I thought I’d start a little series along the lines of TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday. Nutty things happen here all the time. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re a little dangerous, sometimes they’re a heady combination of the two. After all, we’re dealing with a continent which faces many challenges, from resources to finance to education and beyond. And when you couple this with the extraordinary ingenuity of the people of Africa to overcome these issues, and an uncanny ability for things to go pear shaped, and then often magically right themselves, it makes for some good times. I started thinking about TGIA after one of my many failed trips to fix a problem. I needed a key cut, and of course, since we lived in a new development, this had to be some freaking special key that I now know does not exist on this continent, well, in this country at least. So, the only option was to head off in my little car in the direction of Central Market. I followed the directions I had been given…go to this roundabout, turn at that Spot bar, past that school, left turn at the three legged goat, right at the woman with 50,000 watermelons…you get my drift. I made the final turn and headed down a narrow little street. So narrow in fact that I was sure I had driven down a one-way street and was expecting at any moment one of my friends in blue to stop me and insist on a spot fine. Thankfully they were out catching criminals, or at lunch at least anyway. So while the lovely guy who owned the shop couldn’t help me out with a key, we had a good chat. On the way out I asked, in my naive, Western way, whether I was allowed to drive back up his street, or whether it was one-way. He looked at me with what can only be described as wonder and pity, he smiled, shook his head, and said: “It’s Africa, you can do whatever you want.” So, tell me, when have you learnt to loosen up and let go a little? Each Friday I’ll post a funny little story about life in Africa, please feel free to join in. And always remember, if it all gets too much: Keep Calm and Dance Azonto Australia is by no means immune to nutty stuff, here’s a drunk feral pig running riot in the outback!!