Forgot Thanksgiving, CHOGM, close encounter

I did absolutely nothing to celebrate Thanksgiving. I even forgot that it was Thanksgiving until later in the evening when we were teaching a lesson with a senior couple and they decided to bring it up as part of the lesson. I forget how it applied to the Law of Chastity, but I do remember them bringing it up. And then on Friday, Elder Mabaso made one year on his mission. And again, we did nothing to celebrate.

I think one of the big reasons we didn't do much celebrating was because of CHOGM. It's a big commonwealth meeting that Uganda hosted this year that brought in a bunch of politicians from other countries including "Her Majesty." Ugandans have been freaking out about it for the past ten years I think. But all this week we had to be in at 7:00 p.m. because of security reasons. Otherwise, we probably would have gone to one of the nice Ethiopian restaurants they have here in Nsambya.

The Queen has come and gone, and unfortunately I don't think any of the Ugandans are any richer because of it. The other day one of the taxi drivers tried very hard to charge us more. Too bad for him I know the prices and I had exact change. Apparently he woke up that morning and tried to deem himself a beneficiary of CHOGM. Taxi drivers are usually the ones to always try and cheat Mzungu. I hate the contention I feel when I refuse to let them cheat me, but I think it's the best thing. I usually end up saying something like, "You're a bad example of Ugandans..." It's not my fault the economy is terrible here.

Another interesting thing that happened was me almost being seriously attacked by a monkey. Elder Mabaso and I walked into the gate of a compound to knock the house. Right as we walked in, there was a tree to our right with kind of a dog house next to it. Out of the dog house came a monkey tied to a rope. A pet monkey... I was pretty excited. We went up to the house and talked to the twenty year old daughter who was home. After the whole "contact procedure" was through, I asked her about the monkey. She said that it was nice and that sometimes they untie it to let it run around the neighborhood and then at night it comes back and they tie it up again. So on my way out, I decided to see how "nice" it was. I got closer and closer to try and pet it or something, but it refused to come near me. Between me and the monkey, who was standing on his "dog house," was the tree. As I turned my head to say something to Elder Mabaso, the monkey lunged at my face, jumping through the "Y" shape that the tree made at about shoulder height as it branched upward. As I saw it coming in my peripheral vision, I turned to block my face, and inches away from my face the rope around the monkey's waist whipped it back into the tree. A little too close... Weird enough, I think the wild monkeys in Entebbe are more tame than the "pet" ones here in Nsambya.

I'll be looking forward to that package. Thanks so much! I continue to pray for our family every night. I know that we've been blessed, are blessed, and will continue to receive blessings for the faith and obedience that we've demonstrated thus far. Have a great week. Hope you're listening to Christmas music. We are.

Elder Wright