Back in Djenne again, where the water has risen rapidly in my absence, reaching the highwater mark of 2007, where it has now stabilized. I wrote the following on my journey back:

'I am sitting on the bus to Djenne, three weeks after I fled. It feels as if a new phase has started: it is perhaps possible to hope that the problems between Mai and me are over.
Keita will be staying in Segou for the near future, maybe even for the six months of prolonged leave of absence from his work in the laboratory here in Djenne. He will come and stay with me for a week now and then though, and I will go to Segou as often as I like to stay in the family home. There will be a room prepared for me where Keita and I will stay on my visits.
His children went back to school for the new term yesterday, and there is a feeling of freshness (metaphorical) and new beginnings in the air- I am leaving for Djenne and the start of the tourist season. I just phoned the hotel to ask what was on the menu tonight for the 4 couples in our 'superior doubles' and me. The reply was what I had hoped for, a classic Djenne Djenno dinner: Gaspacho followed by peppersteak and sweet potatoe fries, with 'beignets de banane au rhum' for dessert, a splendid recipe from Martinique. I will celebrate my homecoming with a Djenne djenno cocktail on the roof at sunset of course...'