The difference between Now, Now-Now and Now-Now-Now

There is actually a difference. And the difference is about the same in Mali and Senegal. Now when someone says that they are going to do something 'now' it actually and usually does not mean now in the way Americans or Europeans mean now. One "now" can actually mean anything up to an hour... so usually when someone says 'now' you can count on a substantial wait.

This is why "now now" exists. Someone will tell you something starts now, or someone is coming back now (and to wait), you have to ask whether it's "now" or "now, now". Now now is sooner than now and the wait is usually between 15 and 30 minutes before now-now starts.

I've actually created and use (I'm not sure if I've heard locals use this) the words Now-Now-Now. This means what our now means--anything between this second and 5 minutes. In fact sometimes when asking a stranger something I will ask them if we are leaving now, now-now, or now-now-now. The great thing is that no one else looks at me strange when I distinguish between the nows. Everyone knows there are different nows.

I just had a call the other day from my brother in my village in Mali who was passing through Tamba on his way back to Mali. He called from public transport to say that he was passing through town and could meet with me for a few minutes before continuing his journey. So I said, when are you coming and he said Now-Now (he really said now-now). I said, Now-now??? Now-now?? and he said yes. So I got a little bag of goodies for him to bring back to the village and hopped on my moped and went up to the police station (where I told him we'd meet) to wait.

Well the usual 15 minutes passed, then 20-25 minutes. I waited 40 minutes and then went out to the entry post of town to see if they were stuck there. Finally I went home close to an hour later. Brook said Ousamane called back to say that they were in town but the chauffeur in the public transport refused to stop. (!!!) So most likely one of the public transports passing by me on the road while I was waiting (within the 15-30 minute mark) was him. Of course one would think that one would have gotten permission from the driver to stop for a few minutes before arranging to meet with someone... but whatever. Logic doesn't really come into the situation. Anyway, I didn't get to see him but came home covered in dust instead from people roaring past me on the road. I did see the sunset in the meantime... sort of.