Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Since my last post, things have been a little bit crazy.  As I wrote at the end of my last post, there were 15 of us staying in a three bedroom, one bathroom house for 4 days to spend Christmas together in Chimoio.  Everyone left this morning to go back to their respective sites, and I'm just staying in Chimoio a bit longer to milk the free wireless internet in the Peace Corps office for all it's worth.  :)

So in my last post I wrote about half of my trip to the clinic.  After my post, however, things got a little crazy.    I went back to the clinic and the doctor told me that the blood tests were all negative (I think they were checking for infection), so he gave me a prescription for some pain medication that I had to go pick up at the pharmacy.  Ofelio took me to the pharmacy, and got the medicine for me, but when I looked at the medicine, they were in glass vials that were completely enclosed.  I asked Ofelio what the medicine was and how it is administered, but he said that he didn't know and that I had to go back to the clinic and ask.  Upon returning to the clinic, I was informed that the vials were actually injections that I had to return to the clinic daily (for the next 9 days) to have administered.  Icing on the cake: the injections have to be in the ass.   So that was lovely.  Merry Christmas to me.

I went back to Messica on Friday afternoon, and returned to Chimoio bright and early on Saturday for my second injection. I have been in Chimoio ever since Saturday, and will be going back to Messica today (they will administer my last shot at the clinic in Messica).  So the guys at the clinic know me now, and when I walk in they just follow me to the room,  give me the shot, and I'm on my way.

Everyone else started arriving for Christmas on Saturday as well, and by Monday all 15 of us were in Chimoio. On Christmas day I went to mass with a couple other PCVs.  The service was great, but also incredibly long and HOT.  We didn't realize that it would be held outside, so I lacked to bring a bottle of water or put on sunscreen.  Whoops.  Also, there were about 50 baptisms, which added approximately an hour to the length of mass.  It was a little rough.  But it was also really cool.  Throughout the mass whenever I thought about how miserably hot I was, I remembered how awesome it is that I'm able to have this experience.  Also, there was a huge line of offerings and it was truly humbling to see people who don't have much give what they do have to Jesus.  :) Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Anyway, Christmas was very much different than what I am used to, but I had a great time with everyone here.  It was just super strange to Skype everyone while they were together and feel so removed.  It sounds like everyone in Ohio had a white Christmas, while I have been sweating over here like it's my job.

For New Years, Sarah and I are going to stay in Messica and try to find a family to take us in. It should be fun. :)

Hopefully I'll find out what grade I'll be teaching and be able to start lesson planning soon.  Sarah and I are going to help make the teacher's schedule next week, so I should also know my school schedule soon.  School starts in mid-January, so until then I'll be hanging out, reading some books, and washing laundry by hand.  Sounds like fun, right?