I am very proud and excited to offer the first of Mawulidi Diodone Majaliwa’s carvings for sale, they astonished me with their grace and beauty.

Mawulidi fled the Congo during the awful civil war there, his entire family except for his brother was killed during the conflict, his brother died in the same refugee camp where Mawulidi lived for more than 20 years ( I said yesterday it was 10 years, I was wrong) until he got a visa to come to America  a year ago.

In the Congo, he was a wood-carver, he was taught by his grandfather, who left him his carving tools when he died. When Mawulidi tried to take them with him on the plane to America, he was told to discard them, they couldn’t come on the plane.

It seemed as if he was throwing his life away. He came to Albany and signed up for classes and assistance with RISSE, the refugee and immigrant center there. Francis Sengabo, the Operations Director of RISSE, asked me to meet with him, he sensed his talent.

Meeting this wonderful and simple man, I knew I had to help him. Getting carving tools was not a big task.

I asked the Army Of Good for help in replacing his tools, and we raised hundreds of dollars to replace all of the equipment that he lost. He was dumbfounded that strangers would help him. He came here to Bedlam Farm to choose wood, and also to Pompanuck Farm, where he filled an SUV with chunks of wood.

Today, I went to Albany to see his first four carvings – he couldn’t be present, he had to get to his job baking bread, we must missed each other. But he left the carvings behind and asked me to sell them for him.

He said he wanted to give 25 percent of any profits to RISSE (I declined to take any money).

He said he had no idea what to charge, he asked if I could set a price for him. I was honored to be trusted to do that, but I said I ought to consult with my wife, who sells are all of the time.

I told him Maria and I would discuss it and set a price. We would sell them off of our blogs. If this is successful, we will eventually (his English is still poor, he’s never touched a computer) help him start a blog of his own.

But that will take some time. In the meantime, we will be proud to sell his work. Maria and I were both dazzled by the quality of this work. All the pieces are carved from a single piece of wood, all come from Bedlam or Pompanuck Farms, where he wants to get all of his wood, in honor of my support of him.

Maria will handle the sales, she says will take no commission or any money from the sales.

These carvings will go on sale Friday morning, here on my blog and also heres. We think we are underselling these works, they are authentic folk art, but Mawulidi is very humble and would rather start out low than high, he said. So we will honor that.

The larger items – the crane and the Guinea Hen – will be $150 plus shipping. The two birds will be $100 each plus shipping. (Warning, the price may change a bit in the morning, as we think and talk about it.) People who are interested should e-mail Maria at [email protected]. Please don’t e-mail me, I have no say in who buys these works.

We want to photograph each of these works separately in good light and post them tomorrowt so people can see exactly what they are buying.  There should be enough time to ship these carvings for Christmas, if that matters. We will need to find sturdy and safe packaging.

We are very honored to be helping with this.

It is gratifying and exciting to see Mawiludi, a quiet, proud artist has suffered enough for a dozen lifetimes, get his tools back and return to his artistry.

He never complaints or laments his suffering. Twenty years is an almost unimaginable time in a refugee camp.

I think he can go as far as he wants with his carving, and I told him we would support as much as we can. He says he has a wife and four children to care for, he is not sure people will pay for his work.

I made no promises to him, but I imagine they will. If that white crane hangs around, it will end up on my desk.

Thanks once more to the Army Of Good. For roughly $500 we have transformed a life and saved the soul of an artist. It is better to do good than argue about what good is.

[email protected]

Note, an earlier version of this post said the two smaller pigeon carvings would cost $50, that was my error. They will be $100. As of this writing, all of the carvings are sold.