Good times must end….

The time that all of have been dreading this week has finally come... tomorrow all the sub camps are taken down as troops from around the world return to where they came from, back to the ‘real’ world.

The last two weeks have been filled with sunshine (mostly), friendship and once in a lifetime experiences. All those here can walk away saying not only have been at the 21st World Scout Jamboree, but they saw Scouting’s Sunrise creating a new chapter in Scouting’s history.
As evening fell everyone gathered in the arena for the last party of the Jamboree, the closing ceremony. Expectations running high, tissues at the ready, preparing for the eventful and heart-melting ceremony that had to happen eventually.

As with all the other ceremonies throughout the Jamboree, we were not disappointed. The show was a riot of colour, music and plenty of reminiscence of the last ten days. The highlight had to be with the final rendition of ‘Jambo’, where literally everybody in the 40,000 strong crowd sang along with the cast and the ‘Adventure’.

But don’t worry. This is not goodbye! There is always Sweden in 2011, many of the friends made here will be there too, whether as participants again, for those that are lucky to still be young enough, or as members of the service team, for those who just never grow up!
And as a final goodbye, the people here would like to thank everyone involved who made it happen, every un-sung hero who is there, in the background, working throughout the night.

Those not need needing glory, but needing a thank you anyway.

From the media team here at the World Scout Jamboree, we thank you and say goodbye and good luck.

The end is in sight

There is one day left of this amazing Jamboree. On the 8th of August after the closing, all the scouts need to go home.

“I’ll miss this Jam a lot, especially the atmosphere cause everybody is helpful and nice, always asking how I’m doing.” said Yaelle Jacobs, 15, Belgium. Some people want to stay forever. Roos van Zeggelen, 14, Netherlands says with an unhappy face, “It’s a shame that everything is going so fast, we had two years of preparation and it’s almost over.

” Liesbeth Spiessens, 16, Belgium agrees and adds: “There are actually two sides, because I’d like to stay but I’d also like to go home. I miss the amount and taste of Belgium food. ” The most beautiful memory for them will be the amazing number of different people who do scouting. “We look as one, although we are with 40,000

” Fortunately there are two full days left to enjoy. Zablon Samba, 16, from Kenya has made 300 friends, and he still thinks it’s not enough. “I’m going to make more friends; we’re here with 40.000, so I’ll be very busy these days.

” He learned a lot from this Jamboree about the different cultures in the global village, and played many new games at world villages. He enjoyed making clay woggles and scarfs of recycled materials with the scouts in Kenya too, as he saw at Trash. He’d also like to give a presentation and teach about AIDS, if he has time left. “BP said: “Have fun in this jolly world” so that’s the thing I’m going to do for certain.

” Exchanging badges is the thing Pok-him Ho,14, from Hong Kong likes to do these days. “I also want to visit Hylands House.” He likes it here at the Jamboree, also because the “air is cleaner than in Hong Kong.

” The parents of Rens van Grunsven, IST, will come to visit the Jamboree. “It’s true that this Jamboree is almost finished, but others will come and enjoy it too. Till the end of this one, it surely will be fun.” The Jamboree draws to a close, but everyone has happy memories to look back on, new friends to keep in touch with and has the best scout quote ever…

I was there at the 21st World Scout Jamboree! So there is no need to be disheartened.

Wow - what a ride!

One thing that makes this jamboree unique is the enormous choice of games and workshops people can experience in World Village, Terra Ville and Aqua Ville. There is even a whole cinema scouts from Austria brought along. But itís not a normal cinema.

You take a platform of about 700 kilos, 4 automobile springs and equipment of about 1.5 tons in total, a movie about Austria and 10 committed Austrians. And what you get is a cinema experience for all senses.

Imagine you are in a cinema and you could feel the movement and sense the smells of the pictures on screen. SenseAction cinema makes it possible. It was great. This cinema is different with all the movement and smells. The concept is very good. Well Done!, said one of the participants of the jamboree, Luke McMaster from Bedfordshire, after enjoying a ride.

On the moving platform there are 18 seats and the crew of 10 crazy Austriansí offer 10 rides a day, each lasting for almost half an hour. The run on the tickets is enormous. Every day we are booked out in about a quarter of an hour. So we hand out tickets for the times for each presentation, explained Thomas Gassner.

