Wake up call

The location of my room is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it is literally the closest room in my building to the internet cafe, so I essentially get the best service. A curse because it is the closest to the night market, about 40 yards from my room. This post is related to the cursed aspect.

Ghanaians are early birds. I'm talkin, 4AM bible studies here (seriously!). Many foreigners with Ghanaian roommates often complain about conflicting sleeping schedules. Ghanaian early birds = night market early birds. Every. Stinkin. Morning, there is one particular night market stand that begins blasting music from its ginormous speakers from anywhere between 7am and 9am in the morning. It's not even soothing, happy, time-to-wake-up music. The owner always, ALWAYS starts the day off by blaring one particular Christian Ghanaian cd sung by an obnoxiously over-zealous woman who isn't very pleasant sounding at all. I'm a very light sleeper and nearly every morning (sometimes i get lucky and wake up before the stereo is switched on ), I get startled awake by the unwelcoming noise. I try real hard to go back to sleep, and often contemplate (as I am a nasty grouch when i get woken up too early) the different scenarios in which I would express my anger towards the inconsiderate man (ie yell at him from my patio window, boycott his store, destroy his speakers, or some other extreme imagining that gets conjured up during the in-between states of my conscious and unconsciousness), buuut eventually give up. As I forfeit my sleep and drag myself out of bed, the second song on the disc begins playing, which so ironically mocks me as it repeatedly sings, "It is well, it is well, with my soul!!"

I decided to take action tonight. I wrote a letter which said,

"Dear Sir, Please lower the volume of your music in the morning time. It is disturbing people's sleep. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, Residents of ISH 2."

I went up to his locked stand and securely taped the sign over the small slit separating the two doors which are usually open, so then he'd HAVE to acknowledge my note in order to open his doors. I explained the situation to one of neighboring workers whom I'm friends with, and asked her to briefly ask him tomorrow morning if he saw the note on his door (in case it flew off in the middle of the night). HAHA...she goes on to inform me that the worker sleeps inside his booth at night sometimes. So basically, as he comes out of his stand tomorrow morning, opening the doors from the inside, my note will probably rip in two. hahaha. But the girl next door says she will retape it to the side before he wakes up in the morning.

Good night! (hopefully...)