Alou called me from Bamako this afternoon to report his safe return and to pass his phone around to all the family at the house: his brothers, his mother, the kids. Although most of them don't speak much French, and I only speak a few words of Bambara, we still went through the customary "I'm fine, thank you. Are you fine? Yes, I'm fine, thank you..." chuckling all the while.
It sounds like the band's long journey home was fine except for Moussa Ba losing all of his luggage, save for his carry-on.
Now with Alou and the band gone, and after dealing with the natural feeling of deflation from that, I'm turning my focus to the near future: getting moved out of my house, lining up everything for grad school in the Fall and making sure I'm ready for Morocco next month. It's a complete organizational nightmare, especially for someone like me who *really* has to work at the organizing skills. But having a lot to chew on and keep me busy right now is keeping my focus centered and in a strange way, giving me energy.