The cinema has been on tour on national camps in Austria from 2001 onwards. So they wanted to have it at the jamboree at any price. Even the film was edited especially for this occasion (almost) all by them. We wanted to make a film about Austria. So we took the usual stereotypes and cliches and tried to overdo them in a satirical way. And I think we have made a great job because people laugh at the right timesî, announced Florian Edlhofer, the creator of the film.

Every day I go to bed, totally exhausted but with a smile on my face because I made so many children happy, groaned Berhard Br¸ckl after he gave everything jumping up and down the bars to make the whole platform move to the pictures.

World Scout Centre Promotes Peace

At the heart of the World Scout Centre is the display and exhibition area for Scouting around the world.

World Scouting presents broad themes encompassing a culture of peace, including gifts for peace, education for all and reducing the digital divide."It's a small world here. We can see an entire world in one place," says Tabouche Sourmia, 16, of Algeria.

The centre offers exciting and interactive activities where Scouts can send peace messages through drawings, photos and videos. In one drawing, Scouts from Russia describe the world as beautiful. The best are then uploaded to the World Scouting site, www.scout.org. World Scouting is grouped into six continental regions: Africa, Arab, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, Europe and Inter-america. Around the regions, there are 28 million Scouts in 215 countries and territories.

Among regional flagship projects at the centre is the Amahoro Amani of Africa, a peace education project that combats ethnic prejudice in the continent's Great Lakes Region.The Arab Region sees a project for one million working children in Egypt as its paramount undertaking. Sea Scouts in Egypt help more than 1,500 children in improving their working conditions.

Asia-Pacific Region's peace baton, now on display at the centre, has been held by more than 150,000 people in many countries.As a symbol of worldwide solidarity after the tsunami in 2004, Scouts raised US$800,000 to fund 55 projects. Local Scouts helped victims in worst-hit countries around the Indian Ocean.

Gifts for Peace
At the centre, visitors will find the greatest gifts Scouts can offer to their communities. Many of these projects were launched on the 1st of August.

In 2002, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) endorsed the idea of creating projects as a meaningful way of celebrating the Scouting centenary. Since then, millions of Scouts in more than 110 countries have risen to the challenge. They created 130 projects focusing mainly on managing conflict without violence, challenging prejudice and encouraging greater solidarity between WOSM and other organizations.

Among the gifts for peace projects:
In Brazil, Scouts educate young people to avoid any firearms, even toy guns. They show ways of resolving conflict through dialogue and compromise.

Canadian Scouts improve cultural differences to reduce racism, and they have created a website called Cultural Connections Collection to promote this.

Scouts in New Zealand raise awareness on skin cancer, combatting obesity, psychological, physical and substance abuse, and the growing problem of young people commiting suicide.

In Slovakia, Scouts are helping the Roma minority by establishing a special group and an educational programme tailored to their community's needs.

Since the Darfur crisis began in July 2003, Scouts in Sudan are managing camps for internally displaced people. They distribute food and raise awareness on health issues.
Scouts of the World Award

Volunteers and ISTs at the centre enthusiatically explain the Scouts of the World Award. The award prepares young adults for global citizenship in three core themes: environment, development and peace.

At the centre, Scouts can join a debate at the World Scout Forum corner. For those aspiring to be "president of World Scouting", he or she has to convince an audience of their position with a one-minute speech on a specific world issue.

The centre offers other activity areas to discuss the rights of children. Also, don't miss the corner for Rovering and write something about what Rovers do in your country. In many nations, Rovers are Scouting programmes for young people who are 18 to 25 years old.

World Scouting also includes volunteers and leaders. There's an area for volunteers and a special lounge where both groups can relax after a long hard day. That's a way of saying World Scouting cares for everyone.

The road to the Jamboree

A BBC documentary following the story of two World Scout Jamboree participants, one from Africa and one from the UK, will be screened several times over the next week on BBC1 and BBC News 24.

A filmcrew flew to Mafikeng, the site of the famous siege in 1899-1900 where Baden-Powell defended the town during the Boer War, to interview Scouts there and to film them preparing for the adventure of their lives.

Although the area is famous for its military history, this time the story is about peace, development opportunities and global understanding. There are four Jamboree participants from Mafikeng, some of whom have never left the area.

