Emerging from the African bush

Dear Uganda,
First let me apologize. I'm sorry for leaving the light, tv and water heater on all night, repeatedly, and over all just abusing your resources. You were surprisingly hospitable and accomodating - something my Americanness completely took for granted.
Thank you.
Thank you for the running water (most of the time...) - though the showers were often cold and toilet paper occasionally had to go in a trash can, I do not overlook the alternatives (aka in Ugandan: the bush or a hole in the ground).
Thank you for your incredible internet connectivity - seriously unexpected. Minus a few mountainous areas, my Blackberry loved the MTN:Uganda network until its tragic death in Nyakagezi.
Thank you for your very vegan meal options. They were always the same, but that was true for nearly all of your food. And I am pretty sure I gained weight in a third world country nonetheless, due to the large proportion of carbs in those meals. It just feels wrong.
Thank you for sharing with me these priceless memories: temporarily curing my cough using ancient medicines (yep, I ate eucalyptus tree - I wasn't joking about being broken of my germophobia); learning how to African dance (and apparently being good at it!?); those candlelit nights in Kisiizi that were so Little House on the Prairie; showering from a jerry can (who is high maintenance now?) crossing over the equator; teaching accounting to the S1 students in Nyaka; learning how to use a panga (oversized knife/machetti) from a 63 year old mukaaka (granny); the nights I spent curled up under mosquito nets next to Liz (in beds that seemed to continually grow impossibly smaller), watching a pride of lions lounge in a nearby tree from the rack of our safari van (and appropriately narrating the experience in my faux British accent); dipping my toes in the source of the Nile; and those 30+ bonus hours to celebrate Africa Day on the correct continent because of a broken plane engine delaying our flight out.
Your people are truly more than just an accent to the beautiful scenery and organic nature. They are strong, resilliant, and hopeful.
You have rejouvenated my tired spirit with your vibrancy. I am moving on now, savoring once again the taste of familiar flavors of Western food, re-adjusting to riding in cars on the right side of the road and relishing conversations with natives that go beyond "Hi, muzungu. How are you? I am fine." And as my heart still grows fonder for you daily, I hope that, in the little bit of my time spent in Uganda, I in some way breathed a kind of life of my own into your mud huts.
Until I return again...
xoxo,
Ann