I am staying with the lovely Jeremy and David, who left me their flat as they went on holiday this morning.
I will return to Mali at the end of May. The hotel is officially closed, although the bar remains open . My major tasks in Europe have to do with the hotel: I must raise the money somehow to bring electricity to Hotel Djenne Djenno- we can no longer operate with the Chinese generator, it is too difficult. I will of course also go and see travel agents in England and in Sweden, and I will take my Bogolans to the World of Interiors, as they have requested. But today I will just sleep and rest in this lovely West London flat where everything works. I walk around in awe and marvel at the loveliness of it all. How amazingly smoothly the doors open and close! there are no drips from the taps; the gaz cooker starts by pressing a button, and here I was, running around looking for matches! The loo seat is a wonder of smoothness and made of delicious heavy wood, the loo brush is soooo pretty, in a stainless steel container- goodness, you can't even find a loo brush in the entire Malian nation!
And they have a fridge full of lovely things like Camambert and Italian Millefiori honey (as well as a new jar of Djenne Djenno Sesame and Date paste). But it is cool of course. Spoke to Keita on the phone last night. 'Is it very cold?' he asked. 'no, it is nice' I replied. "It is 18 degrees, that is what we set the airconditioner to'.
Tomorrow I will start facing all the irksom tasks, but today I will just revel in all this European perfection .