On a norm, if you are living in a compound filled with students, then be ready to be entertained by noise from your left and right-hand side. Where I live, it is already something I am used to because there are lots of students living on my street and other streets, especially in my compound, one would start begging them to keep quiet. Some students who have sound systems would start theirs, others would come outside to start debating and arguing, and the common topic is relationships as if they have no other thing other than marriage and how many kids they would give birth to. The way they argue and disagree with each other, one would think they are getting prepared to defend a project on relationships with different facts and claims.
Many times, when I want to read for exams or even do a video to be published on Hive, the only times I am free from their noises are when they have gone for lectures where everywhere would be silent as if there is no one living in the house, or at night when they have gone to sleep. This is the only time I feel free till I am done with whatever I am doing.
I wouldn't want to go there since it's a normal and common thing to be around students who come up with different stories each day. But there is something more than the noise from these beings that has pissed me off over time since I have stepped my foot into the house. I heard their history with the former students before ours, though it's something funny, it's a serious issue that even the landlords couldn't do anything to it but keep quiet and endure till they are done with whatever they are doing.
There is this small church beside my window, they call themselves "Zion Church". I don't think they are Celestial Church but they usually dress in white garments. Ever since I arrived in this town, once they began their programmes, no one in the neighbourhood would rest. The worst of it all is how they conduct their services and go beyond their limit. I don't want to sound as if I am criticising a church here because it is something I will never do. Everyone knows who they worship and serve, and God Himself knows His true worshipper, but my article would be based on how noisy they have become and frustrate the lives of many students in the area especially when they are writing exams.
There was a time I heard the former students who lived before us had gone to report them to the student union government and what happened after? The church rained curses on them and dared anyone to report them again. Like, I haven't seen a church that curses and fights each other after service. They don't talk about the New Testament but dwelling much on the Old Testament. They do not sing like that but when they do, they add secular music into their service and the beat of their instruments isn't different from when the traditionalist are offering sacrifice to their gods.
They will bring up a 2 weeks revival when students are about to start exams. This is something that distracts us as the noise alone can't be bearable. Many people concluded they intentionally do what they do. Why fix a 2-week programme when you know students are about to begin exams? Students aren't allowed to read during exams and even concentrate on other days all in the name of their revival, at the end of the programme, many of them would celebrate with alcoholic drinks even the elders in church and no one would caution them.
These people do not show concern at all and even consider that the area where they situated their church is a student area and a lot of us would always read and need to focus without distraction. All our reports and complaints against them proved abortive as they became a thorn in the flesh of every occupant. The way they bang their drums, you will think they are trying to initiate a member into their cult. Though it's always funny to us, we still feel what they are doing isn't right at all.
There was this Sunday I returned from church feeling so weak and had a headache. This church had started their program for 2 weeks and that Sunday was to round things up for them. I thought they would finish on time so everyone would be at peace and not be disturbed but it wasn't like that. I couldn't sleep that afternoon because they were applying strong pressure on the drums which is something abnormal from the normal way service should be conducted.
The sound of the drum was banging in my ears and I felt a sharp pain in my body which got me infuriated that I wished I could go and shout at them but there was nothing I could do. I began to hiss alone in my room like an angry snake ready to pounce, Lol. I angrily left my room for somewhere far from my room, still, I was feeling the noise. I was so sad and hoped they finished. They didn't end the service until 9 pm that day. Many students murmured that day but the experience the former students had in the past when they went to report them discouraged them from going to report.
This is an example of noise pollution I and every other student are facing in our neighbourhood and I don't think it would stop except the people decide to find another location for their church which I don't think is possible as that is the place the owner of the church is living.
