I’m in the airport right now waiting to board my plane. I didn’t expect it to be hard to say leave, but saying goodbye to Baker was.
Baker Nicholaou is the son of a couple my parents met and became close friends with about 24 years ago when our dads were in business school. I call Baker “my first friend”, because we met when we were 1 and 2 years old. I imagine we hung out in a crib for a year. I probably stole his blanky and made fun of him while he sucked his thumb.
Now, more than twenty years later, and after only seeing each other a couple of times, we’ve rekindled our friendship in Granada, Nicaragua. For the past several months we were roommates in a sweet house. At the beginning of the day whoever woke up first made the coffee, at the end of the day we’d drink a rum and coke and talk about mishaps of the day. We’d been getting into Lost recently, watching one or two episodes about every day. I’d talk to him about what I’ve been thinking about, he’d tell me what God’s been showing him. We’d pray for each other, encourage each other, make fun of each other and laugh a lot. I think there are few friendships like this in life.
Yesterday Baker and I went to the “Laguna de Apoyo” and hung out for the afternoon. It was a great way to spend the last afternoon in Nicaragua with a close friend. Here’s a video of Baker doing a back-flip off a pretty high dock.
