So, today's word has a really, really good story.

About a week ago, Wu received a call for a "grand prize". After we hung up about 10 times, we finally agreed to listen to the phone call that was not a solicitation. Now, keep in mind, my many random jobs over the past 15 years have included phone solicitation (umm yeah - telemarketing) so I have sympathy. But ten times? Anyway, we were finally SUCKERED into going to this "grand prize" event tonight...which the rest of the world knows is a time share sell. Manda had suggested it was a prison round up, but we don't have any warrants out for our arrest, so we weren't too worried `bout that (the state is GANGSTA in Texas). In any case, here we are filling out paperwork for this "grand prize"/time share sales pitch when Carmen Mullen walks up to me and says,

"Are you Ana Lara? From the Dominican Republic? You went to school in..."

and I finished the sentence:

"...Nairobi. Carmen? Carmen?!!"

I have not seen Carmen since we were 10 years old, maybe 11 years old and we were living in Nairobi, Kenya. Last time she saw me I had an unkempt afro and wore really dorky shorts and jellies. I completely recognized her. And, more amazingly - she recognized me.

So, OF COURSE, I had to get a word from her. That is, after we spent 3o minutes yapping about people we knew from back then, and how we both ended up in Austin, Texas. She lives right here in Austin. Where I live. 8868 miles from where we last were when we saw each other. 21 years ago.

And the word? "Malaika" (meaning Angel in Kiswahili) from the song "Nakupenda Malaika" by Fadhili William in 1950s and sung later by Miriam Makeba and most recently by Angelique Kidjo. It was really popular in Nairobi in 1985.

"Malaika, nakupenda Malaika." How fitting that the photo seems to capture it in a heart.

And no, we did not get the time share and no, Carmen isn't in sales, either.