Bob's Corner

Nearly four years of working and living in Mexico has convinced me of at least one thing: there will be no roosters in Heaven.  At least not within earshot of my room.   Did you know that roosters do not only crow at the crack of dawn? No, their ear-grating vocalizations occur just about any time, 24 hours a day.  Like 1:00 am, 3:00 am, etc.

A lot of people in our neighborhood have chickens (and in neighborhoods all over Mexico), including our next door neighbor.  Their wall touches our wall, and our bedroom window opens nearly directly on their back yard.  Guess where they keep their rooster?  Right!  It's in a cage just outside our bedroom window.  Sometimes I'm almost sure the little monster is roosting right on our window sill!

If it's not the rooster crowing, there's often a cacophony of barking street dogs, and even music blaring from the dance being held just up the street.  You know, the kind where you can feel the bass thumping enough to throw off your own heart rhythm?  Like with most difficulties of living in a foreign culture, we've learned to deal with it.  I have a supply of earplugs when I just can't get to sleep, and we often run the fan at night just for the background cover noise. 

Needless to say, we're looking forward to coming home this summer for a year of Home Ministries.  We plan to live in the country with no almost no neighbors nearby, and no roosters.  What a nice break it will be to fall asleep to the singing of my home-state Michigan crickets.  Or wouldn't be ironic if we couldn't sleep because it was too quiet? 

No matter.  I've found that the best cure for insomnia and dealing with the annoyances of your environment is not a pair of soft foam ear plugs.  Rather it is knowing that whether in Mexico or Michigan, roosters or crickets, you are in the center of God's will.