Listening to Carcha

In order to finally describhe my life a little bit better hre in San Pedro Carcha, I{ve decided to make a series of entries on the subject. Obviously, it will always be impossible for em to describe perfectly what life is like here, buyt I am giong to do my best. My idea is that inorder to make things easier for me, I am going to divide entries buy the sensory inputs so to speak through which I perceive Carcha. Ive already put together some ideas for all of my senses, today is giong to be, as the title announces, sounds.

GALLOS, oh the gallos (that{s roosters): Theyare not as lovable as everybody{s favorite [Little Jerry[ from Seinfled and most times they are just annoying. I wake up to their crow often times. Everybody has them and at any point in the day you can hear them, but particualarly at around 5 30 am, 10 pm, and I think at around 3 am Ive been woken up a number of times. It{s much prettyer in the distance. Close up the cry sounds painfull, like everyday the roosters is reaching down to the depths of it{s being, summing up all of it{s strength and then violently ripping apart it{s vocal cords in order to make this piercing sound.
TORTEANDO: That is, makign tortillas. I probably eat at least five tortillas a meal and you can{t eat without them, The old stories tell that man was made from corn, and hre, they are at least sustained by it. We buy our tortialls froma local who makes them everday. Walking down the street you will ehre the plat plat plat plat of women tossing the dow from one hand in the other in order to make their amazingly perfectly round tortillas. The sound is delicuous, pleasant in it{s repetitiveness and, being a soudn that has been here since the beginning of time as we know it, is maybe something you have to listen to yourself
THE MOLINO: That would be the loud mufflerless motors which people use to grind their corn into the dough from which htey form tortillas. At the office where I worked, the molino across teh street drowns out your voice in the parts closest to the road.

DOGS: THe first house i stayed at their was a pcak of dogs ten strong. Oftne times at night I woke up to dogs fighting. THe yelping is terrible and I am in favor of extermination.

RAIN FALLING ON A TIN ROOF: Sometimes it is kind of romantic like that Norah JOnes song. Mostly it si just really really loudn and makes it sound like it{s raingin way more than it is. THe tin roof reverberates with the sound and sometimes the level of noise kind of scares me. Then again, it also sometimes gives me a great feeling of peace because I know I am safe inside instead of outside in the rain.

THE BIRDS: In contrast to the rather annoying roosters, in the morning one also hears lots of pleasant bird calls that I{ve never heard before. My favorite ones have a sound sort of like a very full and quality whistle that ascend to a very high, but not screeching pitch. There are lots of different bird calls and they all have a happy musical quality that is just great to wake up to.

GOATS: Above us is a pastor form which oftne times we ar graced by the bleating of goats.

WASHING: On warm days one often hears the inconsitent splattering of water and the rouch scrunch of women tirelessly washing clothes by hand.
MUSIC: People ply music loud. Praise music, Latin Rock, and some Mariachi music are favorites one often hears playing in the distance. Sometiems we make the mucis and at these times hte whoel place feels like the music is consuming it, it inflitrates every corner of the house and makes it alive.
CHURCHES: When there is a service downt eh street you know. Where i used to live I would just be able to hear the bass bum bum bum bum the same tow notes for hours. IT wasnt{ bad for sleeping. One might also walk past a more carismatic chruch... your blood will be chilled by the screams and wailing that sound as if the y came from jalf-dead devil creatures with a hing of the screams of a seriously injured cat. Then you{ll feel the uncontrolable desire to run from the booming sound of a man yelling abouthe love of Jesus and the Power of God. My own church signs songs which are drowned out by the overwhelmign sound of the keyboard. YOu can hear the worship leading singing into the mic upfrong. Songs will last a long tiem or will blend into anohter song and then it will sound the same, The peopel will clap an sing when the can, but you won{t hear them well. Some songs will repeat the same phrase over and over an d over utill you find it impressive.

PRAYER: When peopel pray, everyone prays.A carcophon of the harsh Kekchi language lifting p their preayers to the lord might just be something you have to experience yhourself. I hardly pray myself because I just love listenign to everyone else. Accented by hte glottalized k sounds and lotsof sh{s, it for some reason makes me think of a lot of wet pebbles falling into a running stream. One vocie ove the top directs the group in the dynamics of thsi strange song.

ONE SONG: I{ve heard the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" a millin tiems in a millin different forms includign the majestic sound of a lone, soulful voice crying it out to the darkness.

Wood Chopping: Sometimes I wake up toe the soudn of my mom doing hardlabor chopping small piecees of wood into smaller piecesof wood so that she can prepare our breakfast.

Ok that{s all for now.

Jordan