Krempt Is Upon Us

Krempt is one of my new favorite Amharic words.  It is the local name for the rainy season that lasts from June until August.   I don't think it would be considered an onomatopoeia (although English was never my strongest subject), but the one word for me seems to encompass every description I have heard of the rainy season as cold, damp, muddy and a bit depressing.

That being said, the first few weeks have not been as horrible as the anticipation and descriptions.  While there have been some heavy downpours and rain almost every day, there have also been dry and even sunny times during most days.  If the downpours increase in frequency and length though I can see how things might get miserable quickly.  Below is a picture of the access road/river to the hospital where I work after only a brief heavy rain. We will see how it is holding up by the end of August.

Luckily, it seems our landlord has successfully fixed the indoor water feature we had in front of our fireplace for the last few weeks.  Every day we came home with our fingers crossed that the ceiling tiles had not fallen and converted our living room into an indoor swimming pool.

Now we just need to buy some wood for the fire place and we are ready to wait out our first krempt (at at least until we get to escape in August for our trip home).