There’s ants in the toilet paper again. No tellin’ what they get out of it but you can bet we make damned sure we shake them off before we wipe. It’s 10:14 in the morning and Bob and I have happy bellies full of premium leftovers, scrambled tofu, pineapple, bread and cheese. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we love to eat.
Life is good here these days providing we rise above ongoing annoyances. Like daily power outages, dry taps and waking up at 4:30 to the sound of Muslims, Christians and roosters.
The religious zealots (and boy, does Ghana have more than their share of those) use loudspeakers to guarantee no one sleeps through their wake up call for salvation. Once in awhile I sleep through it but usually I lay there thinking, “The only thing I need saved from is this ungodly yelling!”
The roosters have no need of loudspeakers. Theirs are built-in and they are also savvy enough to choose perches with amplification potential – sills and cubbies backed by concrete walls. They crow all hours of the day and night, but are usually quiet between sundown and 3am when they have a little say and then settle back down. The 4:30 call to prayer gets them really going though and they’ll go on for an hour or two.
I used to think they were saying, “These are MY hens!” but lately it sounds more like “Cook the ROOSter!” Or kick the rooster, I’m a rooster, In the stew pot, who can know what their four alarming syllables of noise means.
It is very likely that all three groups are saying, “Pray to MY god!”
So anyway, I usually lay there for half an hour or 45 minutes before I stop trying to fall back to sleep and start my day with rich Ghanaian cocoa and warm emails from long time friends; tangy Cape Coast pineapple, a trip to the compost pile, some yoga with the NPR news, and about 10:00 something delicious.
Like I say, life is good.
One reply on “Muslims, Christians and Roosters”
Well, I feel slightly better knowing someone else has it worse than me. Sorry, guys!! I don’t mind too much the funny sounds of the tree chickens in the morning (not iguanas…actual chicken looking birds) or even the strange calls of the oropendolas. It’s the people who like to blast accordion style music at 7am on the weekends or the guy next door who seems to fire up his loud dirt bike at all hours of the day and night. The cows are even semi quiet in the morning but the dogs!!! THAT, I have trouble with. I just can’t get used to it. For Costa Ricans being so polite and nice, when it comes to their animals they couldn’t care less if it bothers others. You guys won’t know what to do with the peace and quiet when you return back home! You might find yourselves waking up to the prayer calls even when there are none! haha!