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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Mali: The Waiting Game

Mud bricks drying in the Timbuktu sun
Mud bricks drying in the hot desert sun in Timbuktu; sometimes travelling in Africa can feel this, er, dynamic

If West Africa has a national sport, it must be sitting around and waiting. I've spent so much of the last few weeks sitting on my arse, waiting for something to happen, that it's practically become the raison d'être of my trip. Every day I find myself playing the waiting game, and the only way to cope with it is to adopt the local attitude that waiting is the only thing worth doing properly. If you let it get to you, you'll go mad.