Noisy Maningrida
Maningrida’s probably the noisiest place i’ve ever lived. Strangely, though, it doesn’t bother me – at least not yet, anyway.
A football team trains in the park across from my house most evenings – accompanied by a lot of shouting. When they finish, they run round the park chanting. I’m not sure what they’re chanting, but it sounds like the sort of chants you hear on protest marches – one person calls something and everyone else answers.
There’s a fair bit of loud music played around the place – mostly music that i’m happy to listen to though. Except the first day i was here, when it was loud heavy metal blasting across the park – but even that didn’t bother me, and it didn’t go on very late.
There’s quite a lot of shouting goes on, too. People shouting to other people up the street, or whatever. All quite friendly sounding – although, of course, i don’t speak the language, so they could be abusing each other for all i know!
Apart from last night, that is, when there was a bit of aggressive sounding sort of drunk shouting – which did make me think that maybe no alcohol for 6 months might not be such a bad thing after all…
And then there’s the dogs. They go on all night – roaming around, ganging up on each other, going off at shadows or whatever. But they don’t bother me either – not like having barking dogs in next door yards have, in some other places i’ve lived. These ones move around, so their barking sort of fades in and out and it’s not a big deal really.
Of course, tonight – like last night – the noise level’s through the roof. It’s cracker night again! Today is Territory Day, after all, so i suppose it’s only fitting that some people have saved their fireworks for tonight, instead of letting them off last night.
I’ve been living here for a week now, and i’m quite amazed at how fast it’s gone. It only feels like yesterday when i got off that plane. It’s quite freaky really, the days just fly by – and i don’t seem to really do very much.
There’s no more to do here at the weekend than there was in Kabul – probably less, in fact. But at least i can go for a walk on the beach!