Young men are outside the Bakery again, washing the floor-to-roof windows. Perhaps they help the patrons eating inside see the world more clearly.
I sit in a corner booth of the Homegirl Cafe for brunch, the gracious Lampea bringing me coffee and mango agua fresca. Mango is my favorite fruit; this drink has become my new favorite refreshment. This morning I see, from the specialty coffee to the pork chorizo and the most exquisite sourdough toast that I have ever eaten, that the Homeboys and Homegirls practice excellence in their work.
[The Bakery and Cafe food is supplemented by Homeboy Industries' own garden. Check out this vid by another L.A. group working on gardens all over the city: http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html? ]
"Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3.23-4
When I ask Lampea her name, and if I will be in the way if I study, she smiles a bit bigger. There is light in her smile.
[Any names mentioned in this blog have been changed to protect confidentiality.]
I eat steadily, read some, and when business picks up I pack my things and move to a counter in the Bakery. I assume my nourishment for the day there is done.
Then a Stranger speaks to me: "Did you just move from one place to another?"
"Yes, in case someone needed my table."
"Well that was a very nice thing you did." The Stranger, a woman working for the Cafe, then clears a table on the side which has a plug near it, so that I might continue to use my computer. Her kindness sparked my courage to talk with her.
Though I hoped for it, I did not anticipate how I would be fed by more than food that morning.
I hear a story from this stranger of heartbreak, of a distant family, of a kidnapped son. Of prison terms and felony and being lost. But the end of the story, I find, changes the rest of it. Because the end of her story—really, the end as far as she has discovered—is one in which she has found herself.
"I had to learn to forgive myself."
In working with her case manager, if she was really serious about changing, she needed to have her gang tattoos removed. So she was sent to Homeboy. The tattoos on her wrists are nearly gone, and the ones on her fingers invisible, after 11 sessions. It's a long process to remove the pieces of her old life.
"It's not about what you do right; it's about what you do wrong and are willing to change."
She found people who were like her at Homeboy. She credits Homeboy, and the people there, for all of the changes, along with her "guardian angels" (literal angels) who she feels like she has "worn out" in looking out for her. She credits Homeboy's capacity to "never give up on people."
"I have seen people do some stupid shit, they go to jail, then Homeboy hires them right back."
Anyone hired by Homeboy must go through an 18-month program which includes work and classes (AA, Narcotics Anonymous, Fatherhood or Women Empowerment classes, etc.), must be drug tested regularly, must meet with case managers and therapists, and this Stranger-turned-Friend says the whole process is one in which healing, belonging, and empowerment to stand and be responsible are all offered, over and over—if only the Homeboys and Homegirls take them.
Which they have been doing near a quarter-century. And my newest Friend, she has seen her family come closer recently through tragedy. She has found a marriage with someone who cares for her as she needs.
Though this week held disappointment for my summer at first, this day has changed my tone entirely. All because a woman of redeemed life chose to seek out and be kind to a stranger like me.
[Another wonderful video recently shared by a friend of mine carries a similar-yet-unique story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMwcCvOqPM ]
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