Southern Region Jamboree Weblog

Semper Gumby!
This has been our motto throughout the jamboree prep period and now it becomes even more important as we begin our final three days of adventure. Loosely translated it means “always flexible” so I am sure that you can appreciate how this applies to our situation. My day started our splendidly when Larry and Greg found my little Gumby figurine in the grass in our staff tent. I guess that it had fallen off my shirt early in the jamboree during one of our meetings. That combined with my daily “Beaver bead” on my necklace gives me both encouragement and confidence that we will be able to meet whatever challenges we face through Wednesday.

Hot! Really hot! No other way to put it….when it gets in the mid 80s in England that’s hot! When I woke up about 530AM this morning in troop 217 campsite (sharing the common center area of Robbie and Fred’s tent) it actually felt a bit cool. Within 30 minutes it was already warming up and kept warming up until mid-afternoon. Who would have thought that we would be this concerned about sunburn and dehydration at this jamboree? That was our main concern last time in Thailand. Actually, a lot of folks including me were feeling (and looking) a bit blown out by the end of the day today. But a little sleep (and that’s all one can hope for) and perhaps a bit cooler day tomorrow should revive us as we head into the home stretch.
Two of our subcamps plus troop 216 were off-site today at Gilwell and Splash. Since I had made the rounds last night during their evening activities we decided to defer our visits until late afternoon. So Charles, Larry, Greg and I spent the morning and early afternoon “goofing off” except when we were needed. I spent some time over at what I call the “D.O.T.” That is an acronym for “Den of Thieves” and refers to the patch trading area. Actually the rest of the world refers to patch trading as “badge swopping”. It is not as pervasive as what we see at our national jamborees with blankets spread out along every road and beside every shrub. But the kids (and adults of course) do enjoy “swopping” and it has always been a part of the world jamboree experience. Our BSA “stars and stripes” neckerchief is very popular and many of our guys wish that they had brought more of them (but they were not cheap). Our relative disadvantage in swopping is that there are many more BSA scouts than most other countries and thus there are many many more of our patches out there. Okay, enough about patches.
My “beaver-cub scout-lick-of-ice-cream-for-badge” trade offer continues to be great fun for us as we chatted with some of the Sunday visitors. I spotted two UK boy scouts sitting in the shade looking a bit perplexed so I approached them with my usual badge offer. I then asked them if they had “chucked their leaders” and gone off by themselves. They said that actually they had gotten separated from their other two patrol members and had decided to just sit down and see if they came around. I offered to help them look around and they accepted. Then they remembered that their leaders had told them to rendezvous at the jamboree clock tower if they got lost. Good scout training knows no national boundaries.

Also today I encountered a group of Scout de France. This gave me a chance to practice my French since they spoke limited English. I learned that they were from Paris and meet on Tuesdays (just like my own troop). Perhaps I will convince Helen to let me visit them when we are in Paris later on this year. I think that I mentioned in an earlier blog that a lady I met in the French HQ had invited me to visit her 13th Century chalet in Loire Valley. So we’re all set!

Both the adults and scouts can earn a “friendship” award by completing a number of tasks at the jamboree – some alone and others with international patrols. More and more I see our guys trying to complete these items now that time is limited. Usually a fair number of them will succeed before the deadline on Tuesday.

My personal daily highlight was talking with four Scouters (three day visitors and one IST member) who had attended the 1929, 1937, 1947, and 1957 World Scout Jamborees (one each of course). The 1929 and 1957 ones were in England (although at different places), the 1937 was in Holland, and the 1947 one was in France. It was originally planned for 1941 but the events in Europe of which we are all too familiar delayed that one until the world war had ended. Each of these gentlemen were able to describe their experiences with gusto and each of them gave me their signatures for my little books of memories for this jamboree.

Continuing our daily designation that I talked about yesterday, I got an idea from the Hispanic guys in troop 207 from South TX. So today was JAMBO-BUENO CON PAPAS (I may not have the spelling exactly right on “papas”). Most people know that “bueno” means “good” and the literal meaning of “con papas” is “with potatoes.” But idiomatically speaking this would be translated as “all that plus French fries” so it means much better than just good. And everything that happened today confirmed the choice of our daily designation. Mucho!!

We did our final “walk-about” after 500PM and the temperature was much more bearable. We found several of our unit leaders sitting under the shade of trees near their camps but still with an eye on their turf. The food issue tonight was chicken breasts and the smell of yardbird cooking all around the subcamps and campsites was intoxicating. Apparently we are not at a loss for great cooks in our units.

There does seem to be some type of “jambo-itis” circulating and several of our scouts and leaders were being given antibiotics to help them overcome it for the balance of our stay. I guess when 40000 plus people live in close quarters for 2 weeks this is almost a certainty.

One of the comments on yesterday’s blog noted that one scout had described the jamboree as “Woodstock in uniform” – meaning without all of the negative elements. That’s pretty accurate actually. Interestingly enough, 10 days after we leave Hylands Park it will once again be the site of the “V” rock music festival sponsored by Virgin Records. I doubt that this event will be as much of a clean, fun, and healthy influence on this community.

Tonight at dinner, one of our other contingent staff noted that he had heard of another scout whose mother asked him to describe the jamboree. His response….”I am not sure yet. I need to get home and sort it all out in my mind before I say.” That’s true as well.

Tuesday morning (all too soon for some and none too soon for others I guess) we will meet with our unit leaders to discuss a four letter word….”exit.” We know that we will be boarding our buses for the airport on Wednesday morning at 400AM. This is a good thing as each passing hour on-site holds more and more mania once everyone begins heading for home.

There will be at least one more blog and maybe two depending on how frenzied the next 48 hours become. Thank you for your kind remarks re:my blog and I hope that my overview combined with the detailed recollections of your sons and daughters once they return to your loving arms will combine to give you a sense of what we have experienced together. As I have said time and time again….mere words cannot explain it.

And what, you are probably asking, might be the jamboree word for Monday? Okay, I will give you’re a hint. It is very, very British and very, very applicable.

Ciao!