"Fair And Tender Ladies?"

From the left: Mary, Georgianne, and Mimi

Grandpère took the picture, and he did a pretty good job of it.

Georgianne Nienaber, who wrote the much too flattering article about me for The Huffington Post, introduced me to Mary, pictured above, who lives right nearby. Imagine! During the everlasting election period, I could have had a real person to talk to about politics in this area, without ending up in a screaming match. Mary is a singer, and quite a good singer and composer. Next month, Georgianne and I will go to to hear Mary sing in New Orleans. When we were talking about going, Georgianne said, "... if Tom will let you go". I nearly fell on the floor laughing at that remark. As though I needed Grandpère's permission!

The other night, Mary, Georgianne, and I went out to eat in downtown Houma at Café Milano, an Italian restaurant, which is quite good. Houma is a few miles south of Thibodaux.

Below is a blurry picture of GP and I at the restaurant on another occasion. I forgot all about taking pictures in the restaurant that evening, because we jumped right in and hardly stopped talking long enough to eat our dinner. I believe I talked the most, but I'd let my dinner companions weigh in on that. I took home a box of leftovers which were enough for a meal the next day.

Mary and I, both being native south Louisianaians, bonded rather quickly. I'm afraid that poor Georgianne was allocated listener status for too much of the time. And she paid for the meal! She said she was enjoying watching the two of us. Mary and I knew some of the same people, as is inevitable in a town the size of ours.

 

Georgianne spent time in Congo, and the miserable plight of many of the people in the country and the constant danger for the journalists who try to tell their stories lies very close to her heart. Her latest article at The Huffington Post, titled "The World Cannot Look Away" on the people and the journalists in the eastern part of Congo is heartbreaking.

As America jubilantly celebrates the election of Barack Obama and the freedoms that predicated this historic moment, we should take pause and realize that nothing has changed for war-ravaged Central Africa. As writers for OffTheBus pack up our laptops and head on to other assignments, journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are working under deadly conditions.
....

"Our colleagues covering the conflict in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are incredibly vulnerable to violence and abduction," said Gabriel Baglo, director of the IFJ Africa office.
....

"The world cannot look away again as thousands suffer in eastern Congo. The people of Congo deserve more," said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "We have had fine words and important meetings but these must now be put into action by providing additional troops to safeguard the people. We need more urgency, more action and more commitment."
....

Congolese Tutsi rebels under General Laurent Nkunda have captured villages in eastern Kivu province, which has seen over 1.5 million refugees in the months leading up to the latest offensive. MONUC (UN Mission in DR of Congo) reports the rebels are breaking their own ceasefire.

Mary contributed a song to Congo's Angels a CD described as:

A collection of songs and poems for our sisters, mothers and daughters of the Congo.

This compilation CD is comprised of songs and poems donated y the artists to benefit FRIENDS OF THE CONGO. To learn more about FOC and its work please visit this link.

Mary's is a folk song, titled "Apollo". It's not Cajun music, but, nevertheless, she sounds like a daughter of the bayou to me. The CD is a nice mix of folk, country, R&B, (Irma Thomas), gospel, and poems, just an all-around good CD, by various artists giving of their gifts to a noble cause.

The title of this post is taken from one of the songs on the CD by Caroline Herring or from the novel by Lee Smith of the same name. Take your pick. Are we fair and tender ladies? I leave that to you.

If any of you would like to read Georgianne's article about me, here's the link. I'm embarrassed to continue to link to something so "about me", but it's good for Georgianne to get the traffic. Really.