Fulfulde!!!

So we recently learned that one of the languages that we may be training on is Fulfulde. I am incredibly excited about this and hope I'll be able to jump into that training early on, if I do well enough on my French entrance exam. I had thought that if we learned a second language (second to the official language) it would be a very specific local language, used only in a few villages, not very practical for "post-PC" time, (although still incredibly exciting and enjoyable, as all languages would be for me.) But Fulfulde (also called Pular, Pulaar and Fula in other dialects) is the language of the Fulani people, who spread across much of West and Central Africa. And it is spoken in one form or another in 13 African countries! : Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia (Pulaar), Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissou, Mali (Pular/Fulfulde), Mauritaina (Pulaar), Niger, Nigeria, Senegal (Pular/Pulaar), Sierra Leone (Pular), Sudan, Togo. So, what a blessing, and soooo exciting to be learning a language that will be practical and probably useful later on down the road! (And, as it is in the north, and a very Muslim region, there are Arabic phrases that are used in Fulfulde--now, maybe I know why I was placed in Cameroon...that and that they cater to vegetarians!:))