This is not what I had in mind when I signed up to live in Africa. It is August, and not only is it wet, but also friggin' cold.

September 17th, 2013, 8am

When you think about Africa, you think about heat, desert, maybe those who realize that South Africa is on the other hemisphere know that it can snow in August. But Ethiopia is actually just 8˚ north of the equator.

What makes Addis Ababa special is that it sits at 2700m altitude, thus it is pretty cold all year round, but none of the houses I have seen have any heating. In the ‘summer’ months it is constantly raining, and 14˚C feels very cold when humidity is 79%

But we are looking forward to Meskel, a major local holiday, which usually marks the end of the rainy season and from then on it is all blue skies. But it hardly ever gets over 19˚C.


Craig, Ben, Amal and Paul said thanks.

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Peter Nacken

Trailing spouse all over the world. Love writing, photography, good food (including cooking it myself), traveling, the interwebs ...

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