I'm going to Zinder!

After over a month of anticipation, Peace Corps officials have finally revealed to us the villages in which we will be living for the next two years! I haven’t been there yet, so I don’t know too much about my particular village. But I do know that of the 5 regions in Niger with volunteers currently serving, my village is in the region that is the farthest east. Consequently, it’s the farthest away from the Peace Corps headquarters in Niamey (which is in the west, in case you didn’t figure that out.) I’ll be living in a six room hut, which is unheard of for a Peace Corps volunteer, within a walled concession that is apparently big enough to plant a millet field. That’s a whole lot of room that I won’t know what to do with. My fellow Peace Corps Trainees (because we aren’t actually sworn in Volunteers yet) have decided that I have so many rooms because I single handedly represent Peace Corps Nigeria, seeing as I am only 4K away from Nigeria. (Important side note: Niger and Nigeria are not the same country.) This of course isn’t true, mainly because Peace Corps doesn’t have any volunteers in Nigeria and we aren’t even allowed to travel there due to political unrest. My proximity to Nigeria doesn’t hinder my safety in country, but does provide for fun jokes. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to let you know more about what my village is really like. Until then…MY MAILING ADRESS WILL CHANGE REALLY SOON! I don’t know what will be yet, but if you were planning on sending a package don’t yet, because you should send it to Zinder. If not, I’ll get it later than planned. Letters should be fine for a while though, so feel free to write and send pictures and anything fun you think I may enjoy! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, I miss you all and wish you the best. And although I’m awful at remembering to take pictures, my friend Marissa is great at it, so check out www.flickr.com/photos/mwong64.