In my compound, in the time before, noise was normal. Even though our compound was small, still, ten families somehow fits in. We knew each other so well, we are very close, children of each family all play together, the regular morning and evening radio news from Mama Kenny's front yard always announce the time for us. You can't be in our compound and expect quietness, you can't, someone was always shouting from one end of the compound or the other.
If you cook pepper soup in our compound, just make sure you are cooking it to share with every home in our compound , or else you are in for a week of silent treatment and side eyes. We are like a scattered families, come to our compound and see how we made clothlines like spiderweb, you will hardly hear the sound of a radio in our compound, every home play it's own radio in different channel and in loud volumes, and then it becomes a battle of the loudest, am sure you know gossips are a part of our routine as well.
We never knew how lucky we were, we never appreciated it and maybe we never thought a change will come to our “before.”
I had a best friend then, Cynthia(not her real name), she stays with her parents, they occupy the fifth room(each rooms are numbered). We used to play inside the sun and run barefoot in the compound, playing. Countless times have we both made our parents shout at the top of their voice as they caution us from doing certain things.
In my compound then, you will either see a baby crying or a radio on it's loudest volume, or an uncle/aunty chasing a kid, or a mother calling her child to come help with a house chores...you can't just be bored in my compound, you can be home and enjoy the best of your day without leaving home. And that noise , disturbance and all the chaos, we never knew it was comfort.
Slowly, things begin to change. Cynthia's father got a job in another state and they had to leave. They packed their bags and baggages and had left, I didn't cry when they left, though I felt a little moody and somehow, but then they had to, I had to wave my best friend goodbye. After about a month, an elderly woman staying in the third room died, one of her grandchild was staying with her then, but then her son's had to come pack her things and take the small child with them also. Not long after again, our landlord evicted some tenants because they were owing him too much, and in few weeks some people occupied it, well those new tenants happens to be the quiet type, they even find it hard to greet. And that was how our compound broke apart.....piece by piece.
I woke up one morning to fetch water, and as I stepped out I felt somehow..... there was no shouting, no radio noise, no baby crying, no kids running about, no bells from morning devotions, nothing, even lizard's that often play about were nowhere to be found, it was just silence. I looked around , it is still the same compound, same peeling walls, same barely covered well. But the life inside of it had changed, I just stood there, listening to the quiet.
There and then, I realized the time before is gone.
Few years later, I stay in a beautiful self-contained apartment. Our compound also houses several houses , but it's peaceful, everyone minds his/her business. No one knocks to borrow seasonings, no one knocks to ask if you had pack their clothes together with your's on the cloth line. I miss it all, all those yelling..."who just finished using the toilet, Papa Emeka, off that your generator my family wants to sleep......" And all, I miss it all.
Just last week, while rushing out to take a bike, I passed by a compound and I heard a woman shouting, "Micheal! Micheal, won't you go in and take your bath, a whole school prefect like you, late comer....” And then, it all flood in again , the memory's of times before.
Such a memory doesn’t knock, it just comes and fills one. I never new when my eyes became teary, I wasn't sad, I just remembered a phase of my life that felt warm even though messy.
That's what we all want and chase today...peace and order, but we've forgotten that even noise are sweet and soothing if it comes from a family, done in love and close relationships.
The time before may never come again, but I still remember it and I carry it about. And during the times that it seems the silence am experiencing is too loud, I just close my eyes and go back to the sounds of children chasing one another, to the sounds of the radios and to the giggling sound of my best friend.... Cynthia.
It was home, it was life and that was the time before.
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Very interesting your story, It is true, we miss from the past everything that gave us joy,.have a happy afternoon.
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A rather nostalgic piece of writing. Personally, I never liked noise, but I can understand that those kinds of environments fill other people with life. You did a great job expressing what the change of environment has done to you.
Good job!
You are right though.
Not very many people likes noise, well I am a lover of one, not that I do participate in anything, but I just love to be around a very lively place.
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Very well appreciated.
This brought back so many memories, I swear. It's funny how we never realize living in the "good day" until it's gone. The way you described the compound, noise and all, is so familiar. I could literally hear Cynthia's giggle and mama kenny's radio in my head. Now everything is quiet, something too quiet. And you're right, that kind of noise was comfort
I am glad you related well with my story.
We never took it serious then, maybe the thought that all these might end someday never came, or maybe it did, we just waved it off.
But of a truth, I missed it, it was home.
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A lovely story. It's not really noise that is missed, but life, community. That's the way parents feel when their kids grow up and there is no more 'noise'.
Yeah .... You are right.
I really missed that life.
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"Wow… this took me back in ways I wasn’t ready for. It’s crazy how the noise we once complained about was actually what made everything feel alive. Now, silence feels so loud. Thank you for reminding me of what 'home' really meant. This is beautiful."
Awwwn, am glad you could relate well with my story.
Well, I missed it too.
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