Somedays I Really Don't Like Living Here

I cannot sugarcoat my frustration today, nor can I see a way to put a positive spin on this.

Somedays I really do not like living here. Yes the city is dirty, the people stare at us, and our nearest decent doctor is a plane flight away, but today it was something else. This society is loud. When we first moved here we thought everyone was always arguing with each other, but later we learned that they are just having conversations as normal. Its just that their conversations are often in a yelling tone. I've had to tell my housekeeper on multiple occasions to tone it down because I am afraid she will wake AB. They honk their car horns for any reason they can rationalize. Once I counted 28 honks by a taxi driver in a 13 minute taxi ride. Everywhere we go we are assaulted with people playing music so loud that we have to cover our ears. AB and I had to leave a wedding early because the "music" (if you want to call it that) was so loud I could feel my chest vibrating. The sales girls yell at you when you walk into a store to welcome you, they yell an announcement to everyone saying how much you spent, and they yell goodbye. This country is not peaceful.

I think the worst offense of loudness comes in the form of firecrackers though. They seem to find any occasion they can to set off fireworks - weddings, opening of new businesses, or whatever. They are not the pretty firecrackers, either. They are only meant to make loud sounds, and that they accomplish. The first night we were here we thought the city was being attacked, but it was just firecrackers. No exaggeration- KB seriously started planning our escape route to get away.

There are two primary firecrackers. Ones that are shot out of a cannon, and truly sound like they were shot out of a cannon, and little ones that are like Blackcats x 10 in strength. They will light off several strands of about 1,000 Blackcats. It is absolutely horrid. They think the firecrackers scare off demons or some ignorant junk like that. It is loud. The larger cities realize that most of the world does not appreciate all the the fireworks and that they are a fire hazard, so they are illegal. However, I live in a small town.

Today while AB was sleeping some people decided 11am was the perfect time to set off 15 minutes of Blackcat firecrackers just 4 floors below my daughter's window. I am serious, 15 minutes. I looked at the clock to see what time they started, and they went on for 15 minutes. The sound has no where to go, so it bounces off all of the concrete buildings. It was so loud. I took a video of the end of this ridiculous display so that you could share in it. The first people I panned over to are the ones we can thank for attaching the thousands and thousands of firecrackers to the back of an appliance delivery truck and setting them off. I later panned over to a guy on his motorcycle who was covering his ears. Even he did not like them today. In case you were wondering, yes it did wake my sleeping baby.

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!