Bonjour, tout le monde!

Hello everyone, from the land where old Peugeots go to die. Seriously, the auto mechanics of the Sahel could definitely have quite a showdown with the Cubans in a keep-the-POS-car-running contest. Thanks in part to them, we successfully crossed the border today from Benin to Niger--an amazing sight as far as borders go--and a few things have changed. One of us has learned to stumble along in French; one of us is now a year older and wiser. There's plenty to write, and we promise we will. But after a while in the middle of miles and miles of dry dusty bush, we just wanted to let everyone know that we're back and we're fine.