{"id":297,"date":"2010-08-28T07:21:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-28T12:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ziegelbaur\/?p=297"},"modified":"2010-08-28T07:21:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-28T12:21:54","slug":"learning-the-sounds-of-the-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ziegelbaur\/?p=297","title":{"rendered":"Learning the Sounds of the Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Inside our walled yard life is peaceful and quiet.\u00a0 Besides our house there is a duplex in which short term Covenant missionaries Karl & Mary Noren live with their 2 little ones.\u00a0 We share clothes lines, a trash bin and compost pile.\u00a0 Each of us has a very small grassy area and flowers – mostly roses all around the yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only thing visible above the wall besides sky and a few tree tops\u00a0is a\u00a05 story apartment building going up across the road, and the construction workers as they navigate the precarious looking scaffolding to apply cement plaster to the outsides of the building.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But the sounds that float into our compound are many and varied, betraying the busy city activity just outside our peaceful compound.\u00a0 It has taken a few weeks to fully interpret these sounds.\u00a0 At first it was all just noise.\u00a0 But as time goes on we’re able to better discriminate between them and responding appropriately to some, ignoring others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Construction work\u00a0begins at the apartment building\u00a0around 7 each morning, plus the sound of a wood planer a block or two away.\u00a0 Chirping birds also join the morning chorus.\u00a0 Babies crying – neighbors, not our kids.\u00a0 Dogs barking at all hours of day and night… also not ours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ding-dong.\u00a0 Someone’s at the gate.\u00a0 It could be someone coming to visit Norens (with whom we share the compound) or the kids coming home from school, or someone delivering an order (we Zs and Norens have\u00a0placed weekly orders from people who sell us homemade bread, bagels, tortillas, plantain chips, fresh fruit juice, “pondu” [manioc greens], and maybe soon fresh veggies).\u00a0 Or it may be someone in need hoping\u00a0for financial assistance.\u00a0 In any case, it’s probably a French speaker, so the kids ignore the doorbell most of the time, and it’s up to us adults to answer.<\/p>\n

And then there are the vehicle sounds.\u00a0 Most of the honks, beeps, revving motors are taxis.\u00a0\u00a0 Our road meets the main road\u00a0at a popular taxi stop, so they’re constantly honking to signal they have a free space for a potential passenger\u00a0— or to signal that they’re preparing to pull out into traffic again, or to signal that they’re about to pass a stopped vehicle.<\/p>\n

When there is very little traffic noise and at the same time a man or 2 dressed in military garb up on the 2nd and 3rd story balconies\u00a0of the apartment building under construction, you know that the President or some government official is travelling to or from the airport sometime that day, so they’re preparing to stop traffic.\u00a0 When you hear sirens you know that dignitary has passed.\u00a0\u00a0 If you were planning to catch a taxi and go in to the city that day, you might think twice.\u00a0 You never know how long it will be before the government cars have passed and the roads will open again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then there’s the unique honk of a garbage truck.\u00a0 It took me weeks to distinguish this from all other horns since it passes so infrequently.\u00a0 But now\u00a0we know its sound and\u00a0today we were prepared, outside our gate, with garbage in hand, waiting for it to stop so we could\u00a0line up with all our neighbors and toss our trash in.<\/p>\n

And then there are the night sounds.\u00a0 Of course silence\u00a0is golden, but we know how rare and precious\u00a0gold is.\u00a0 Last night I heard the beating of distant\u00a0drums – just like we used to hear in more rural settings.\u00a0 Sounds of local late night celebration in the neighborhood are much less conducive to sleep: loud music playing at a volume far exceeding the capabilities of their speakers.\u00a0\u00a0But by far,\u00a0our favorite late night sound is a gentle\u00a0rain on the metal\u00a0roof.<\/p>\n

Living in the city of Yaounde is quite different from any rural place we’ve lived before.\u00a0 And little by little we’re learning to interpret the sounds of our neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside our walled yard life is peaceful and quiet.\u00a0 Besides our house there is a duplex in which short term Covenant missionaries Karl & Mary Noren live with their 2 little ones.\u00a0 We share clothes lines, a trash bin and compost pile.\u00a0 Each of us has a very small grassy area and flowers – mostly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-updates"],"yoast_head":"\nLearning the Sounds of the Neighborhood - The Ziegelbaurs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ziegelbaur\/?p=297\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning the Sounds of the Neighborhood - 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