Bulla

I know we have boo-yah back home but I’m not even sure what it is (according to the online ¨Urban Dictionary¨ it is an eclamatory statement often said when someone is extremely overjoyed. Often accompanied by a hand movement that involves clenching the fist and thrusting the elbow down vertically. Ex. I got an A on my chem. final. Booyah!). Here, bulla (said boo-yah) is a little different. Best summarized, it´s LOTS and LOTS of noise. And it’s a daily, self-imposed ritual. It starts at 5am with the little birds who parade across my tin roof looking for food and the many roosters in the neighborhood (but that´s not true bulla, I suppose). I’m told I’m lucky that the corn grinder next door no longer starts at 4am and now starts around 6am.

True bulla starts closer to 6am with the pops and bangs of fireworks. They are lit to celebrate any number of things but usually mark someone’s birthday. Then the true, traditional bulla chimes in around 7am in the form of music at decibels I don´t think we have in the States. Be it the Spanish remix of Total Eclipse of the Heart, modern rock of surprisingly good taste in English (I say surprisingly because I´m sure the lyrics are a complete loss), or various marimba tones. The base comes in so loud that it reverberates in the speakers so that the words don´t even come through. This lasts at least a few hours. By then, I’ve dragged myself out of bed looking for some quiet in the streets. But, no such luck. Any time a little motorcycle taxi (tuk-tuk) zips by, there’s more bulla that you hear even as it rounds the next several blocks. Not bulla, per se, but worth mentioning is the super duper souped-up tuk tuks with florescent light shinning from beneath and loud speakers on either corner dressed up even further with the flyers of various political candidates.

I have had to ask myself what’s going on with the bulla? You honestly can´t even hear yourself think much less enjoy the otherwise fairly decent music (well, expect Total Eclipse of the Heart, which I could never hear again in my life and not miss a bit). The only thing I can think of is that this excess represents freedom and indulgence in a way that people with so little money can’t ever get through material things. They have the music and the noise and they can control it. The blast it as a way of expressing themselves and basking in it. In that way I guess it´s not all that different from our ¨Booyah¨: an exclamatory statement made when someone is extremely overjoyed.