SC-S29|Geo-Quest Mystery – Week 2: The Sound Map

To my readers,

Let me give you a little riddle. You're not to watch the video until you answer this. I am a place. There's no open place in the world that's as loud and crowded as I am, a place where people get to know people, give and take is done, and people can't do without me. They must always come to me to survive the week, but I'm the loudest. Who am I?

Now use the sounds I'll describe to imagine that place. In Nigeria, you can't be in this place without hearing these sounds. If you don't hear these sounds, just know that something is wrong. It's no other place than a market.

This place is one of the busiest markets in Uyo and is located at Ifa Atai Big Junction, Oron Rd. You'll have to cross to the other lane to do your shopping. On Google Maps, it's located at Mbak Ikot Abasi, Nung Ukana Rd, but normally, it's named after the community called Ifa Atai. Ifa Market. It is located in Uyo, Nigeria, and like every other market, goods and services are sold in this place. This place is the dirtiest and noisiest of all places.

You get to see different goods, and people shout to attract customers. A market can never be calm because people of different backgrounds meet together for the purpose of trade. You can hear the following sounds from the video. Listen to the video very well and name the sounds.

Children are always happy with this particular sound. They call their parents whenever they hear this sound, and the funny thing about this sound is that you can only hear it from far away without seeing the source. It will take minutes before you see the source. While waiting, children always die in curiosity because they'll feel they have lost something important to them. If you miss this sound, you've missed it that day. Which sound is this? 😁.

You get to hear a sound that makes you shake you body and head and enjoy your purchase in the market and you get to hear sounds from those who carry their business on their heads. Ask a child to listen to the sound in the video and see his or her reaction. From the video, you can identify these sounds with my metaphorical statements

You can also hear people shouting, cutting things, advertising their market, and market women calling people to buy. You also get to hear footsteps in this market, but my video didn't capture this. It captures 4 essential sounds you can hear in a market area starting from the entrance.

The first sound I heard that told me I was close to a market was the sound children love to hear. The source of this sound carries what children are especially fond of. In Nigeria, if you don't hear this sound, know that you're not in a marketplace. Even if you don't get to hear this sound, depending on how broad the market is, you'll hear music.

There's always a person in a market who markets his product by playing songs with a DJ player or loudspeaker. These were the sounds I heard in getting to the entrance of the market. When you enter the main market, you get to hear the sound of people cutting periwinkle as an occurring sound. This is the loudest cutting sound you'll ever hear.

That's what I heard till I left the market. If you want to get the strongest sound, you need to stand close to where these bike men are packed. This is the pivot point, and I tend to hear all sounds collectively from this standpoint. There are a lot of things in rows in this market, but no matter how loud other points may be, this produces the loudest.

I usually visit this market every day, and anytime I'm out, I usually have a serious migraine. In a market, just everyone is mad because you can't reach out to people because of the sounds that prevent others from hearing you. You need to shout as well in order to be heard. I usually visit this place to make purchases at a cheap rate or when my mom wants to cook soup for the family. My first impression when I got to this place wasn't just about the sound. The sound added to the nuisance of this place.

I ask myself why a market where food and consumables people put in their mouths are sold in a dirty place. The music from the entrance makes the market lively even though it's a nuisance. That's the impression I got when visiting the market, though. These sounds show that in every nonsense, there's always a sense. In my every bad noise because the different noises we have in the market, which are sounds, aren't always classified as good.

Most of them are annoying, but when the sound is filtered with good sounds, it connects you to the market and gives you the best purchase ever. If I could only hear the sound of ice-cream, it would have been boring to make purchases, especially under a hot sun. The last time I visited this place was when I went to make purchases with a chicken vendor. This was on Monday this week.

• What happens if someone stands still for one full minute and only listen? You know there's a difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is when you encounter different sounds, but you don't pay attention to details or program your mind to the sound you want to listen to or hear. If you stand for 1 full minute and just listen, you'll hear different sounds, but you can select the sound you want to hear by listening to these sounds.

You'll hear ice-cream cries, supplement adverts, grinding machines, motorists, hawkers shouting, and the like. It's left for you to focus on one of the sounds and become interested in it. That's when you can hear the lowest sound and the loudest. You are in a state of focus because you're standing still and can decipher a lot of sounds.

• The loudest sound is the sound children love to hear. No matter how noisy the market can be, you'll always hear this sound even from a distance.

• The smallest sound that can be heard is the sound of bike men on their bikes. Normally, engines like this usually have the strongest sound, but in a market setting, they are barely heard compared to the surrounding sounds from different places.

• The sounds that repeat like a rhythm are the sound of the ice-cream and the sound that makes people shake their heads and bodies in excitement. The only sound that makes purchasing in the market interesting. You can listen to those beats and feel them.

• Noises that suddenly appear in the market are those from hawkers because they don't stay in one place. They move about and then shock you with their loud voice all of a sudden.

E.g.....Ori Ori Ori.

You can be scared if you're an emotional person because you didn't expect the sound. It just came.

Identify these sounds after watching the videos. These are clues that can help you.

• One of the loudest sound that's considered as an entertaining noise.

• Helpful carriers whose body make noise that aren't really heard from far, but are the loudest when you get close.

• When children hear this sound, they tap on their parents and point to the source of sound. It's the only sound that can drive children crazy.

I chose this location for two weeks for many reasons, and one of them is that the sounds you hear from afar can bring you to a quest point. It can lead you if only you follow the sound and don't allow it to fade. The market is a place you hear different sounds, and you can only get the less prominent sounds if you listen and pay attention to details. The market is loud and filled with loud noise.

This describes a market perfectly. It's not louder than during weekends. This is the second reason. I wanted to know how the market sounds on weekdays and on weekends. They do have differences. Sounds in the market are louder during the weekends than weekdays.

In week 1, I didn't really pay attention to sounds. Who knows? It would have led me to places I may be curious to know. Sounds lead; that's why if you watch the Sound of Music movie, you'll get to learn a lot of things about deciphering sounds. This location adds a new layer to my personal Geo Quest Journey in that I have discovered what it means to listen and hear sounds, and sounds can be used to describe where you are.

The loudest sound can make one very curious to know what's happening, and these will leave questions in the minds of the explorer who wants to know places and what is done there. Week 1 has it that the origin point of a place matters because it produces questions in our minds and makes us curious to know.

Now, we have sounds that direct us and make us acknowledge that we are in certain places. It also leaves some questions in my mind, questions like, why are these sounds produced in one place??

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