Exchange Rate

The exchange rate between dollars and dalasis is somewhere around 35 to 1. That means if I were to go to a bank and give them an American dollar I would get roughly 35 Dalasis back. This makes the currency almost seem like play money, and if there is anything you really really wanted you could simply find an ATM and withdraw about 20 dollars from your American account and have somewhere near 1000 extra dalasi to use on your purchase. I try not to see things as they would cost in American dollars though, because we have Gambian bank accounts and get paid in Dalasi, so there is no point in going through all of these conversions. Some common items that people buy here are green tea and sugar. A bag of sugar is 8 dalasi and the tea is 5. So its 13 dalasi to brew tea. My instant coffee is about 225 for a can that will last a week and a half at least. My bath soap is 30 dalasi a bar. Phone credit is another big thing I purchase, and that seems to disappear at a rate of about 10 dalasi a minute if Im calling my dad or Zabeth. My breakfast this morning of an egg sandwhich and coffee was about 60 dalasi. The fare to get to Basse from Sami is 50 dalasi. All that really is pretty cheap when you consider its less than 4 American dollars to ride a van to Basse, and eat breakfast, but in terms of my income (about 5000 dalasi a month) a few meals out and a car ride a week eats it up pretty quick. On the first of every month I give my host dad 1000 dalasi for rent and for all the food I get. The 500 for food is really not enough, so each week I go to the market and try and spend about 200 on either food I give to my family, or stuff I eat so that Im taking less food from them. Being in village though, there is hardly anything to spend money on, just some produce at the market and then whatever thing I can think of to buy for a craft project after that. I am able to leave alot on the bank so that if I want to go and have a big weekend there is enough money there.The exchange rate is awesome if you are considering only taking a trip,and converting dollars to dalasi just to cover expenses, but since I get paid in it it doesnt make much difference.