They are being funded by money raised in Africa and many are from underpriveliged backgrounds. Of the 200 Jamboree participants from South Africa - 70 have almost nothing.

The filming continued this week at the Jamboree site at Hylands Park, Essex, when the UK and Mafikeng participants met. The moving tale of their meeting will be screened several times on BBC1 and News 24.

Day Visitors

Whilst 40,000 people are able to live the Jamboree everyday, some just visit for a single look around. But they are all enjoying the Jamboree experience.

As part of the project to make the Jamboree experience open to all some 60,000 additional day visitors have been booked in for a day visit.Cubs from 4th Worth (Kenue) in West Sussex decided to make the visit a central part of their summer camp and they’ve not been disappointed. “It was a really good decision, the Cubs have had a truly wonderful day and experiencing it, seeing it and feeling it has been well worth the time and effort because not only have we packed in a day full of activities that we could never had hoped to lay on but we’ve garnered enough programme ideas and contacts to give our programme a international dimension for the next ten years” explained Leader Pauline Moore

The Cubs are equally enthused. As 10 year old Jack Vincent emerges from with yet another completed quiz inside the Honduran tent on world villages, you see a smiling face brimming with new ideas: “I’ve just learnt about the food they eat and tasted it, that’s unbelievable for me, I never even knew the country existed until I came here.

Jack has by now collected 12 stamps and stickers from various different tents but is off to see the Daily show in the main arena. “I’m coming back though; I haven’t been on the funfair rides”. Not funfair rides exactly but the Swedish hand built Viking ship and Ferris wheel.

All the Cubs stick together for lunch taken while the stage show is on, it seems the most practical way of getting them to stop and slow down for an hour. But it’s only temporary respite in the race to get round the sights they can see.

Having wandered through the international tents the Cubs get a chance to play some more traditional games, a group of Indonesian Scouts drift over to join in with them playing croquet on the lawn, they may be used to it but the Indonesians certainly aren’t so Jack and his team are delighted to put one over them.

The Indonesians might have been defeated but that doesn’t stop them helping the clubs identify their flag – one of a series of challenges the Leaders have set for them.

There’s just time for a quick tour of the souvenir shop before they have to depart. Pauline calls later with a message: “Thanks for showing us around, I’m not sure when I last went on a coach with this many sleepy Cubs. We’ll all get some decent rest in tonight. And I’m really hopeful that in the future these Cubs will want the full Jamboree experience, not just in Sweden but beyond that as well.

”But I’m still not sure if Jack ever got his ride on the Ferris wheel

Mangrove Madness

Maybe one day you were wandering along the path and suddenly heard raucous singing in an unintelligible foreign language, or maybe you were walking and suddenly you had to dodge a bunch of male Scouts dressed as witches prancing around. If that has happened to you, then chances are you were in Mangrove.

As all of its inhabitants know or are coming to realise, Mangrove is one of the craziest places you will ever encounter. As someone once said “The sub camps are supposed to serve as a microcosm for the entire Jamboree” and this is especially true in Mangrove. With over 40 troops speaking more than a dozen languages, Mangrove is truly an international place.

When you enter the sub camp, you will see the sub camp HQ on your left and the showers on the right, followed immediately by the stage and impromptu football pitch. After this you enter the heart of the camp, whose eccentricities include a gigantic replica of the Eiffel tower, erected by a French troop, a small tower-castle created by a group of Hungarian Scouts and numerous other ambitious and ostentatious shows of pioneering skills.

While you are there you should definitely swing by either of the Dutch sites to take a picture of their gigantic wooden ducks or the Swiss, to see their two metre long wooden feet. Also noteworthy are the Japanese with their highly decorated fish-shaped wind socks.

The last thing you should do before you leave is to visit the troops from Puerto Rico and from Dorset. The Puerto Rican troop is actually made up of Scouts from Puerto Rico, The Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K. and is known for constantly yelling at all hours of the day or spontaneously breaking out into song. The troop from Dorset is one of the most spirited troops in the entire sub camp, constantly running around or doing something extremely original, just for the sake of being able to do it. For example, one day one of the troop’s members even painted himself entirely red just because he could.

So in conclusion, if you don’t have anything to do and you’re bored, or just looking to have a good time after your activities have finished, head on over to Mangrove Subcamp in the Tropical Region and you won’t be disappointed.