Zinder!

Last Thursday was site announcements! We take the entire afternoon to play games, listen to music, and have “cocktails” – which consisted of Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. We played a brutal game of musical chairs, and when we got out, we were separated into ethnic groups of Niger (they didn’t want to tell us the name of our region right away), and then after everyone was separated by region, we were told exactly what region we were going to.

So I’m going to ZINDER! (pronounced “zin-dair”) Zinder is an Eastern region of Niger, and at this time, the farthest region from the capital, Niamey, that Peace Corps Volunteers are assigned. There are a lot of positive and negative things about being assigned to a village in Zinder.
Positives:
1. It’s supposedly 10 degrees cooler and cleaner in Zinder.
2. It has the most vegetation of all the regions (major brownie points!)
3. The city of Mirriah is the ancient capital of Niger, coupled with the fact that Nigeria and Chad are located nearby, creates a very unique culture found only in this region. Not to mention that we could learn broken Nigerian English (somewhat like Pigeon English).
4. Apparently, we have an incredible hostel for the PCVs in our region that includes: some of the best books found in any library (because people bring books out to Zinder, but not many come out to bring them back to the other libraries) and a toilet (not a latrine…awesome!).
5. We’re the only region that gets to ride “cabo-cabos” - motorcycles (taxis are hard to come by), with our handy-dandy helmets of course).
6. We have lots of regional spirit – we got “Z” shirts that look like something a sorority would wear and brownies too (that’s a HUGE deal here)!
7. Several of my closest friends also were also placed in this region.
Negatives:
1. Somewhere between 14 hours (minimal) to 27 hours (I heard this was an exceptionally ridiculous case) to arrive in Zinder Ville (the actual city) from Niamey. Niamey is where the only international airport is located; although, I heard there is hope that different regions might start getting international flights.

So a little bit about my village – it’s actually a small city, which is exciting for me because I will be able to work on some larger scale projects during my service. My village is a market town, so a cluster of volunteers will be coming into town each Friday for market. Somewhat appropriate, considering how I like to be the center of attention…haha. In all seriousness, I am looking forward to seeing other volunteers on a pretty regular basis just for my personal sanity. I was told that the volunteer before me left “big shoes to fill,” which I think will motivate me to continue with projects he left and hopefully create innovative new projects that will continue to improve the community. He left me a really wonderful detailed document describing the village, people, projects, and even advice. One thing that completely reassured me was that he ate “three square street food meals a day” which means if I can’t manage to cook for myself, I’ll be able to find something…somewhere. Unfortunately, I won’t get to meet him because he left Niger early to attend grad school, but I’m looking forward to contacting him to hear even more about his experience in my village. So – in addition to the market and places to get food, I also have a post office, l’inspection (education department), and a Peace Corps hostel. I won’t get internet unless I travel about 90k to Zinder Ville, which I can do every few weeks.

The kicker is that they sold the volunteer house, so I am homeless. Sweet! In the meantime, I will have a temporary house, for an undetermined amount of time. I was told that this house was incredible and not to get too attached because my real house wouldn’t nearly be as awesome. So I can’t really give anyone any stats on my electricity/running water/bathroom situation. I believe my mayor and supervisor are currently searching for a residence, so as soon as I know I’ll post all the information.

The first 3 months we live in our village, we aren’t supposed to be working on projects. We should be integrating into the community and practicing the language. In the meantime, lots of boredom takes place. Feel free to send me movies, books, magazines, letters, and any other forms of entertainment you can think of! I’m actually looking forward to learning to cook – something I have had little patience for in the past. I guess it’s something I’m learning from Nigeriens – Sai Hankuri!