mid-service medical checkup funness

so, i've been in maseru since saturday, which means good food, bed whose springs don't dig into my hips, electricity, internet, and running showers. except not always.
one of my missions for this week was to finish my lesson plans for my biology class for the rest of the year. their textbook is horrible and inaccurate, so i usually try to make lesson plans using the vast awesomeness of the interwebbies. then i can use pictures, too. a diagram of the ear is much more attractive and comprehensible than my chalk scratchings on the board. that being said, i've been coming into the peace corps office at about 7 every morning and working until about noon, with some interuptions. i finished, which is good. and added some things to the syllabus. seriously, i'm supposed to teach about plant nutrition, but the only thing listed on the syllabus is photosynthesis. pah. nothing mentioned about gaining nutrients from the soil, water uptake, etc. i'm always hesitant to add more to the syllabus, though, because my principal has told me that i have taught my form b student things they wouldn't have to learn for another couple years. he was happy about it, but it amazed me because i feel like i'm simplifying a lot of things as much as i can. still, i don't want to go in to too much detail and just confuse my students. humph!
that was about all i did on sunday, besides buying FOOD! which always makes me happy. we did have about 16 people staying in the peace corps' t house (transit house) that night, so the place was a complete mess, and a couple people and i ended up cleaning up after some others. it happens. and the reason that there were 16 people there was that there were 5 people who were COSing (finishing peace corps) and were leaving the next day to go on trips or return home. i'm sure they had oodles of other things on their minds. i didn't really get to know too many people from the group that's leaving now because none of them live near me, but it's still really weird to see them leave. i'm probably never going to see them again. and it makes me consider where i am in my service, and what i remember of them a year ago, when they were at the same part in their service that i am now. and in one year, that will be me.
so, the five of them got up and left the next morning, and i came into the office to continue working on lessons, and to begin my mid-service medical check-up. basically this is kind of a typical doctor's check-up to make sure you're healthy, so i got blood pressure taken, i was weighed, and actually that was about it. the only thing out of the ordinary from a doctor's check-up in the states was that i got a tb test (i'm negative - w00t).
i went back to the t house to discover that some men were working on the pipes at the end of the street and that our water was cut. it was supposed to come on that night (monday night) but only worked for a half hour and then cut off again. it didn't return until mid-afternoon tuesday. so there were 12 to 16 people living in one house with no way to bathe, wash dishes, wash clothes, or flush the toilet. here's where a pit latrine would've come in really handy. it was disgusting.
it turns out a volunteer who is COSing on friday had season 2 of the american version of the office. i'd never seen any episodes before, but now have. i liked it. it's less painful than the british version. i like the british version, but can only watch a couple episodes at a time because the boss makes me cringe so badly so often. i also watched the devil wears prada and the last king of scotland last night. very different movies. but i'd never seen either of them before, and though they're now a couple years old, it still makes me feel like i'm not totally out of touch.
yesterday morning (tuesday) i came in and finished my lesson plans and then got to go to the dentist's. normal check-up. no tooth problems. and then at the end of the appointment, i got a lesson on how to properly brush my teeth and floss. this was kinda funny to me, as i still have vague memories of learning these things courtesy of cartoon toothbrushes and toothpaste sometime around kindergarten, but i nodded my head and said ok. by the way, you should use circular motions, 10 circles per tooth, when brushing, except on the front teeth when you switch to vertical movements. just fyi.
oh, the new group is about to swear in. they just got their site placements, and three are coming to mohale's hoek! i'm really excited. i'm not sure where all of them are going to be living, but it'll be exciting to meet new people. there are no volunteers leaving mohale's hoek now, either, so i don't have to say goodbye to any people that were neighbors, which is nice.
so, i'm leaving maseru in a little while to return home to ha thaba bosiu. i'm hopefully not going to be back until mid-september. sorry i forgot to bring my namibia pics, but one of the girls in the group has set up a flickr account so you can check out her pictures if you want: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jopis/