*BEEP BEEP!
*HONK!
“ADENTA, ADENTA, ADENTA!”
*cricket cricket
“AYYYE!!”
*croak croak croak croak
“MEPAAKYEW, MEPAAKYEW!”
*cockadoodledoooo
“AH! Daabie, daabie, daabie…”
“Sssss!”
Americans are very noise-sensitive.
Ghanaians are not.
I started noticing an array of sounds my first night in Ghana; I went to brush my teeth and heard what I feared might be the toilet plumbing regurgitating its water until I realized it swarmed the entire house. Frogs. Who knew they could be so loud and menacing. Once I identified the noise, it seemed to gradually grow in intensity, and threatened to sprout goosebumps on my arms. (It sounds dramatic, but it really did have me feeling jumpy. Pun intended.)
The roads are buzzing. Honking, shouting, and loud motorbikes are only a portion of what makes traffic so wild here. Sounds have you looking in every direction.
Roosters don’t always caw in the morning; they like to do it at noon, in the evening, at night and at 3 am! Multiple times in a row. It’s to attract a mate, sure… but if you ask me, you can only call a girl so many times before you should realize she isn’t having it.
Work is where I hear it all. My office has a window facing the street, projecting car horns, bells, shouting preachers and jumbotron advertisements my way. The door to my office carries echoed shouts of what sounds like a reality TV drama, but really is my coworkers engaging in daily conversation. I realized this was just the norm when I asked my coworker why they were fighting, and his response was confused because they were “just having fun”.
My colleagues have noticed these themes at their internships as well; we have all bonded in the way we misinterpret the ever-present noise here in Ghana.
As my time here is almost run out, however, I have learned to be at peace with these sounds. I feel I can almost be more productive at work when instead of trying to depict each noise individually I allow it to be a sort of busy, stimulus hum.
I have taken advantage of the provocative roosters’ sounds, as they caw so often I have been lucky to get some in-action footage. Now every time I hear them I’m humored by the memory of how ridiculous the little guys look.
Finally, when the dark sky crawls over the sun’s glow, the massive chorus of frogs blankets the neighborhood of the Aya house in its melodious hum. I’ll miss this.
