The JimAnna Chronicles

Back in August we also made a trip to Wisconsin when Anna’s sister Emma married Scott. It was a beautiful wedding and we really enjoyed being with the family. It was fitting for a return. The summer before my sister, Julie, and Michael were married. The day after their wedding, I deployed. Now, three weeks after I returned, we were back in Wisconsin for another wedding. Next summer, we’ll be back for my Cousin Chad and Andrea’s wedding with a new baby boy (if all goes well).
Now, on to the Wisconsin trip.
We began with Emma and Scott rehearsal.


Getting ready for the real deal.

Anna and Susan at the rehearsal dinner.

My beautiful bride.

Susan also has strength and beauty to match a great smile.

Billy Mitchell (or just Will) was a great ring bearer.

The church seemed like a concert when they dimmed the lights and put a spot light on the happy couple.

The happy couple.


The best part of the ceremony (for them at least!).

Just like in rehearsal.

Dad Miller looking happy and stoic at the same time. He has the amazing ability to do that on a regular basis.

Pat looking beautiful as usual. She identifies with the wicked witch, but I don’t get that. 🙂

Emma’s friend Liz, who is also Pat and Tom’s daughter. I loved the way the light caught her eye.

All 6 sisters together.

The lovely bride.

Mom Miller looking great as usual.

Scott with the girls.

I also got to hang out with two gorgeous women.

Maroly and Juan, who Anna and I had a blast hanging out with. Next time we are in Mexico City, we look forward to seeing them.

I recognize that tattoo from somewhere.

Dancing was so much fun.

Mom and Mike were certainly enjoying themselves.

The next morning, we all gathered at the Miller house for the present opening. This image is quintessential Kira.

A classic Emma look.

Will with his big blue eyes.

Sarah was the diligent note taker to keep track of all that stuff…
It was a great opportunity to come home and celebrate a special event with our family and friends. Until the next one…
–Jim

OK, so I know it’s been WAAAY too long since I last posted. I wish I had a good excuse, but for some reason I just couldn’t finish a post.
Nevertheless, I’ve still been making images and decided to finally catch up. To begin, I’ll continue with the Greek post.
So, where did I leave off? Ahh yes, Julie and Mike finished their Mediterranean cruise and met us in Athens.

These soldiers are part of the Presidential Guard of the Hellenic Army. Here they are performing a changing of the guard at the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Dress right, dress! Or, the Greek equivalent.

Carrying their M-1 carbines.

I saw this cutie in the crowd, do I had to make her image.

Sometimes it takes laying in the street about to be marched over to find an interesting angle.

This is Hadrian’s Arch, juxtaposed with the modern Athens through it.

The other side.

Temple of Hephaestus – Thission. Hephaestus is the god of fire and metal. It’s interesting that although this temple was begun before the Parthenon, but not finished until after.

Ahh, the Parthenon. A building that needs very little introduction.

The Porch of the Caryatids on the Erechteum. This sacred sight was built around the time of the The Peloponnesian War, just before 400 B.C.

Anna and I on the acropolis.

Julie and Mike at the same place.

The pediments are glaringly missing on the Parthenon. You may be aware of the controversy surrounding their removal in the early 19th century. Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire shipped them back to Britain and they are now on display in the British museum. In the new Acropolis museum, the pediments are explained and shown in detail. If the piece is missing, the museum indicates it’s location. The visual impact was profound. Although we really enjoyed seeing the Elgin collection in London, it would have been nice to see them in Athens. But, we’ll leave that decision to the courts.

Unfortunately, the Temple of Zeus is nearly completely destroyed. When constructed it held a gigantic statue of its namesake, considered by many as a wonder of the ancient world. Today, very little is left, but with a little imagination, one can still see the mighty god reposing in his temple.

We also stopped by the Theatre of Dionysus, god of wine and fertility (perhaps a contributing factor to Anna’s pregnancy??). Although it’s not in the best condition, the Greek government recently announced that a partial restoration would commence shortly. Also, most of what is visible is from the time of Roman emperor Nero when gladiator contests were hosted here.

In fact, Julie and Mike were so excited about the gladiators, they could almost see them!

Yet another view back to the Parthenon. A fact we learned from our good friends Dan and Rachael is that Nashville has an exact replica of this building. When we visited Dan and Rachael in Nashville, they drove us to it. and to our surprise … there it was, right in the middle of the Country Music Capital of the World, (almost) just as the ancient Greeks built it.

We also enjoyed the food, wine and dancing of the culture.

The Five Star Metaxa was also tasty. It’s a Greek type of brandy.

Night on the acropolis.

