I can't believe I've been back from the US for almost a month. I feel like I just got here.

We had a long weekend for the Fourth of July (yes, we took the American holiday). Our neighbors, who are in the US for the summer, offered us the use of their pool, so we thought we might swim, but it's been overcast and not especially hot lately. We stayed indoors reading and watching movies instead.

That weekend, we said goodbye to two good friends who were leaving Mali for good, one of whom lived here for over four years. In addition to their departures, many many families are on summer vacation, so Bamako feels strange and empty.

Geekcorps hosted an open house for its partners; it took up a whole day plus many days of preparation beforehand.

Then E had a big week at work. He hosted a workshop for the Malian exporters and European buyers he works with. One of his colleagues (from the UK, a current resident of Ghana) stayed with us, so it was All Shea, All the Time chez nous.

During one of their business dinners I watched Godard's À bout de souffle on TV5. I can't follow most French movies, but I saw this one years ago with English subtitles, so I already knew the story; on TV5-Afrique they show French movies with French subtitles, which makes it easier to follow; and one of the characters is a young American woman who, even when she speaks French, is very easy for me to understand. So I sat with a dictionary on my lap and looked up all the words I didn't know. My brain was tired at the end, but I was happy I learned some new French words and phrases. For instance, now I know how to tell someone to fuck off. You never know when that might come in handy.

As soon as the workshop was over, E flew to Dakar to do research for a proposal.

Last Thursday I helped facilitate a workshop on resumes and interviewing at the Peace Corps' Close of Service conference. We had an audience of about 30 volunteers, who will be leaving the country over the next few months. I led the resumes workshop, while my friend K covered job search and interviewing. I had never done anything like that before, and I really enjoyed it -- after years of writing resumes, reading resumes, and hiring people, I have acquired a fair amount of useful information and experience; and it felt great to share it with a receptive audience.

With E gone, I pretty much spent the whole weekend inside, watching movies (Go, Requiem for a Dream) and reading. Sunday night, the colleague of E's who had stayed with us took me and another friend to dinner at DaGuido's to say thank you. DaGuido is the best pizza in Bamako, therefore the best pizza in Mali; we have heard from people who travel in the region that it is also the best pizza in West Africa. We are mad at DaGuido right now because they switched their salad dressing from a mustard-based vinaigrette to a mayonnaise-based vinaigrette, ew. But we'll get over it.

Last night I hosted Foot Night -- every two weeks, four or five of us gather at someone's house, and a local woman named Fanta gives pedicures. Someone told me before I moved to Mali that this is the kind of thing expats do, and that I would do it too. I swore up and down I never would, but I got my first pedicure last year, and now here I am, hosting foot night. I was anxious about cooking for the group, but I made a huge pot of butter chicken and it seemed to go over pretty well.

I'm picking up E from the airport today and we have two more goodbye dinners this week. Then it will really be a ghost town around here. I'll start counting the days until JG's wedding in Barcelona ...