It's now time for some pictures of Africa....but I don't think I'm going to describe them all so when you have questions, you can either write a comment or just email me.

As many of you know...and as many of you don't know, I am on vacation from Mali for a total of three weeks.
Here you see me enjoying the wonderful German Hefeweizen Bier about to watch Germany play Sweden in the World Cup.





More of us getting ready for the big Game in the Round of 16.





Then after a long time waiting for the game to start, lots of unusual waving of the German flag and a newfound sense of Patriotism that hasn't been as openly expressed in Germany (as far as I have been able to gather) at all in the past 50 years, we all sang the national hymn (and I hummed the familiar Haydn melody since I didn't know all the words) and the game began with lots of cheers and the best atmosphere for any sporting event in the World.

Not too far into the game......
GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

So Germany went on the win 2-0 and the entire country was in a state of euphoria. All of the special songs made specifically for the World Cup played and people dances and laughed and had a great time. The city was alive with celebration for the rest of the day and night.

Now that I have briefly described the fun atmospehere that accompanied the German victory, I should make a quick note that they beat Argentina in a penalty shootout in the next game and then lost to Italy in overtime the next. On Saturday the 8th of July they will be playing against Portugal for third place in Stuttgart. Although the euphoria has subsided into the disbelief and shattered hopes of millions of German fans wanting their team to win the World Cup in their own country, everyone had a great time and the German team did in fact, perform better than anyone had ever expected.