn’t as exciting, I was glad to catch up with her for a few days before she went to work on the staff at Kabul.
So, that wraps up the first half of June.
Until the next post…
–Jim