Money

Money
Money is callled dalasi, one australian dollar is around 20 dalasi (D20). Many gambians are poor and only have 20 dalasi a day to live on. My local wage equates to around $10 Australian dollars per day. I need to pay for food, transport, electricity, gas (from a gas bottle in my home), mobile phone for local calls (a two year wait to have a landline connection, consequently, mobile phones are cheap to sms locally), household utensils, products and equipment and have clothes locally made to dress appropriately for work. There are small supermarkets here but the prices are the same as Australia, if not more expensive. I have spent two months of my Gambian wage in a matter of two weeks!! This has gone on phone calls to home about 4 minutes costs 200 dalasi , going out for a meal is about 200 dalasi, a can of diet coke or a small soft drink is 20 dalasi, 6 eggs 30 dalasi, milk is 45 dalasi, one towel 235 dalasi, 135 dalasi for one pot, 1 kg of carrots at the market 40 dalasi, 1.5L of water is 40 dalasi etc To eat fresh fruit and vegetables is expensive, even from the markets, to buy things from a supermarket is a luxury. In my first two days here I bought an icecream from the supermarket at Bakau, something I will never do again. I had about 20 children surrounding me asking for some, I felt like the Pied Piper. Consequently, I ate the icecream quickly and vowed never to buy icecream out on the street again. Having an icecream is like walking around Adelaide draped in diamonds. I suppose what Im trying to highlight here, is it is very poor and my local wage is quite reasonable and I still can not manage to survive off of it. My aim is to try and live off of my wage at least 5 days a week.. will see how I go. (and then ill blow it out of the water on the weekend with a glass of wine at 75 dalasi and a phone call home!)