So quiet

Living out in the country is how I grew up, being a farm girl. One thing I did not appreciate then but do now is how quiet it is. The silence can make you uneasy if you are used to noise. But it is so quiet that I can actually hear more.

The animals are the first thing I hear; donkeys, cows, and chickens make the most noise.

Then you sense the soft foot steps of the sheep and goats being herded on down the road.

There is activity all around us like chopping wood, crackling of open fires, and the cutting down of dry corn stalks with machetes.

I hear bicycles traveling, and wagons moving, and donkeys carrying sloshing buckets of water, and even occasional motorcycles driving by, or pikipiki's as they call them.

People mostly walk and are talking, and laughing, and singing, and even greet us if they can sense we are in the back yard.

I can hear the breeze and the little birds chirping and the beetles buzzing and the crunch of rocks under foot as people pass by.

I can hear the birds walking across our tin roof, and even the water dripping slowly through our water filter.

Yes, there are crickets and rustling leaves and mosquitoes too.

Night time is drums and singing far off in the distance, and prayers from a mosque miles away.

And at night many different animals can be heard barking and howling and hunting.

The quiet sounds of Africa.