With ten days until we move out of the house, and less than three weeks until we leave, we're entering the phase of The Last Time to do everything. Saturday I took my Last Saturday Morning Walk with my friend S. Every Saturday I've been driving all the way over to her side of the river and going for an hour-long walk in her neighborhood.

After the walk I usually go to the commissary, so I did that for The Last Time also.

When we move out of our house we are going to the Hotel Mande, down on the river in the very swanky neighborhood of Cite du Niger. We have a reservation, but it remains to be seen if we'll actually stay there .... There is an enormous summit of francophone African nations, here in Bamako the 3rd and 4th of December, and it's entirely possible that the government will requisition our rooms for conference guests.

That would not be the end of the world. We have many friends we can stay with. What would be horrible is if our plane tickets somehow get screwed up by the summit. We've been advised to confirm our reservations again with the travel agency. By the 8th everyone from the summit should be gone but you never know ...