Chapter Excerpt - "10 Things I Love About Africa"

Colorful windows are part of the Sahel architectural style in West Africa

1. Mangoes -- cheap and plentiful.

2. The precocious children who travel in packs of 5 or 6, greet me with a Bon Soir, and shake my hand as they pass by. (These same precocious children usually end up annoying me when, after giggling and whispering for a couple of minutes, they come back to ask me for money. Please refer to 10 Things I Hate About Africa, to be published at a later date).

3. The red, red earth.

4. When I walk into a shop for the 2nd or 3rd time and they already know who I am and what I want before I even have a chance to ask for it.

5. The way that music can bring about an eruption of singing and dancing, anytime, anywhere -- children on a balcony, women by the side of the road, a man standing on the roof of a minibus.

6. That it gives inspiration to me. We should all find such a place.

7. Peugots, Peugots everywhere. (Non, Papa, after the Saab disaster I will be sticking with Japanese-a).

8. People really use their bodies here. Not wrapped in 20-denier, control top, reinforced toe, ultra sheer hosiery and other such finery, manicured and pedicured and protected from the environment, but really used!

9. Beautiful women with long, slender necks (a neck like I want instead of the pudgy, consumption-slackened jawline that I have) and handsome men with sinewy, muscled bodies. To see them is to understand why they win marathon races.

10. The plethora of Michael Bolton Concert Tour and Titanic: The Movie t-shirts -- it makes me chuckle.

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