Noises

One of the things that I didn't realise before coming out this time is just how big Blantyre is – it has a population of nearly three quarters of million people. Yet at night time it is totally silent because a great number of these people don't have electricity, so will just go to bed when it gets dark.

Today is a Saturday so it is exceptionally noisy this afternoon there seems to be a lot of clubbing going on – it is rather like being at the cusp of several stages at a festival, music and djs blaring in all direction. Mixed with that is the noise of the noisy English people at the pool, there is never many people staying here but it seems a place to come to eat and swim in at the weekend. Quietly in the background to all this cacophony are the weekday usual quiet sounds; the huge dried seed pods falling from the trees, the bleating of the next door goats, the call to prayer from the mosque and the beautiful singing of the the shy birds at the side of the pool that I've yet to identify. I've downloaded a book of southern African birds with sounds so I will have a trawl and see if I can find out what they are.