And the Critters Go Quiet

April 11, 2009 – One of the great things about leaving in a place with little power and not many cars is the quiet that comes over the Town of Mbita as the darkness falls. More accurately, the sounds of human activity dissipates out as sounds of nature amplify. As the sound of the wind running through the trees dies down the sounds of the little critters are revealed. It’s dark so the critters can not be seen, but sound mostly like small birds chirping and large bugs twittering.

These sounds of small critters were most obvious as we laid in bed at night, with the windows wide to catch the few small breezes that might pass by, fading into or out of sleep the several times a night. Occasionally, as I repositioned myself on the thin, concave mattress, accented by the wood slates protruding, I’d marvel at how at times the whole of nature ceased and slept all at the same time and not a sound could be heard. The entire world of critters all observed a few moments in silence all listening for the sound that was not coming.

And then during the next restless tossing so get blood back to the arm that had fallen asleep, they were alive again, talking and telling each other many delightful stories.

And this was consistent happening many of the night where sleep did not come easy.

Of the places we were, this was most obvious in Mbita with its fewer modern developments. This was brought home to me after we returned from Tanzania to Mbita and were resting very comfortably at Steve and Judi’s.

One morning I was flipping sides looking for the perfect comfortable position and noticed again that the critters had gone quiet. I flipped one more time to my other side and they all awoke, waking just as the morning light was breaking through. The other side was better I thought, so I flipped back and the critters faded off again. Wow I thought I never noticed the abruptness of the critters slumber and waking before. I lifted my head off my pillow and the critters awoke, place my head down again and they slumbered off to silence. Ah-ha, I had some loss of hearing in my left ear. When I slept on my left side with the right ear exposed, the critters chattered. One the other side with the right ear tight against the pillow, they silenced.

Not all sounds disappeared, it only seemed to be the chatty critters that silences, the roosters and dogs still came through. I can not say when this loss actually occurred. I remember the silent critters at the parish, but can not say for certain if it started there or I came from home this way. Maybe I just have a critter stuck in my hear, hindering my hearing.

Coming to you from Kisumu,
Paul