My first Basileia turned out to be a lot different than I expected. When I arrived the first day, I was suffering from an infection that would need antibiotics. I had been trying to treat it on my own and was going to wait until the next week day to go to the doctor, but by the end of the first day of Basileia I was in too much pain to wait another few days. That was when I met the nurse, who turned out to be the only new friend I made during the week. Looking back it is kind of weird that we bonded over me having a really bad infection that required two visits to the ER and a trip to a surgeon, but I am grateful to have met her either way. Every time that I returned to camp after visiting the fancy Adirondack Medical Center I would check in with her and give her an update on how things went. For example, I told her about the antibiotics that I was put on, and later she hunted me down after lunch to warn me that the amount of drugs I was taking was pretty toxic and that I should be very careful about when I took them. I ended up visiting the nurse so much that Kathryn joked that we had become best friends. From this experience I learned that friends can be made through almost any situation. I think that God had the right idea in mind for me to make one close friend rather than a bunch of acquaintances that I would not keep in contact with after Basileia was over. That being said, go to Basileia! God will be sure to surprise and bless you with the people you meet. During track week I didn't make many new friends, but there is a great opportunity to get to know new people during meals and free time. I made one new friend and that was enough for me.
Overall, Basileia is a wonderful experience where you can spend a week in the beautiful Adirondacks surrounded by other Christian students who would love to talk with you about anything and everything. It is a great learning experience and I left Basileia feeling much better equipped to evangelize and share my faith with other people.
Work Crew: After a wonderful week in track week, I had the opportunity to spend another week at Basileia on work crew. I volunteered for housekeeping, where I cleaned bathrooms three times a day and did laundry in between that. There were a lot of sheets, tablecloths, and towels to fold, but it was fun. Being on work crew allowed me to get to know a smaller group of people a lot better than just meeting people during meals during track week. The work kept me busy and it was an awesome experience to help out around the camp and see what goes on behind the scenes to make sure the people in tracks are having a great time. Work crew is a great way to both give back to people around you and to help pay for a track week. I loved working with housekeeping, and I plan to do work crew every year that I attend Basileia.
Check out what the work crew does behind the scenes by clicking the picture.
Picture/Video of Work Crew Week 3 courtesy of Tim Peterson
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