Once again, the rainy season is upon us. Yes, the term is rainy season, not rain season. In fact, I suspect that people who like to call it the ‘rain season’ are the same people that are in the habit of inventing terms like ‘goat’s meat’, yet there is no such thing.

We have goat meat, or simply goat.

People that say ‘rain season’ are the same people that, just a while ago, in the thick of the dry season’s searing heat, used to talk of summer this, summer that…

My friend, you are free to go on with your summer talk, but just know that it doesn’t add one bit to your sophistication. Call it the summer and I’ll insist on calling it the dry season and still we’re equals.

In related news, the rainy season is also referred to variously by different people as the ‘monsoon season’ or ‘green season’. Wet season even.

I suspect that ‘green season’ is the preferred term for people working in such institutions like the Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Environmental Management Authority, people who deal with tourists and with nature conservation and things like that.

So what’s the green or monsoon or rainy or wet season all about? Well, many things, if you ask me.

The first and most obvious thing is, of course, imvura. Not local Telco Tigo’s imvura y’amafaranga of course.

The second thing is that during this season, a certain category of small shops that come with the label ‘amata na fanta bikonje’ now go into slow motion mode or hibernation all together.

Instead of visiting these shops for an ice cold or lukewarm refreshment, people now head instead to Biryogo in Nyamirambo for some heavily spiced street side chai.

But not all people like to flock to Nyamirambo for tea, because not everyone is a fan of the aromatic secret ingredients that characterize Nyamirambo street side tea. Other people prefer to do their thing from home, and because it’s the monsoon season, they will have to go via Kimironko market for the right ingredients –indimu and tangawizi.

As a beer drinker and lover, I can also attest that it’s in this season that our loyalty to this frothy stuff is tested to the core. It’s the time when the grass proves to be greener on the other side, and by other side, I mean the liquor side.

This is the time when people that used to insist on ice-cold lagers now call for the warm versions. However those like I, people that can’t stand the very idea of a warm beer just quit outright, only to return to it in the next summer.