A Cacophony of Sound

Sunday morning. The day of rest. The one day of the week when you can take things a bit easier. Don’t set the alarm. Take time to wake up. Enjoy a slower start. If only it worked like that here.

This is a big city, bustling with people all living in close proximity to one another and every day seems to start as soon as the sun rises over the horizon, bringing with it the first rays of light.

The call to prayer wakes me each morning between 5.30 and 6.00 a.m. This is not as early as in some places I have lived but I seem to be staying very close to a mosque so it is by far the loudest I have experienced. Fortunately this Imam is mercifully brief in his cry although once he has finished it is followed by the distant chorus of other Imams also calling their congregations to pray.

Within minutes Christian worship songs fill the air. A choir at a nearby church practised for several hours on Saturday afternoon but as I desperately try to cling to the last moments of sleepiness I cannot tell whether this is the choir singing or just a neighbour playing their favourite music.

The man-made sounds are replaced with birdsong. A beautiful and varied chorus which has the effect of relaxing me again and I start to fall back to sleep. And then the ibis joins in with its loud, shrill, monotonous call and I am wide awake once more.

The ibis - one of the noisiest birds I've ever heard.

My desire for sleep has been defeated by this auditory assault. Never has the saying ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ felt more applicable. Time to get up, make a cup of tea and start my day just like the rest of the inhabitants of this lively city.