In my town, people speak Soninke, Mandinka, Fulakunda Pular, Pula-foota Pular, Wolof, and French. I learned to speak Pulaar when I came to Senegal, so that is the one I use most often, but I know little bits of all the other languages as well.
The West African Frank (or CFA) is the currency here. 565 CFA is equivalent to $1 USD (United States dollar). This past week, I went to my local shop and bought 30 eggs, a can of instant coffee, and a bag of instant milk. These items should last me about three weeks, and the cost was 10K CFA or $18.
Trick question: we don’t have bottles of water; we have bags! 16-oz plastic-bagged water is sold all over the country, and in my town, one packet costs 0.50 CFA or $0.00088 USD.
I had some lecceri with beef, vegetable bits, and onion and peanut sauce. Lecceri is ground millet that is toasted to a kind of sandy consistency, then topped with the sauce, which mixed together, creates a kind of pudding-like texture. It looks awful, but it tastes really good!