The subway was safe, efficient and fast to take us back to our hotel.
It was a great time and best of all a rare opportunity to hang out with Julie and Mike. We loved the opportunity to tour one of the most historic sights in the world with my sister and brother.
Until the next adventure… (this time I promise to publish faster!)
–Jim

OK, so, after a long delay, our website is functional again. My apologies if anyone was having difficulty accessing the site. We has some problems when our server switched platforms (meaning — the site got really messed up). Thanks to our good friend Dan (and his friend who did most of the work), our site is functional again. And, as such, we have a number of posts to catch up on. This will be the first of two posts on our trip to Greece from back in August. Then, we’ll post on a trip to Wisconsin, some images from here in Washington DC and a weekend trip to New York City.
Before I get into the post, we have some BIG NEWS TO SHARE: ANNA IS PREGNANT! We’re very excited. We’ll post more as things progress, but the baby is due in June, which will be after we move to France. So, we get to experience French health care. 🙂
Now back to Greece. It was a great trip and somewhere we’d wanted to go for years. We finally made it for a short visit. We began by exploring Athens and the islands nearby. So, here are the images.

This adorable boat was on the island of Poros. We took a speedy hydrofoil boat to get to these other islands. The hydrofoils are a great way to travel, but we realized that the are bumpier than expected.

Anna by her boat.

The harbor in Poros.

All the cats we saw looked very Egyptian with a smaller head and large ears.

The weather and temperature were perfect.

The whitewashed buildings with blue doors and trim is very Mediterranean. It reminded me of Sidi Bu Said in Tunisia, but I’m not sure which was decorated first.

As usual, we found a flower to take a picture of. 🙂

Who wouldn’t want to live here??

Next stop for the day was the island of Hydra. There were no cars on the island, and the white and blue adornment wasn’t as prevalent. It was a great place to just chill (exactly what we needed for our trip to Greece). We went swimming in the azure waters, had a few meals in outstanding restaurants, then headed back to the Athens metropolis.


This picture isn’t terribly unique but I really like the color.


This is our friend Reut, who we met in Athens.
These next images are from our exploration of the museums in Athens. As you might expect, they have a wealth of artifacts and information. It was fascinating.

The guy on the right is Paris from Greek mythology. He is famous for the apple you can see him reaching for (or holding … depending on how you look at it). Perhaps the most famous role is his elopement with Helen of Troy …. which supposedly started the Trojan War.

Athena, goddess of wisdom and virgin patron of Athens.




OK, that covers the first half of the trip.
Until the next post…
–Jim

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

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

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

The pictures on this post are entirely of a multi-day operation we did in Kapisa. The idea was to go out, do a number of quick impact projects, improve the appearance of the area and directly infuse a little cash into the local people’s hands. So, we drove down and set up shop. Also, since the chief was there, you will see a mix of his images and mine.

Here we are setting up camp. Chief’s wide angle does the scene more justice.

Here is Todd negotiating with the contractors for the projects. As with any transaction in Afghanistan, there was much bargaining. We try to always get the best blend of quality and price on any project. So, even a project that was a few thousand dollars, we haggled as much as with a project that is a few million.

OK, so this image may be a little crass, but it’s indicative. We had toilets that usually had water. Unfortunately, the toilets were eastern style squat ones. So, the guys fashioned this chair to westernize the experience.

One of the laborers during the morning meeting.

On the compound, we used colored tape to mark who was working each project. It worked pretty well, and there seemed to be quite a bit of camaraderie.

Here are the two docs (ours and Afghan). They invited me for a traditional Afghan lunch. As usual, it was delicious.

Here’s Todd, with his desk set up to pay all the workers.

One of our infantry soldiers providing security over watch.

We literally put cash in people’s hands. 1000 Afghani is about $20, which is four times the going rate for an unskilled laborer. We knew this would potentially inflate the job market, but felt that getting cash to people was a good stimulus package. Similar to the one in the US, it’s long term effect remains to be seen.

More security over watch while out looking at one of our school projects.

These boys were rather intrigued by us (and the Chief’s camera in particular). We were the first coalition convoy to go to this area in a couple years, so we got a lot of curious stares.

Chief caught me talking to a contractor and one of the guys communicating via the handheld radio.

We are looking over the map doing some mission planning. The boss is in the center with the operations guy on the right and me on the left. Certainly an ad hoc setup, but much like the chair, it worked.

Exterior painting was one of the projects. Although I wouldn’t have chosen that color combination, the people seemed to be pleased. It definitely contrasts with the rest of the buildings in the area.

To my environmentalist friends … I know. I’m sorry.

Driving our vehicles is a lot like driving a big rig. They weigh about the same too!

One of the Afghan National Policemen who stayed with us alongside one of our interpreters.

Our day-laborers were also a captive audience. So, we used their attention to teach dental hygiene. Then, as re-enforcement, offered some dental supplies as handouts.

Again, the people were fascinated to see their image on the digital display.

More workers with rapt attention.

They were all very serious.

However, these guys had been watching me take pictures for a while and apparently thought I was quite amusing. So, when I came over by them, they were all smiles. Of course, it was also the end of the day and they were about to be paid. But, I’d rather think that it was me.

