Here is the castle of a house where Leila (third grade best friend and travel partner extraordinaire) and I are staying in Bamako.  We’re pretty much living like kings.  

After a jetlagged late start, we took a tour of the city today.  My favorite part of the tour was the big market.  My second favorite part was when our tour guide asked if I could understand French…this was about three sentences into what I thought was a conversation we were having in French.  Apparently not.  

French minor, don’t fail me now.