Things we, and maybe you may, take for granted

Dishwashers: Mac says that he cannot believe that we get upset at home for having to unload the dishwasher. Here we have to boil water and place it in a dishpan, wash the dishes, rinse them in the sink, dry them, and then put them up.

Electricity: Gayla says that she has taken for granted electricity and a dryer. Several times, we have been washing clothes and the power has gone out in the middle of the cycle – it takes about two hours to wash a very small load as it is, so when the power goes out you have to start over. We just figured out how to get Gayla’s

hairdryer to work here in Africa and this was met with great delight. We also cannot dry our clothes, so they get all stiff.

Wi-Fi and high speed internet: Jimmy says that he has taken the internet for granted. You have no idea how long it takes to do something on a computer around here. The connection is slower than dial up in the States and we have lost many e-mails and to update the blog is a 50\50 chance of it uploading on the first try. We have started to type things on my mac and then just transfer it to the pc so that at least we have the information when the internet stops working and the 10 times daily that we get the blue screen of death.

Transportation: Mac really misses a car. As it is now we have to wait for someone to take us anywhere and this means paying someone or inconveniencing one of our friends to stop what they are doing and lug our family somewhere. Furthermore, since we are way out in the bush, the drive to anywhere is troublesome. On that note, we have taken for granted good roads. The roads in Uganda or filled with holes and there is much more dirt than pavement – we have taken for granted our beat up, no air-conditioning about the fall apart Previa.

Our bathrooms: When we get up in the middle of the night we have to go outside to another building to use the toilet and we have to fight off the bugs and the fear to do so. We moved into another room at the guest house and now we have a sink! This means that we do not have to go there to brush our teeth – amazing.This is the journey from our room to the other building.

Water: Jimmy remembers the day he first saw a bottle of water FOR SALE in the States. “Are you kidding me? Who would ever pay for a bottle of water?” Jimmy asked the driver if he had always had to pay for bottled water and he said all of his 41 years he has had to buy water. We have probably spent $75.00-$100.00 in water alone. There are certainly no water fountains.

Speed of service: It is common for it to take 45 to 60 minutes to receive your food, but everything is fresh. Our fast food takes at least thirty minutes. There is a lack of refrigeration here as well as a lack of electricity, so there are few times that all of the food is hot when it comes out because it has to sit out while the others are ready – although they really try and do a darn good job of it actually.

Other random things: Hot Showers, eating anything you want, vegetables(we are trying to keep the parasites low so we are eating less veggies and even the kids are saying they miss them), things are so easy to get to back home, our gatherings on Sundays and our church, bathtubs, carpet and clean floors, ESPN and American Idol, ability to control the temperature, no fear of dusk and what it brings, being sick less, no mosquito nets, and clean bathrooms practically everywhere.