So…. last night was the first night Elson and I slept in our new cottage in the township of Monkey Bay. We found a nice little place for rent ($60/month) with electricity, a loo and a great shower. There are windows in the main bedroom, but no glass….just flywire and bars, which keep the mosquitos and thieves out really well.
There is a bar about 150m down the dirt road. Music is playing loud around 6pm. Music is still playing loud around 9pm when we decide to go to sleep. The music still pounds on…..its a mix of hiphop, reggae and local rhumba. I’m thinking – OK, I understand people need to relax at the pub on a Friday night…I can handle this. Surely the music will stop at midnight.
At 5am, after a fitful and disturbed ‘sleep’, Elson wakes to find me walking in circles, muttering to myself and fantasizing about walking into the pub, in the nude, with a rocket propelled grenade launcher and blowing up everyone in the bar.
I’m sorry, but listening to Buffalo Soldier 5 times in a row, every 30 minutes is not my idea of A FUN NIGHT OUT, let alone a nice way for the ENTIRE TOWNSHIP INCLUDING CHILDREN to have a peaceful sleep. On top of listening to songs repeat over and over, between each repeat THERE WAS A LOUD SIREN…maybe this was to wake up the drunks in the bar so the mind-numbing repetition didn’t inhibit their will to purchase more beer – or indeed – to continue living.
It is now 10am and it still hasn’t stopped. I think we are going to find another rental.