Believe

"Oh my
I didn't know how hard it would be 
But if I hold on tight, is it true?
Would You take care of all that I do?
Oh Lord, I'm getting ready to believe"
 - I'm Getting Ready, by Michael Kiwanuka 


Because they all come from similar backgrounds, it is easy for me to look at the Casa Gabriel boys and see them all as the same, no matter their skin color. About half are Ecuadorian, from different parts of the country, and about half African Ecuadorian. Various, beautiful shades of brown skin and black. They all get along so well (for the most part; teenagers, you know?), becoming friends and comrades and allies. Over the years, the age demographic has changed along with the need: first it was boys in middle school, then in high school, now high school and college. We have three guys who are in college currently. (A quick aside: colleges here do no have dorm rooms. Traditionally, students continue to live with their families while studying, thus it's begun to work out more and more that the guys wish to continue living at Casa Gabriel while in school, along with taking on more leadership roles and responsibilities in the house).
The other day, two of the guys confessed something which has been a painful and difficult realization for them: they are the only Africa Ecuadorians in each of their college classes.


When I heard that, I felt pride for them in that they are setting out and breaking the mold, proving that anyone can go to college, even a black former street boy. Yet they, in turn, also feel the sting of being different. Of standing out in such a visible way. Without ever having shared the story of their pasts - poverty and hardships and struggling to rise above it all - their very skin marks them as different.


I hate that race continues to be a struggle all around the world. Every one of the guys in Casa Gabriel is equal in their value, potential, and uniqueness. Every one of them has chosen to work hard and break the generations-old cycle of poverty and lack of education by graduating high school and, even more impressively, going to college. There is no segregation, either here or in the US, yet there is still a marked difference. There are still far fewer black people in college here than there should be. There are still far too many prejudices in the US towards black people, targeting and profiling in one lump sum them before they've ever had an individual chance.


Once, I got coffee with one of the guys who had graduated high school several years before and was looking at moving to the States to finish his college education there. As I walked up to his table, he was saying goodbye to a man he had randomly met there in the coffee shop. The man was from the States and when he heard my friend talking on the phone with me in English, he struck up a conversation with him. Since both men were black, they talked some about what it's like to be black in both cultures.
"Sometimes I see someone look my way and cross the street," the man from the US confessed.
"I have that happen too," my friend replied. "It's like, Man, don't judge me before you know me!"

His recounting of the conversation stayed with me. In knowing my friend, I see a confident musician with a definite fashion sense, someone who can be warm and funny and engaging. The difference between knowing him, and knowing what people can assume about him and others like him, is devastating.

I hope for the world to be better. I hope for us to grow and learn, to judge less and love more, more, more. I hope it for my Casa Gabriel boys, and I also hope that, hard as it may be, that they can help make that change happen. Maybe it starts not only by being the only black person in a college class, but to be a person who stands out by their respect, their work ethic, and their kindness. I know it's a lot of pressure. I try to encourage them - clumsily, perhaps - but the best I can. Yet I want to be aware and be better, as I'm sure I have prejudices I may not even realize.

May they help make a change, in their colleges and in daily life. May we at Casa Gabriel help and encourage and stand with them. May we all, however we can, insist on a change for the better.