Chau Chachi.

We sat squished, hip-bone to hip bone as the rickety cad shuddered down the highway towards Villa Montes. Outside Aguarague rose high and powerful above the eastern plain; inside discordant Colla music blared and the stench of pigs in the back of the station wagon contaminated the air. It was a particularly unpleasant last taxi ride together, but somehow fitting. Id rather have a goodbye like this, rushed and almost routine, with the knowledge that life here will continue as usual after hes gone. I don’t want to focus on the possibility of never seeing someone who, by chance, has become a brother to me in a few short months.

I often wonder how it will feel when I someday have to leave this place. It was one thing to leave the States, knowing that at some fixed date, Id be back. But to leave Chimeo one day. Who knows when Ill be able to return, if ever. Its not something I like to seriously contemplate, yet I found myself doing so this week with the departure of my closest gringo companion and quasi-site mate, Chachi.

Chachi is a natural resources volunteer who arrived in my training group this January. In training he lived closer to me in our Cochabamba barrio than anyone else, and in April we were placed 10 km from each other. Furthermore, our projects have gone hand in hand, him trying to preserve the forest I need for the bees that thrive there. Neither of us had host families, so when one of us was sick or feeling particularly lonely, especially in those first few cold months in site, we learned to depend on each other. For the kids in Chimeo, a Chachi visit is equivalent to the icecream man- bringer of all things Frisbee and fun. Any fotograph with a gringo male in it becomes Chachi.

He’s a legend. And like all good legends, he has to go before his time. Chachi’s mom has been not well for some time, bravely and selflessly fighting cancer. In recent months things have become more serious, and now Chachi needs to head back to Wisconsin to be at her side. Im sad to see him go, but at the same time I wish he would have gone long ago to be with his family. The PC can be such a selfish, fleeting time, and I cant help but compare each day he’s here with another potential day with his family.

There is not a single gringo in Bolivia about whom Ive come to know more about or who knows more about me. Its strange to let it all go, but at the same time its fitting- my family in Bolivia is now wholly Chimeo. I find myself with less and less desire to leave the place- Chimeo has gone from my site to my community. It stands alone; its all I need here in Bolivia.

The most stressful part about his departure is the sustainability of the projects he was starting in Chimeo. We are a conservationist community, known by local companies and the mayor’s office for a willingness to kick out, sometimes by force, those who threaten the sanctity of our Aguarague. Chachi was helping initiate a community tree nursery, to replace trees taken for artisan work and firewood and lumber, as well as a forest management plan. Without him to lead the way, I fear these plans will fall through. Even if I knew the first thing about forestry, all of my time is already taken with my agriculture and nutrition work. I really don’t know how Ill balance my projects with keeping his alive in the coming months; only time will tell.

A bit of Chachi will always be part of Chimeo-on his last visit to Chimeo, he brought a box of saltenas, soda, and 14 trees to plant in the school. No matter what happens with the nursery of his forest management plan, a bit of Chachi will always be here in the mangos in December and flower-like ceder seeds that fall in September. If only all volunteers should all be so fortunate to leave such a reminder of ourselves behind.

I ask that all those who receive this email keep Chachi’s family in your thoughts and, if you swing that way, prayers.