What's That Noise?

September 30, 2005

The noises here are amazing. The birds rattle and sing and squawk and shout, and the crickets chirp. There are few vehicles in the village and they don’t generally travel down our street. Sometimes when we walk the silence is deafening.

I have not driven a car in over a month. I have not seen or heard an airplane or helicopter since we arrived. There are not even con trails high in the sky. There is no evidence that airplanes even exist here. There are no trucks, no trains, no sirens. There are no dogs barking, no lawn mowers, no neighbors screaming, only the birds, the bugs, and the occasional car or motorcycle. Oh and there is also our front gate which squeaks loud enough to be heard from every room in the house. It is our early warning system to find our clothes or hide, whichever the case may be.

It took me a while to realize these things. I did not at first hear the absence of man made items. After some weeks I awakened to the reality that a horn honk now gets my attention. Our friends JimBob and Nancy visited us in New York. they had never been there. They asked us about the sirens and the booms and the car horns and MY GOD IS IT EVER QUIET?!! I responded that I didn’t notice anymore. One cannot pay attention to every noise they hear in New York City.

The loudest thing I hear is the birds. There are so many; plovers, hornbills, doves, starlings, parrots, weavers, owls, finches, vultures, the list goes on. Wimpie says he has seen over 120 different types of birds in this area (that doesn’t count that (Carrie has asked me to watch my language) rooster that lives next door). I hope that I do not become immune to the cacophony of their songs.