Between us, Diene and I can speak six languages: English, Serer, French, Wolof, Pulaar and Hindi. (Ok, invoke the past tense – spoke -for me and Hindi. In less than five years, I have completely forgotten all but the salutations – but such an exorcising of knowledge is a skill in itself.) What these means is lots of laughter at misplaced vowels – My woe that falling while running resulted monkey (singe) on my knee instead of blood (sang). Diene saying he needs to go to the saloon to get his dreads threaded. It also means an easy source of entertainment, infinite incarnations of The Word Game.

This week, I pulled out the French Dictionary and challenged him to think of words that he knew but that would stump me. It took him about .001 seconds. The results:

Homologuer : to officially recognize

Faufiler: to sew together loosely

Splendide: magnificent

That last one I got – I think it was gift, for which I am grateful.