Sounds

I wake up and glance at the clock- 4:30. The silence around me is absolute. I lay with my eyes closed listening to the silence around me. “Allahu Akbar” The silence is broken by the early morning call to prayer coming from the mosque on the hill. When the call to prayer ends, there is silence again and I slip back into sleep.

A rooster crows far away. Another rooster closer to my house answers its call. They will continue this back and forth for several hours. The clock shows 6:15.

Cars slow down as they approach the curve in the road- just enough. A quick honk as they turn the corner announces their presence as they pick up speed below my window. Some trucks rumble by full of bricks or wood. Some cars speed by music flowing from their open windows. The cars create a constant background noise- like waves crashing on a shore.

The metal doors of the shop downstairs slide up to let me know that the business day has begun. The slide down again in the heat of the afternoon to let me know that it is time for a break.

At 7:00, I can hear a young cow tied to the tree in front of the butcher across the street. Either he doesn’t like to be tied up or he knows his fate. No matter the reason, he makes his displeasure known. By 9:00 the cries have stopped and I bet there is fresh meat in the butcher’s shop.

As the metal shaves metal I imagine the sparks flying orange in different directions. The construction of the new court building is almost complete and the workers start early in the morning on the finishing touches.

All the cars in the line repeat a long slow honk. The second car holds the bride and groom- it’s wedding season. In the first car, a man sits precariously on the edge of the window or (even better) stands through the sunroof, filming the bride and groom’s procession through the town.

The packs of dogs, now more wild than tame but still resembling the everyday Fido, bark as night falls. A ripple of barking travels from west to east as they carry messages on to their friends in the hills.

Different than the sound that any car makes, the horse draws a two-wheeled cart down the street. The sound of the horse’s hooves on asphalt is cheerful and light even though the burden it pulls is not.

As darkness falls, music pounds out of the street. The origin is unclear- maybe a café or the hotel. If this was not a nightly sound I would think that there was a party in the apartment block across the way. It’s late and I imagine the chairs empty on the street being moved by the music. I can’t hear the words; only feel the beat. As I fall asleep the music fades into my dreams.