NOISE

What is it about intruding noise that makes me want to scream! We live in a house with open windows in the main front living area. It's all very open. We have new neighbors. They live across from us. They have a radio in their front living area. They also have open windows. They turn it on at 7 am and turn it off at 10 pm. It's loud. When they turned it on this morning we couldn't hear CNN which was on our TV at a reasonable level 10 feet away from where we were sitting and had to turn it up.

I work on my midwifery assignments at our dining room table in our main living area. To get away from their radio I'd have to go into our room, turn on the aircon and shut the door. But I don't want to spend all day in there with fluorescent lighting. So I turn on my ipod even louder. I know that I will have to go over there soon, introduce myself, make small talk and then kindly and respectfully ask them to do something about the radio. Perhaps they're not aware of how well the noise carries over across our small street.

I love our home because it is an escape. A haven. It's in a relatively quiet neighborhood in a small private subdivision. When I'm at home I can forget that I live in the Philippines. I need this for my sanity - so that when I go out and into the world I can deal with all the other things that make it stressful to live here. Like the pollution, the traffic, the dense population of people EVERYWHERE, and the feeling that comes with being a minority. Sometimes the attention I get is like being a rare, circus animal that could perform a trick at any moment. With the neighbors and their radio and the commercials in the local language and the same annoying repeated marketing jingles blaring in my ears I can't escape! I don't even like listening to the radio in my own language. I can't stand commercials. When watching TV I always mute the commercials because I have little tolerance for unnecessary noise.

I miss the relative quiet we had in this neighborhood for the past year and a half. Sure, we have really annoying dogs on this street. They bark, loudly, sometimes for many many annoying minutes at a time but there are long breaks with no barking. Ahhh. I think it's the constant, unending nature of the radio that just grates on me. It's even beginning to bug Andrey. And he's not even here all day! That's how I know it is a valid disturbance and that it's not just me being sensitive. My sweet husband, who is as calm and collected as a gentle, flowing river - who by being so usually makes me look bad - is annoyed and agrees the radio is loud. I feel so validated.