Noise in Mexico

Quick note: I'm using this entry to kick off a new series we'll call Video Fridays. During the coming weeks, I'll include a short video to show different aspects of life and work here on...you guessed it, Fridays :). Now, back to today's scheduled post...

I recently chatted with our vicar Phil Gurgel (more on him here) about some of the unique experiences that come when you spend a year working in Mexico. One of the things mentioned was Mexico's noise factor. I found his comments interesting and asked him to share them. Here's what he says about sounds south of the border...

Before arriving here I had been living on the campus of the Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin, which is probably one of the quietest places on Earth. I knew moving to a city was bound to be a step up.

However, here in Mexico, the noise levels are far beyond anything you'd typically find back in the States. As I write this, the neighbors across the street have their ranchero music with the tuba bass line shaking the very walls of my apartment. This is quite a common experience for me, as I have neighbors who love to blare those tuba bass lines until 2 or 3 in the morning on the weekends.

Businesses also contribute to noise levels here, since many of them sell their products from moving vehicles. Imagine an ice cream truck, you know, that truck that you'd hear maybe once a week driving through your neighborhood when you were a kid. Now imagine having about 20-40 of those ice cream trucks going through your neighborhood every day, each with a loudspeaker playing a theme song for their various products. Gorditas, tamales, bread, corn on the cob, fruits and vegetables, propane gas, brooms. If there is some way to sell it out of the back of your car, people do it, and they include a jingle to go with the product.

Prior to this year, memorizing a sermon meant going for a walk around the quiet Seminary campus. There was very little to distract me from my sermon text. Now, as I try to memorize my sermon, my head sometimes swims with all of the noise going around me, including those jingles from the vehicles passing by.

A few months ago, the sensory overload came to a head, when I spent a Saturday trying to memorize my sermon. This "memorization Saturday" happened to coincide with the Mexican festival celebrating the "Day of the Virgin". On this day, many people in the neighborhood performed a number of ritual dances right outside my apartment. In order to keep the beat for the dances, they brought a few large drums. They banged on those drums as hard and loud as they could from sun up to sun down. On top of the large drums, each of the dancers had their own shakers. Needless to say, it made memorizing my sermon a bit more challenging. Here's a short video clip I took that day...



Back to Rachel: Thanks for sharing Phil, and stay tuned for next Friday's video, which will feature one of our latest trips to Puente de Ojuela, an old mine near Torreon.