Mawulidi Diodone Majaliwa came to America last year from the Congo Kinshasa. He had been living in a refugee camp after fleeing the civil war in the Congo when he learned he could come to America.
A wood carver who learned his trade from his grandfather, he worked with his grandfather’s tools. As he boarded the plane to America, he was told he could not take his grandfathers tools with him, so he had to leave them behind on the ground.
Mawulidi was in the camps for more than a decade before he was chosen by the U.N. to come to America, his family perished in the brutal fighting, his brother died in the camps.
It broke his heart. Mawulidi has been working in a bakery in Albany, N.Y. making bread. I met him two months ago at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant center in Albany, and hearing his story, I asked the Army of Good for help in buying him new carving tools.
The response was immediate, we raised $500 over night for him and got him some tools online. RISSE officials took him to Home Depot for the rest. Then Mawullidi came to see me at the farm and we went to Pompanuck Farm nearby – it’s a 90 acre farm – to get the wood he wanted.
Mawulidi hoped to carve some birds and other objects to sell for Christmas, but he had to go to the hospital for some surgery and was unable to work for six weeks. He has recovered and I am meeting him this afternoon at RISSE. I’m told he is bring some carvings with him.
If that is so, I will bring them home and Maria and I will offer them for sale on the blog, all proceeds going to Mawulidi (he may donate some of the money to RISSE). Maria has volunteered to handle the sales and forego any commission.
I will never forget the look on Mawulidi’s face when I told him he would get his carving tools replaced, he simply didn’t believe it at first. That look has lifted me up almost every day. Mawulidi has suffered great in his life, it is such a gift for him to be able to honor his grandfather’s teachings and return to his craft.
He has four children and I don’t know if he can ever be a full-time carver again.
I guess that’s up to him. But he is working hard on his new life here, beginning to see the true soul of America. He can begin working as an artist again, practicing the craft his grandfather taught him. I’m excited to be seeing him again. I’m eager to see what he has made, and hopefully, sell the first carvings he has made in America.