Leaving Bennie behind

The day has come; Bennie has to return to the country, while Baaskaa stays the city.

Most of the time Bennie was a quiet by-stander while in UB. He participated somewhat, but mostly from the sidelines. In his defense, we were so busy with schooling Nasa and finding a job for Baaskaa that there wasn’t much room left. Often we had to leave him waiting in the apartment, while we were out and about, getting things done.

At the moment he isn’t all that happy in the countryside even so he loves the live and handling animals. Like Baaskaa, he feels that while in the country he has no choices. To avoid feeling trapped and expand his skills he decided to start vocational training in the fall of 2011. But due to new regulations he needs an eight-grade diploma in order to enroll in Naleikh.

I will have to figure out a whole new set of issues. We need to properly evaluate Bennie’s level of education and hire a private tutor to bring him up to speed to eight’ grade. While in school in UB he needs to live somewhere with supervision. I am not sure how to organize and finance all that, but thank goodness I have a bit of practice facing these difficulties.

While returning Bennie to the farm, we informed Byambaa about Baaskaa’s job opportunities. Byambaa was happy for Baaskaa, but sad to see him go. Live in the country can become quite lonely and they had spent the last three years together. Over time Baaskaa had become more like a partner then a son.

When it was time to say good-bye to Bennie, everyone tried to keep it light and short. Bennie waved and without much ado he went back to work.

I imagine it has been hard for the boys to separate, they had spent two years together, the last one 24/7. They shared a bed and embraced each other during the night. They leaned on each other, encouraged each other and exchanged their secrets, fears and hopes.

Yet, both of them have encountered so many people come and go throughout their short lives. Some they’ll meet again, others they won’t. They don’t have the luxury to cry about their losses if they want survive them. First I followed Baaskaa’s lead and made a joke while saying good-bye, but then I couldn’t help it, I hugged Bennie and promised I’d be back. Then I turned around and got into the car, without looking back.