Sounds of Cameroon

In an attempt to draw the best and most accurate picture of cameroon, I thought I'd let you know what it sounds like here. Lets start off in the morning. 1am, 1:30am, 1:33am, 1:34am.. who ever said that roosters crow when the sun comes up was completey wrong. I think they actually sleep from around 8pm to 12pm, and then commence driving me insane sometime after midnight and throughout the day. They're so loud I swear the run right up to my window and "cock-a-doodle-doo". It's not a pleasant sound really.

At 4:30am the prayers at the mosque start. It's so dead quiet at that time, that I can hear crystal clear the prayer called from a half a mile away. It's pretty cool. They also pray at night, around 7:30 I think. I can hear it everytime.

The pigs at the pig farm directly outside my bathroom window (yeah it smells), they get fed at 7pm. This is no cute Babe or Wilber from charlette's web having breakfast... no, it's more like a screeching and whinning and it sounds revolting.

Ducks usually come out in the morning, hang out waddling around on my roof throughout the day. These are big ducks, must not be the brightest in the flock because they fly in and crash on my tin roof. It sounds like someone's is up there trying to break in (that's often how people break into houses here)scares the crap out of me. When the little birds walk around up there, it only sounds like mice crawling in my ceiling. Not that much more comforting. But what is comforting is when I think about how I nice roasted and laquered ducks would taste along with a side of cranberry and beet greens. Sounds lovely right?

The sun comes up at 6:30 everyday, so does every cameroonian, way before that even. I always hear kids, they're outside 20 hours a day. The median age here is 19. Pretty young, 40% of the population is uner the age of 14 years old.. lots of kids. They laughplay, scream, cry. I have never been around so many kids. Cameroonians LOVE to laugh too. Often, they like to argue too. Music plays all day here.Celine dion, bryan adams, cameroonian pop, traditional cameroonian music, chris brown you name it. News radio is usually on. If you're neighbor is blaring music or their tv, that means you need to turn yours up louder. Dogs are another loud animal, they're all street dogs. Gangs of dogs that probably have made a bad decision to be involved with another dog at one point that may or maynot have rabies. Not nice dogs.

In between these noises I'm reminded that I live on the African continent. There are so many georgeous birds here, I feel like I'm in a bird santuary. Tons of frogs and crickets or what ever those bugs are, that make it sound like I live in a pond in the country. Yeah well those are here too, but really loud.

When I walk to town/through town I hear "Nassara", "ma blanche" "ma chere" "ma coeur" "watt" and other words and phrases thankfully I don't yet understand in french or in the local language. Translated, it's the white, my white, my darling, my heart, won't you take me to america with you? give me money. i'm going to be your husband yatta yatta yatta. And when I say I hear this in town, I mean I hear it 20 times in 2 hours. It's not all bad though, some people are very polite. And I am white, but if you're going to call me that, don't be rude. Say good evening white. Then I'll say good evening back.

Another noise in town.. when you want to get someone's attention you make a "Ssssss" sound. Kind of like hissing, but without the "H" sound. At first I thought hissing at a waitress, a cab driver, or a vendor is extremely rude. That was before I realized how effective it was. Even the quieteist of hisses will stop a moto driver speeding along to pick you up. I think they can hear it from miles away. The other sound to get someone's attention is a kissing sound. This I definitely hate. I'm not saying everyone yells nassara or hisses, some people say madamn or miss.

This is the golden rule of driving: honk your horn. Driving is mostly moto's here in the east, vehicles are a huge sign saying "important person in the province like the mayor or something, or foreign aid workers, or foreigners in general". There are a few taxi cars but here they're mostly taxi moto's. So anyway, when you pass another moto, honk the horn. Someone's driving too close, honk. Want to pick up a passenger, get some random person's attention walking by, turning a corner, comming up to an interection... honk honk honk. I'm not exagerating when I say my moto driver will honk a dozen times within 2 miles. Sometimes I can't even figure out why. Maybe because if you're happy and you know it you honk otherwise I have no idea.