Noise in Arusha - Leah

Where I am staying it is very loud.  There are a lot of 'houses' all right together.  There is a door about 3 feet from my bedroom window (check out blog on housing).  The house I am staying in and all the houses in this area have the tv AND stereos going all day long.  They start at about 6am most days and don't go off until about 10.  They are all very loud and it is almost as if they are competing for master volume.

There are a lot of kids also.  Kids don't tend to be consoled very much. Babies cry at all hours and keep crying.  Even when talking kids tend to talk really loud and yell a lot.  Even the adults yell a lot.  I don't think they are being mean, I think that is just how they are.
There are chickens that roam the area and the roosters start crowing about 4am.  Right outside my window is some sort of water supply.  People start using it very early (not good if you have to go to the bathroom in the morning anyway).  This morning it was raining really hard and all of a sudden there was a cat screeching!  I have no idea what happened but I think it may have fallen off the roof.  It screeched again and I am pretty sure it was ok.

The school I teach at is in the middle of no where.  It is so quiet - the only noise other than us is the birds.  I love being out there for so many reasons but the quiet is definitely one of them.  Gives me time to reboot!

In the US we are so accustomed to space and the ability to get quiet when you need it.  There is really no place here to get to quiet in the house.  Their idea of privacy is not ours and there is very little of it.

Lots of open QUIET spaces!