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Hello from the 22nd World Scout Jamboree - 27/07/2011
Hello from the 22nd World Scout Jamboree here in Sweden!
Day 1
So the adventure started on Monday, when i left heading towards Manchester for my Easyjet flight to Copenhagen. Check-in went well, very quick, then I had a few hours to wait in the departure lounge.
Shortly after 12.30 we headed to the gate, and we were off to Copenhagen. The flight was nice and short only just over 1 hour 30mins.
Once we landed in Copenhagen we headed towards the baggage hall to reclaim our bags. There were thousands of Scouts from all around the world, singing, marching, laughing, the atmosphere in the baggage area was great! If you were a member of the public in there, we are sorry!
Once we had our bus tickets (Free Jamboree transfer coach) we boarded our coach and we had a short journey (actually longer than the flight, around 2 hours) to the Jamboree site near Rinkaby, Sweden. Everyone was excited on the coach and the campfire songs were lead by a group of Scouts from argentina, all members of the IST (International Service Team).
We soon saw the signs for the Jamboree arrivals area, which made everyone scream with excitement!
Once we arrived at the check-in area we were given our jamboree pass, this allows us access to the Jamboree site, before boarding another coach to take us to the Adult sub camp.
My tent was taken by a fellow member of the IST from West Yorkshire, however due to the weather out in the North Sea, his ferry was delayed by 9 hours!!! A long night was ahead!
Having met other members of the county IST contingent on site, I was not alone in waiting for the tents to arrive.
My tent arrived on site just after 2am and having walked across the jamboree site to my tent pitch, it was just before 4am when i went to bed!
Day 2
Day 2 was an early start (ok, well it was 9.30am but after getting to bed at 4am its quite early!), today was all about training and meeting your patrol. First up was the international service team introductions, this was a series of activities within patrols for you to get to know everyone. One base included playing games that other leaders ran in their own Scout meeting nights in their own countries!
In the afternoon, it was all about job training. My Job is as a Security Steward, this involves keeping the jamboree site safe and secure. One of the tasks is to man the gates, there are 2 main gates on the jamboree site, and three smaller gates. Another task is to walk around the jamboree site and react to incidents should they occur, these could be anything including crowd control! (a small crowd on the jamboree site could be anything up to 10,000 people!!!!!)
Other job training included using radios and how to make sure campsites were fire safe (tents spaced out with 3m gaps between them).
We found out what our shifts were, and my first shift would be tomorrow at 7am - 3pm.
At 9pm it was the IST welcome show on the main stage, 8,000 adults gathered in the main arena to be welcomed by the camp chiefs.
How to keep up to date
Check out the jamboree website at www.worldscoutjamboree.se for the latest news, videos and web cams.
You can also keep up to date with what I am doing at the jamboree on Twitter and Facebook,
