Cacophony
Cacophony is on of my favorite words. it sometimes means harsh, discordant mixture of sounds, but here it describes several things.
Last Friday evening the house was full. All 26 of us were here in groups talking, laughing, playing this dice game called Farkle, I am taking my Hatian Shower, and I can hear the glug glug of the scoop rinsing off the soap as you stand there ridiculously lathered up and now trying to get the soap off. Small groups of people are talking football, the medical issues of the day, Obama Care, and all the normal things people do to wind down after a long day at the Clinic and the trek home. We are on two floors, with a staircase in the middle of the house, and a light well in the vestibule that sends sound down a lille muted, but this where most of the gals are and the laughter and alto sounds mix with the din.
Now comes the chorus of the adoptive families and their children. The couple who were originally from Chicago with their children running around and doing their normal noises, singing, crying, chasing, interchanging with their parents, and mixing in a new stanza of Barney on the video player in the background. Several other adoptive mothers have joined in and certainly have a lot to say.
Hitting the peak is David, Willem and Beth’s second son, practicing the piano. His playing is typical of a teenager practicing both gospel and boogie-woogie.
Now come the dogs barking, and the cow with her plaintiff mooooooooooing. Evidently they took her calf today and she is disconsolate. The dogs set up this barking group with the local Rottweilers (four resident ) usually starting off and then being joined in with certainly no less than ten other hounds, both members of the neighbor families, and strays wandering the streets. There is a tenor of the group who seems to be always the last to join in with this very sharp howl. The group goes in waves with the tenor always at the end of the stanza.
Strangely enough, here in our little enclosure in strange Haiti, this cacophonous mixture sounds warm and friendly – like a family.
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