Cock-a-doodle-snooze

Matafaa, Samoa

If you’ve ever spent any time in a rural area like this, or on a farm, you know that the romantic notion of a single rooster crowing once at the sign of first light is a fallacy.

Actually, dozens of pesky noisemakers create a cacophonous riot pretty much all morning long—starting way before dawn!

Here, there seems to be a poultry malfunction even in this symphonic standard.

Somehow, at about 4 a.m., one of these Matafaa cocks gets the idea that it’s time to wake up and starts to crow; the others, not to be beaten to the alarm, join in. This racket goes on for about a half an hour until they all realize that they are about three hours too early, and they stop. At 7 a.m., they start again—and if one of them happens to be right under your window, you definitely will not be sleeping in. This crowing persists until the sun is up and everyone in the village is, too.

since we're up... let's run an errand for dad across the bay to Faleseela