The chief looking like the rugged photographer that he is.

Another Afghan National Policeman.

We also did a few projects out in the ~1,000 shop bazaar. So, to check on them we took a few walks out and about. This is one of the produce stores. Most normal fruit is available. The green vegetables that look like peas are actually an Afghan pepper. They are served with many dishes and are very tasty. In case you can’t tell, I really enjoy the food here.

This is an example of a “jingle” truck … always colorful, sometimes noisy and ubiquitous on the roads of Afghanistan. We also re-furbished the mayor’s office (in the center of the traffic circle in the background).

The jingle trucks also brought in the gravel to place on the dirt roads.

This guys was very happy to have a job with us. Although spreading gravel is easier and better with heavy equipment, it was more beneficial to the people to do it by hand, because it gave many people a job.

This boy’s shop is ingenious. He had a small generator and a number charging stations. It’s a perfect solution for a place in which most people have mobile phones, but with virtually no regular access to electricity.

Although there aren’t many driving rules here … I don’t think this little guy hits the road regularly.

Jon had his promotion ceremony out on site. It was a fitting place to be promoted and witnessed by (nearly) the whole team. I was honored that he asked the Chief and I to pin on his new rank.

Here we all are. It was a very good mission; we connected with the local people, made our presence felt, did a few small projects, and gave me the opportunity to see a number of projects we don’t get a chance to see as often as I would like. All in all, it was a success.
So, until the next post…
–Jim

Yet another photogenic and stoic Afghan.

Just checking on the vehicles to make sure they’re still there. I hate to get stuck without them!

This is a provincial sub-governor I met with. We discussed development in his district and how that we can best meet the needs of the people.

Discussion over a map.

The always beautiful lakehouse. Every time I see it, I think of Europe. Apparently, that’s what the King wanted. He built it modeled on the lakehouses of Europe.

These ANA soldiers joined us on a mission and were well armed (as you can see). The ANA is a very well respected organization in Afghanistan (as it should be). So we try to enlist their help and support as much as possible.

This is on a different patrol, in Parwan Province. As you can see, it’s a little more developed.

Another view of Parwan. It’s a very beautiful province, and relatively safe.

Typical houses of the region.

Some ANA and ANP who we joined for the evening.

This little boy was so adorable. He was very proud of his suit. His father looked quite proud as well.

Afghanistan has so much amazing natural beauty that contrasts sharply with the rugged living conditions. It really motivates me to help give the people a chance for success in the future with our infrastructure projects.

So, I know I haven’t included many construction images. Normally, that’s because the subject matter isn’t that interesting. I kinda like the texture here, so I’m adding it. This is standard Afghan brick and mortar work. Let’s just say, it leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, the brick walls are not normally load bearing, so they don’t have to be super strong. Nonetheless, I always try to have the contractors do quality work.

This is a partially completed District Center. This building will house the provincial sub-governor and a number of other district staff members.

The spring is a beautiful time in Afghanistan.

One of the nice things about the Army, is that they can fly parts in anywhere you need them.

The guys.

More natural beauty, and the traffic jam we caused in the village. But, when the vehicle can’t move, and the road isn’t wide enough to pass, there is no other option.

As a small token for their help, I gave these kids a few school supplies. To make it interesting though, I decided to play a trivia game (with the help of an interpreter, of course). So, I asked the kids questions on a variety of subjects. They really impressed me with their knowledge. Then, they asked me some questions to quiz me and got me on one! Who was the first person in space and what date was the flight? I got Yuri Gagarin, but missed the date (12 April 1961). Once my supplies ran out, I went out to the village and continued the game there. Eventually, I had quite a crowd gathered. It was interesting to see the sentiment of the people change from irritated that they had to wait for us to fix the vehicle to friendly because of the interaction.

Here we are back near southern Kapisa. The mountains are quite dramatic here as well.

One of our MRAP silhouetted in the tunnel.

Here are the guys (and girl) who were with me on the mission. The team is a great group of people.

Here is one of the roads we’re building. Although it’s not quite as straight as I would like, the road is already significantly improved. I can’t wait to see what it’s like once the asphalt is finished.

These next two images are of the Kuchi people in Kapisa. Although not a separate ethnicity, they are most often Pashtun and pastoral nomads who spend the winter in the south of Afghanistan and migrate with the season to the north.

Their camps dotted the valleys in Kapisa for several weeks.

These girls are a great image to represent the mixed emotion many people feel toward us. Overall, we are seen as helpful, but without a delicate touch, we will most certainly wear out our welcome in the country. If that happens, it would be a great loss for everyone, and things would devolve rapidly. I hope that doesn’t happen, so we work very hard to build positive relations with the people and ensure the government is legitimate and connected with the people. To that end, I believe we have been successful, but there is always more we can do. I will spend the remainder of my time here working toward that goal.
So, until the next post.
–Jim