Sounds of Mua Mission

Hello loved ones! I haven’t seen the whole blog yet so I don’t know if anyone has written about the sounds of Mua Mission, Mulawi. We awaken at about 5:45 to a VERY loud pounding of a drum (THAT was a surprise the first morning!) Then the village, just yards across the riverbank (Mua Mission complex having been built on the land around and above the river on one side) comes instantly alive and the sounds continue nonstop all day: women washing their clothes in the river and beating them against the rocks, young men scraping off (to clean) large aluminum pans in which they cook meat or some parts of an animal to sell in the market, goats bleating, people greeting each other and calling across the rocks in melodious Chechewa, and always the children, the children playing and laughing and singing and crying. This morning, starting at about 7, the added sound of some kind of African soukous-like/ Caribbean-sounding dance music playing on (I guess) a tape recorder added the background soundtrack. (I was just informed that it is Zamimbian and Malawaian and maybe other African music. Did I say that the music hasn’t stopped all day (and it is now 6:30 pm)? The same tape playing over and over and over….. Oh, and now that it is dark the crickets and bullfrogs are adding to the chorus! This may sound chaotic but in reality it isn’t—somehow it all fits together as part of the tapestry of color and life and family and community and the beauty of the landscape, the sound of the river, the large open sky and the rising moon.
A few words about the food, also don’t know if this has been written of, but this is mostly for those who know me or others from the California “food world.” So guys, I’ve been eating on a very regular basis loads of white rice, goat meat (good!), white bread, instant coffee, and Coca-Cola—and it’s all good, folks.
There is SO SO SO much more that is happening here in terms of the writing and the Interplay… more to follow….
Blessings !---Judith