Mawulidi Diodone Majaliwa came to the United States from a Tanzania refugee camp where he spent the last 20 years of his life. Before he fled the savage Congo civil war, he was a wood carver, he worked with the tools his grandfather had given him, and when he attempted to bring them aboard the plane taking him to America, he was told he had to leave the tools behind. He still carries a photo of them in his cellphone.

Mawulidi works in Albany as a bread maker in a bakery, but when he can, he carves small birds or other objects with the tools he has patched together. When I met him last week, I suggested that we would help him buy new tools so he would  resume the work his grandfather taught  him how to do.

He said he was grateful for the God that brought us together.

Today, and with the help of the Army Of Good, I kept my promise. I brought him a set of wood carving tools I found online for $42 and gave him a check for $400 donated almost entirely by a member of the Army of Good, who wanted to pay for Mawulidi to go to Home Depot and get the tools he needs to resume his work carving wood from trees.

He was very happy to see the wood carving kit and plans to go to Home Depot tomorrow. He also  wants to come to Bedlam Farm next week to go out into our woods and cut down a small tree (we have many) that is dry and solid. He can them resume his work on small objects and sculptures, which he will try to sell online. I hope he will let me help him with that.

This was an especially satisfying experience. We are building our own new kind of community here, finding out new kinds of neighbors, helping them when they need a hand. I am happy to say that when my granddaughter asks me one day, which she will, what I did during those trying times for our country, i will be able to look her straight in the eye and said, “I did good.”

So Mawulidi will be here next Thursday and we will get on with the business of giving  him his bliss back. That is very good, and I thank those of you who helped. I got excited when he pulled out his cell phone again and showed me the photo above, of the carvings he was selling at market when he was just 16 years old. Two years later, he would be fleeing for his life, leaving his country behind forever. He became a refugee.