It looks like Maria and I will be in the wood carving sales business shortly.

Yesterday, Mawulidi Didodone Majaliwa came to Bedlam Farm to see the dogs work and meet the donkeys, we planned to over to Pompanuck Farm where he could select a tree for his larger carvings. Mawulidi came with Francis Sengabo, left, the director of RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center, and Isaiah, a young man from his village in the Congo, who is now also living in Albany, N.Y..

He loved the donkeys and the sheep, but he really lit up when he saw the huge stack of firewood we have gathered to heat the wood stoves in winter. He loaded up Francis’s van with firewood before we headed over to Pompanuck Farm. The firewood is perfect, he said,  for making some of his beautiful birds and small carvings. He just lit up when he saw it.

All three of these many are refugees from  some of the awful genocidal conflicts in Africa.

Francis founded Risse after spending 11 years in a refugee camp, Mawulidi was in a refugee camp for 20 years, half of his life. He learned how to carve wood from his grandfather but had to leave his carving tools behind in Africa when he came to America last November. Isaiah arrived in America last year.

I tried to talk Mawulidi into a blog or website, but he has no computer and has never been on one, so that won’t fly. Maria and I decided to sell the first series of carvings that he makes, if they are anything like the one I have already seen, they will be scooped up.

Mawulidi has all of the tools he needs now, he just needs an electric drill to bore some holes in the wood, he needs to go to Home Depot with someone who speaks better English and who can help him. I volunteered but Francis thinks he knows someone in Albany who can help.

Mawulidi is a gentle and gracious men, you would never know what he has been through. I look forward to getting to know him better, and I thank the Army of Good for supporting this project. We spent about $500  replacing the tools Mawulidi had to leave behind in Africa when he came here.

I suppose he is precisely the kind of immigrant the new government is trying to keep out of America. He hasn’t learned much English yet, but he is no drain on our resources. He works long hours baking bread in a bakery in Albany and he hopes, with these tools, to resume his work as a carver.

After we loaded up his car, we drove to Pompanuck Farm where Scott Carrino had cut down an ash tree. More photos coming. It was a great and successful trip, and I thank you for your support. If you wish to help some of the new refugee and immigrant arrivals to America, you can donate directly to RISSE, which is doing difficult and critical work, made all the more urgent by the deep cuts in aid from the federal government that are already being felt by refugee families.

You can donate directly to RISSE here, or donate to my separate work by sending a donation to my post office box, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or through Paypal, [email protected]. Thanks.