When I think about the sounds of Africa I think about birds singing early in the morning and the sound of generators. The birds are fantastic and there is such a variety. The funniest is the purple crested lourie because it makes a call that sounds like ‘go away’, and thus is nick-named the ‘go away bird.’ The fish eagle is much like the bald eagle in size and appearance, but sounds like a seagull, which sort of takes away from the majesty of this terrific bird.
There is no power supply to our compound so we rely on solar power and diesel generators for our electricity. Ian’s house has a good solar power system, but he still needs to run his generator for 6 to 8 hours a day, to top up the batteries in the morning after being drained all night, and in the evening to top them up to be used all night. Our house and the one next to us are solely generator powered, now that our solar equipment was lost in the fire.
We always breathe a sigh of relief when the last generator is turned off and the silence of the night begins. We hadn’t anticipated the noise of generators and how normal it became. The locals call our compound ‘generator village’ because of how much we use our generators and the noise they make. I often need to use a generator to use American power tools, as they use a different voltage than we have in Africa.
There is a group of tiny shops and a bar about a kilometre away and on weekends the bar plays music very loudly into the wee hours of the morning. We also hear the people walking by on the path or on the road after being at the bar and drinking the local beer, chibuku. Thankfully our security guard is there to keep them from making too much noise or entering our compound. The head of security for Eden is a policeman and a good friend of mine and he gets very upset if he hears about any drunk people making a fuss near our houses.
