If you are thinking that this doesn't look like your everyday Malian landscape
you are quite right.

This is a typical late summer scene from a Swedish forest.
At the back of the picture, with the red bucket, you see MNL on a mushroom hunt. Only that he is no longer MNL (Mother's New Lover) he is Mother's New Husband!
After 14 years together they finally wed in Leksand's church last Saturday.

As soon as my mother told me about two weeks ago I decided to fly home secretly. They did not expect me. I arrived the night before after a two day journey.
I stayed in a hotel in Leksand and went quietly to the church the next day, sitting in a pew as they walked down the isle. Alas, my camera has been damaged somehow,so the picture above is all I have from Sweden!

I will stay for a few days, but how long is unclear. It depends on the Malian government's Health Department...Sorry to sound so cryptic:

The other extremely good news is that Keita has been promised a stem cell transplant, the essential treatment for his desease, which will be paid for by the Malian government! He is a civil servant and there is a small budget for such things. The decision to let him have the treatment was taken some time ago, but it has been postponed while tenders have gone out to various countries- it may be done in France, in Libya, in Morocco.
At one point it was supposed to happen in Cuba, but this has now been decided against.
There is very little going on at the hotel in September, so I am hoping to be able to join him whereever the stem cell transplant will take place, before going back to Mali and 'La Grande Saison' in October. More updates soon hopefully!

et finalement, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs have taken the main tourist areas in Mali off the red alert, and put us back on the green, meaning that it is safe to travel in Mali. This was threathening to become a very serious affair, and we are all very relieved...