It is difficult to travel with the idea that one will have to tell someone else what one has experienced, and the best way to know a country is still to go there. Throughout the stay, all our senses remain on the lookout for a tasty anecdote, and we waste our time noting every exotic detail, when what really matters are the moments when nothing happens. Like that terribly hot afternoon spent quietly in one’s room taking a nap while listening to the distant murmur of a public market. Yet as soon as we set foot in a new country, our brain begins to spot, dissect and store a mountain of details that, fortunately, it will hasten to forget once we return. The body experiences things differently and immediately knows that this shower of sensations, smells, colors and tastes, all so new, is called Bamako.

Folklore