Another good news alert: This afternoon, Mawulidi Diodone Majaliwa, a new friend who came to the United States in November after spending 20 years in a refugee camp, is coming to the farm to find a tree to cut down so he can resume his work as a carver, thanks to your help in replacing the carving tools he was not allowed to bring to America.

Brother Francis Sendago, the RISSE (refugee and immigration center in Albany, N.Y.) Operations Director, is driving Mawulidi from Albany to Bedlam Farm, from there, we’re going over to Pompanuck Farm, where Scott Carrino has a lot of trees that might fit Mawulidi’s needs. He’s looking for wood sections that are at least 32 inches in circumference and a meter in length.

His plan is for us to help him cut the small tree down – it can be dead or alive – and let it lie in the sun for a few weeks, and he’ll come back to get it and resume his carving. Mawulidi was a carver in the Congo Kinshasa, he fled during the civil war there and has spent half of his 42 years looking for a new country.

He might find his tree here, but Pompanuck Farm’s trees are more numerous and might fit his needs. We’ll see. Scott Carrino has generously offered one of his trees to us, and he has a power saw  (no one in town will sell me one, they fear Maria will kill them.)

His grandfather taught him carving and left him his precious tools when he died, but Mawulidi had to leave them on the airport tarmac, he has carried photographs of his tools with him since he had to abandon them. Carving was his livelihood in the Congo before he had to flee.

Thanks to your generosity, we have raised enough money for him to replace the tools, he will start carving some of his wildlife figures and sculptures, he is eager to sell them but we have to figure out how to do that.

Mawulidi is working as a baker for an Albany bread company, but he has never give up his dream of returning to carving.

He is very grateful for this help. My idea for Mawulidi is to help him set up a blog or website so he can sell the beautiful carvings he knows how to make. He needs to be able to do business transactions, which makes the blog more expensive. If you wish to contribute to this work, you can do so by sending a donation to me at Jon Katz, P.O Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. or to Paypal, [email protected].

I would like to continue supporting Maluwidi in the small ways most refugees need help – some tutoring, some basic household needs. I’ve seen his carvings, they are quite unique and lovely. I’ll discuss it with him this afternoon. More later. And thanks for helping to make this dream come true, another successful project from the Army Of Good.