Too Noisy!

The noise here is driving Rich nuts. It bothers me from time to time, but not nearly as much as it bothers him. Car alarms, barking dogs, fireworks, drunken singing, loud parties, honking horns, unmufflered engines, weed whackers, children shouting, children crying, couples arguing, radios and TVs blaring... And every sound ricochets off the tiled and cemented surfaces of our neighborhood.

Rich has such a restless kind of intelligence that I have always had a hunch there is too much "noise" already in his own head to tolerate much from outside. He entertains his students by finding cube roots of large numbers in seconds without a calculator. He does "evil" Sudokus for fun. He dismisses my theory, preferring to subscribe to a "social decency" norm that Panama simply does not share. We argue about cultural relativism, social norms, and the line between customs and bad manners. It is clear to me that we shouldn't ever live in this urban a setting again... unless Rich goes deaf.

At home in Baltimore this summer we were amazed by the QUIET. Our old, suburban neighborhood has giant trees and so much more greenery than pavement that sounds are muffled. I remember feeling a sense of peace and relief at this lack of noise, even while missing the awareness of everyday life going on around us.

So the question is, is Latin American, or Panamanian, culture generally noisier than American culture? We have some friends who live in Barcelona, Spain who are driven half mad by the noisiness of their neighborhood. So that's one tiny piece of evidence that hispanic life enjoys or tolerates more ambient noise. But then again, New York City is a hotbed of sound, which argues more for the geographic density theory. Panamanians tend to live in larger family units and in smaller houses than comparably incomed Americans. Most of the houses in this neighborhood have three bedrooms, which house a couple, their several children, and a grandparent or maid. The more people in the smaller a space, the more noise. Plus, the houses are so close together, separated by a mere few feet of sidewalk, and sometimes a wall. We had thought that the wall our next door neighbors built would keep some of their hubub on their side and out of our ears, but not really. The wall provides another echo-producing surface for the loud TV, alarm clock, shower singing, and dish clinking.

One particularly noisy evening Rich was exasperated by a loud party across the street. He went out onto the front porch to send a psychic glare of disapproval to the happy, oblivious revelers. Our next door neighbor also stepped outside to smoke his late evening cigarette. Rich greeted him and said, "Such noise!" The neighbor looked at him in surprise. "What noise?" He said.