What does my typical North African morning sound like?
- Mourning doves cooing outside of my window and a lonely rooster penned in someone’s courtyard
- Slated shades being pulled up from various apartments
- Water running, the electric kettle steaming, my own munching and slurping
- A few mumbled “Good morning”s and “Have a good day”s
- The bang of the door as I pull it shut behind me
- Clomp, clomp, clomping down two stories of steps and the banging the apartment building door
- The murmur of passing cars from a perpendicular street
- A few snatches of conversation between school children and university students
- A cat meowing as it digs through leftover garbage
- “Bonjour!… Bonjour! Hola! Hello?”
- Horns honking around a busy intersection as other cars and pedestrians assume the right-of-way
- Motorcycles, buses, trucks, cars, bicycles weaving in and out of each other—the screech of brakes and more horns and perhaps some yelling
- A jackhammer of busy men working on the street
- “سلام”
- The scratching of a stalk broom on a sidewalk
- The buzz of the Arabic school’s call button and consequently the opening of three heavy doors
- “صباح الخير. لا باس؟” “لا باس الحمد لله.”
- The sharp sound of chairs on a bare floor and the rumble of moving wooden tables as we all pile in and settle down for a long Arabic session
My Thoughts From Afar | 