The Sounds of Cahabon

April 13

We arrived back at Cahabon last evening, and woke up this morning to the sounds of Cahabon.  In addition to the dogs barking and roosters crowing during the night, at 5:00 am there were three huge firecracker  blasts -- celebrating someone's birthday.  At the same time music began to play (latin music with the cornets and singers).  The loud music played for at least another hour.  And there were singers joining in.  (Family members will go to the house of the person with the birthday and wake them up with singing.)   By then the roosters were crowing loudly -- trying to outdo the sound of the music.  There are hundreds of roosters in Cahabon, and they crow often -- each trying to crow a little louder than the previous rooster.  The dogs continued to bark, and the birds began to sing.  We have many different species of birds, and a few trees around our house, so we hear a lot of bird songs -- which I love (unless it's so noisy you can't hear the birds).  At 6:00 am the church bells chime -- at the San Pablo Church just across the street from us.  They chime for about a minute every morning -- our 6:00 am alarm clock. By then we also have the trucks going up and down the hill on the road near our house.  They always make extra noises shifting gears to get up, or down, the hill.

With all these sounds going on around us -- we knew we were home -- for another 90 days.  (The Guatemala visa is only good for 90 days.)

I was telling someone about where we lived, who had not been to Cahabon, and she said, "I love quiet rural towns!"  I responded by saying that "we live in the noisiest town in the world!"  That could be true.

But -- WE LOVE IT!!!