What life sounds like right now...

Here in Java, our house is much smaller, closer to the street and the houses next door, and surrounded on all sides by neighbors who do the majority of their living outside. Their water source is a well in the back yard next door, shared by several families.  They don't have washing machines or dishwashers so all that washing is done outside next to the well.  The kids get bathed (twice a day) in a plastic tub while the adults take a "shower" in a makeshift shower space made out of tin near the well.  We hear all of it - the washing, the clanging dishes, the splashing water, the sneezes and coughs - because our windows stay open and even when they're shut they don't seal out much noise.

Our Salatiga home

While the Javanese are really quite laid-back and quiet people, we've learned that certain noise is acceptable. Even as I type this, the neighbors in the house behind ours are blaring their music for the whole neighborhood to enjoy.  It isn't considered rude to share the sounds of life like these - and really, on an over-populated island like this, it's pretty much impossible not to share the noise of your household with your entire neighborhood.  If you speak with a Javanese man or woman, child or teen, they are quiet and polite, so I don't want to give the impression that they are loud or inconsiderate people because they are the most respectful and friendly people I know.  They simply hold different cultural ideas about what noise is and isn't okay in a neighborhood.  For example, even though we hear them playing their music loudly and clanging around dishes in early morning hours right next to our bedroom window, we rarely, if ever, hear raised voices or wild kids.  (That's what they hear from our house, so they are probably just as annoyed with us as we are with them!)  

In addition, it is Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of daytime fasting.  So, there are a few extra sounds that we're hearing that aren't typical any other time of the year.  Ramadan is almost over - this next week our neighbors and friends will celebrate Idul Fitri, which is bigger than Christmas in this country.  We have the week off from school and we'll spend some time visiting our Muslim friends in their homes - more on that later! 

The street in front of our house - we live on one of the busier streets but it's really not too bad most of the time.  You can also see the mosque down the street (the tall building).  There are several more mosques in the neighborhood as well, some of which we only hear but never have found!

Here's a sampling that I put together of the common noises that we hear here (and I'll admit that I'm very grateful that our house in Palangka Raya is much quieter than this):

2:30 a.m. –I’m awakened by the sound of our water pump running and find Paige in my bedroom asking for help putting her pants back on after going to the bathroom…at least she didn’t go in her bed!

3:00 a.m. – drummers pass by our house, beating a really cool beat (that I’d better appreciate in daylight hours) to wake up the neighborhood for the early morning meal, taken before sunrise during this special month of daytime fasting.

3:30 a.m. (or so) – an additional wake-up call from the mosque down the street

4:00 a.m. – morning call to prayer blared over loudspeakers from at least 3 mosques in our neighborhood.

5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. – cacophony of life happening just outside our bedroom window…babies crying, dishes and clothes being washed, roosters crowing, motorcycles revving, people sweeping their yards, Javanese jokes and laughing, music blaring, kids playing and some guy pounding a hammer on concrete.

7:00 a.m. (okay, all morning) – more cacophony of life happening plus more traffic on the roads in front of our house – motorcycles and scooters whizzing by and vegetable sellers calling out or honking to let people know they are there.

12:00 p.m.  – Call to prayer

1:00 p.m. – somebody calling at the door.  An older lady selling oranges…or are they lemons?  We buy a few after bartering for a few minutes.  We still paid more than we should have but this woman looks like she could use a little more money for food.

 2:00 p.m. – some announcement over the loudspeaker at the mosque down the street, most of which we can’t understand – not just because the language used is not the one we’ve learned, but also because the speakers are turned up so high that everything comes out garbled.  Most likely, it’s an announcement that somebody in the neighborhood has passed away.  We confirm this later on when we see the street blocked off and a large group of people congregated outside a home.

3:00 p.m. – Call to prayer

4:00 p.m. – live music just outside our door.  A small band of young men playing a pretty good song on beaten-up guitars…they won’t leave until we “tip” them.

5:00 p.m. – more and more street food vendors pass by the house, beating drums, playing chimes, or honking horns, inviting people to come out and buy their dinner

5:35 p.m. – A blaring horn over the mosque loudspeakers (it sounds like a tornado warning) means the daytime fast is over!  For the first time all day, all is quiet as families enter their homes to break their fast together.

6:00 p.m. – Call to prayer – this time we can barely hear it over our own wild kids who are screaming and running from one side of the house to the other in a game of chase.

6:30 p.m. (and the rest of the evening) – fireworks being set off all around us - a fun pastime for kids of all ages.  We sit on the front porch and watch a few but our family has seen so many fireworks in the past year that it isn’t as exciting as it once was!

7:00 p.m. – Call to prayer…during this month, it continues well into the night with a special sermon preached over the loudspeakers and additional prayers and chants.  We can hear it from 3 different directions.

9:00 p.m. – a lull in the sermon down the street is interrupted by the sound of cats mating – the worst sound in the world as far as I’m concerned.  Pretty soon, the cats are gone and the speakers are blaring again.

10:00 p.m. – the loudspeakers are quieted down for the night, though I can still hear the drum troupe practicing down the street, getting ready to wake us all up again in a few hours.