and this is what it sounds like

Every day begins with the roosters. They start even before light begins to emerge from behind the mountains. They always seem ready to start the day. The roosters are soon followed by the sounds of my students and their chanting of “good morning, miss”. During recess, I hear the yells of both English and Spanish words coming from students of all grades. I hear “raise your hand” coming from other classrooms and “walk in the hallway!” seems to be playing on repeat. On the way home from school, I hear “hellos” and “goodbyes” from both friendly faces and strangers on the street, who are practicing the few English words they know. I hear the bell on the ice cream bicycle (yes, it’s a bike with a freezer on the front) passing on the street. It is soon overtaken by the speakers on the van selling tamales that has a bad American pop song as background noise. Outside the house, I hear the kids playing soccer in the street. I have no idea who is winning, but the yells tell me that it is a good game. The stray dogs seem to be yelling too as they fight over the scraps and food and trash they can find. Inside the house, I hear discussions of students and homework assignments. I hear about both the funny and tough classroom moments and about emails from friends.
When darkness falls, I still hear the roosters crowing. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo about the whole sun rule.