Sounds of El Salvador

Sounds of El Salvador. –Ben

To allow you to imagine what daily life is like a bit more, I’m going to describe sounds that are most common to our daily routines.

Child’s bike horn –You know that really cool bike you had as a kid? Remember how it had that horn with the bulb you squeezed to make a high pitched noise—the one you used to let all your playmates know you were romping through the neighborhood?  We hear those every day, all day.  They’re the universal, Salvadorian call of a bread seller. Sometimes they are in fact on a bike with their giant basket of bread rigged to the handle bars.  Other times, they’re just walking with the bread basket on their head, but they ALWAYS have one of these horns.  Kneed bread? Have a horn.  Need bread? Listen for one.

“¡Siete plátanos por un dólar!” –Seven plantains for one dollar! The number of plantains has ranged anywhere from six to ten since we’ve been here, but the price is always given as a dollar rate.  These sellers are also uniform. They all have a loud speaker / megaphone through which they playback a recording of a deep-voiced man announcing today’s plantain price.

“Coco-ro-co” –Cock-a-doodle-do. (The onomatopoeia is slightly different in Spanish.)  Roosters are around town and they don’t just crow when the sun comes up.  I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I’m starting to think the movie scenes with roosters crowing when the sun comes up are Hollywood lies—that or Salvadorian roosters are blind. 5 am? Right time to crow.  10 am? Definitely. 5 pm? Need to announce the end of the work day. 11 pm? Still perfect timing.  2 am? Always a good time. (Rooster crow count while writing this blog: 5)

Car noises—Sidewalks are not too wide in Ahuachapan, and I think this is true in most Salvadorian cities.  It’s generally true that you can touch the front door of a house with one hand and a passing car with the other. Because of this, we always hear when buses and cars drive by.  Additionally, all of the nicer cars are equipped with extremely sensitive alarms (for good reason, we hear).  It’s not uncommon for a passing car to set off an alarm of another car.  The van that’s generally used to transport our group is this way.  Horns are obviously used frequently as well.

“Quesadillas!” –similar to the bread man, we always hear the quesadilla seller.  However, he generally just uses his voice to advertise.

Various salesmen—Everyday we get about 1 or 2 people (while Hannah and I are home, probably more while we’re gone) who are selling any variety of household goods.  They just walk by the house and talk in the doors.  Our house abuela (grandmother) simply tells them, “No gracias,” and they continue on.  (The exterior doors are generally two parts—some metal bars that can stay shut and a steel sheet that can be opened away from the bars to allow a breeze and sunlight to enter.  The metal bars are akin to a screen door, so they allow for conversation between the inside and outside of the house.)
 

Dog Fights—Almost every family has at least one dog, and there are plenty of strays as well.  Plenty of these show their dominance around the neighborhood.  We haven’t had any problems with them yet, but about every other day we hear what sounds like a new dog’s introduction to the neighborhood.

Spanish – Bet you weren’t expecting that one.

These are some average sounds we hear at home and around town.  It’s noisy, but it keeps us entertained even when we’re just sitting at home.