Every other year Carleton College, MN brings a group of students to Mali as part of their Francophone and African Culture immersion program. This was a brief meeting with the students and Prof Cherif Keita after some protests in downtown Bamako. There are long standing ethnic and political tensions in northern Mali. Those tensions seem to be flaring up in light of the collapse of the Libyan regime. Prof Keita places the highest priority on the security of his students.