Possible Clues:

• Town in Mali used as a metaphor for a distant place
• Any distant or outlandish place (in Mali?)
• Mythical faraway place (in Africa?)
• American college upset nevertheless over 1,000 going to university everyone says is in middle of nowhere
• Malian desert city
• It generally goes from here to place in northern Mali
• Mali town (a remote place?)
• It's too far to go (from here to ___ )
• City in Mali, a centre of trading and Islamic scholarship from the 15th century
• Timothy nevertheless rings Kay at university - everyone says it's in the middle of the nowhere