Hanging about in third-world capitals with other Europeans in the same game - many of them familiar faces or even 'friends' from previous jobs - can get a bit boring sometimes. Idle chitchat and practical jokes (the French being especially keen on these) tend to set in. The other thing about 'foreign' is that it takes a poor second place to 'domestic' in the European media, so people are constantly monitoring the story they are on to see whether it's slipped off the front page yet. The bigger fish then rush off immediately to the next scandal or bloodbath, while the others scrabble for money to pay their hotel and telex bills before they can leave town.
More than once I have been diverted to see a joke at dinner, or some crazed fantasy dreamed up in a hotel room late at night, appearing on the agency wires a day or so later as news. Tee hee!
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