This is a
country full of noise! We are a country full of yelling neighbors, screaming
children, loud bachata music, crazy dembow songs, vegetable trucks and
appliance repairmen announcing their arrival with a megaphone from miles away,
zinc roofs giving away when the rain arrives, etc etc. So much of life can be
given away just by listening here. Just like an owl, I now have unbelievably
sharp hearing. I am proud of myself because now, without having to see a thing,
I can pick up on context sound clues and understand what is going on in the
busy, crazy world around me.
The top ten mysteries
I can solve purely by listening:
1) When my host dad arrives: I now know the sound of my dad’s
motorcycle out of all the motorcycles in town. Enriquito’s red motorcycle has a
low rumble that sounds almost like my neighbor Danilo’s but it’s not quite as
deep, and then he has this screechy set of rusty brakes that gives it away when
he comes to a full stop outside out house.
2) When someone comes into my house: We have a cute red gate in the front of
our house and it makes a very distinct low “grrrrrrrrrr” sound whenever someone
opens it. So if I’m in the kitchen and someone enters, I will know to be ready
for them with a fresh pot of coffee or some juice to welcome them with.
3) When the electricity comes on: We have a generator in my house so when I
first arrived, I had no idea when we were using the generator or electricity
from the street. But as my hearing has advanced, I can walk into any house now
and know whether the electricity if coming from the street or the generator.
Context clues give it away...whether or not there’s a low rumble from the refrigerator,
if there is the energetic buzz from a nearby streetlamp, or if there’s a fan on
in the house, then you know there’s street electricity.
4) When the electricity goes off: There’s a pretty obvious first sign when
the lights go off because everyone on the block screams some combination of
swear words, “¡coño, mierda, cónchole,
diache!” But if I am not around for the lights going off, I still know upon
entering a house because the ambiance is quieter, there are no frivolous appliances
being used, the televisions and stereos are off, and if lights are on, they are
a softer color because the generator batteries aren’t as strong as street
electricity.
5) When church starts: The evangelical church on the corner of
my block starts every night of the week with a few quieter “Te quiero Jesús” songs and it builds
gradually during the sermon to become a full on Jesus-praising rock concert. I
always know what stage of the service they are in from the intensity of the
songs they sing. It’s always such a relief when that very last “Hallelujah”
plays at an eardrum-busting decibel and I know it’s only a matter of minutes
until church ends for the night.
6) When my tank of water is full: I can only fill up my water tank when the
electricity is on so that I can turn on a pump that sends water from a huge
storage tank below up to my small tank above. When I do, it quietly runs
through the pipes until it fills my small tank and then starts spilling over
the side unless I turn it off first. So I have learned to be aware of where the
water is in relation to the tank’s top. When I hear a particularly deep and
powerful final gurgle of water, I know its almost at the top so I run
downstairs, turn off the pump and hope that none spilled down the side of the
roof and into my small bathroom window.
7) When my host mom comes and goes: Much like I know the sound of my dad’s
motorcycle, I also know the distinct sound of my host mom’s moped. I know when
she leaves to drop my niece off at school in the morning, heads out to inject
my grandma with a shot of insulin, sends my brother to buy chicken from the
local butcher, and her other comings and goings. I can be upstairs in my room
across the street and if I need to talk to her, I just wait until I hear the
creaky “vroom vroom” of her nice red moped and I can head downstairs without
even having to look out the window and check.
8) When someone is speaking English up to
¼ mile away: I can pick
English out of a very large crowd these days. It’s a sharp piercing sound that
I can, get this...understand! My best friend, Gray, is currently home in North
Carolina and the first thing she said to me was, “Bea, English is so
overwhelming! Also, it took me a full 24 hours to stop thinking in Spanish.” I
replied, “How freaking cool is that, though? We are living and functioning in
another language and that, my friend, is a beautiful thing!”
9) When someone thinks I don’t speak
Spanish:
When I enter a guagua (public bus) and people are
unsure whether or not I, a rubia,
speaks Spanish or not, they tend to speak in lower octaves and ask in whispers
what a rubia is doing here or if they
can charge me extra. I turn around to the cobrador
and tell him, “Sí, hablo español y no, no
puede hacerme trampa” or “Yes, I speak Spanish and no, you cannot cheat
me.” They usually straighten up, stick out their hand asking for my fare and
return me the correct amount of change.
10) When my mom wants me to come down
from my lair and hang out with her: In
my host family’s house, there is a separate entrance for my own solitary lair
upstairs. Thankfully, my family gives me all the privacy I could ever want and
they rarely venture up the stairs to my woman-cave. When my mom wants me to
come eat some new invention she’s cooked, run an errand for her, fix her
cellphone, translate some medicine bottle in English, or just hang out with
her, she will send me a very distinct whistle. It starts from the left side of
my room, where she is in the kitchen below me. If I don’t hear it there, she’ll
move to the living room window and give it another go as it resonates in my
room on the right side. Even though it makes me feel like a dog, it sure gets
the job done!
Along with all
these mysteries I’ve solved, non-verbal noise is useful for so many other
things here. Distinct calls are used to sell bleach, vegetables and fridge
parts from roaming trucks, announce a political candidates arrival during
election cycles, rally the people for a funeral, have a birthday party, get a neighbors’
attention, wake someone up, ask for a favor without uttering a word or getting
off your motorcycle. All it takes to communicate here is a good horn that beeps,
a mouth that whistles, and enough time spent listening to daily life here in
the good ol’ Dominican Republic.
And in the time
spent writing this blog post, the lights have come on twice and gone off once,
I’ve filled my tank with water, my dad has left and returned three times, my
host brother made rice for lunch, my host mom bought bleach, three pounds of
carrots, a pound of onions and 24 eggs...all without me leaving my makeshift
desk or looking out the window. My ears told me everything I could ever need to
know to keep tabs on my neighborhood. What an invaluable skill!
Sending a “beep
beep” to y'all!
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