Coming up from behind! At least it’s not a logging truck!

{TGIA is my weekly post about all the nutty things happen when you live in Africa. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re a little dangerous, sometimes they’re a heady combination of the two. We’re living on a continent which faces many challenges, and when you couple this with the extraordinary ingenuity of the people of Africa, and an uncanny ability for things to go pear shaped, and then often magically right themselves, it makes for some good times.}

Driving here, as in many developing countries is nuts. Poorly maintained roads, with poorly maintained vehicles. Throw in a few million wandering goats and you get my drift. It’s real life Frogger, kind of stressful, but once you get in the zone, kind of fun.

No, I haven’t had a few too many to drink, just trying to avoid ripping the a*#e out of my car.

Taxis and tro-tros dominate the roads, and those freaking HUGE logging trucks who have an uncanny ability to break down in the fast lane (when, indeed there are 2 lanes) or practice their rapid dismount technique. Most of these commercial vehicles bear stickers, almost all of which extol the virtues of their particular god.Plenty are in Twi, and while my Twi is terrible, I can still see  Nyame (God) features pretty heavily.

And then you get a few curveball quotes:

“The monkeys are laughing”

” 2+2 =5″

And the political catchphrase of the NPP dominated Ashanti’s “All die be die”…no, I don’t really get it either.

I want a sticker for my car, which reads:

“Gentlemen of Ghana: THIS is an indicator!” with whopping big arrows pointing at them.

To continue the curveball theme, there is another phenomenon here, called ‘Crabbing’…when the front and rear axels aren’t aligned….yep, the front wheel doesn’t follow the back wheel. So you are following a vehicle, convinced it is about to make a turn…and it’s freaking impossible to see past…how could you let a vehicle like this out of your repair shop? It’s like criminal negligence of the mechanics world!

Contrary to popular opinion, this vehicle is driving forwards, not sideways, not turning…

If you missed earlier TGIA, find them here and here.

Hope you all have a great weekend, Drive safe!