Friday Five: Taken for Granted

Today I thought I'd post five things I took for granted while in the states.  Life here is different- harder in some ways, more glorious in others. just some perspective on your Friday.

1. clean, drinkable water from the tap.  We keep a water bottle in the bathroom for brushing teeth.  We boil and filter all of our drinking water. Just one more process to think about each day.
2. constant, reliable electricity in our home.  planned power outages.  random power outages.  low power frying our fans. 
3. steady, available resources in the store.  We find a new favorite snack at the grocery store, and then it's unavailable for weeks.  We need cooking gas, or fuel for the car and there is none to be found (When we drove to Arua at Christmas we had to travel 60 km out of our way to fill up on diesel)!
4. sidewalks.  period.  it's just not the peaceful getaway going for an evening stroll here.  must be alert and aware of oncoming traffic, motorcycles, potholes, pedestrians, bicycles, or the occasional stray dog, cow or pig! think frogger. 
5. and on that note, traffic laws. for the most part people follow them in the states.  it is not unusual for a car to be driving against traffic in your lane, or traffic police ignoring the stop lights and directing traffic themselves.  never a dull moment. 

What are you thankful for this Friday?  What are some unglamorous realities in the states??  Help me regain my perspective :)