I woke and got a shower and we all got changed into our Cultural Festival Day, pink (winters town colour) t-shirts. The day, felt like Christmas at the jamboree and was great fun! We then ate breakfast cooked by Anna's Patrol. Afterwards some of us then went round the local area and gave out invitations for people to come and visit us to play Kev's favourite game - BINGO! At 11am we came back and we all played bingo - I won a row. Afterwards, we set out a table in front of our campsite and served tea and fruit cake off it. We then went round, armed with a bowl and a spoon, to try different foods from all over the world. Amongst many others, we had; Italian, Korean, Saudi Arabian, Finish, German, American, Brazilian and of course, Swedish.
We spent most of the day doing this until 4pm when everyone started to pack their stalls away. We then went and visited the Cambridgeshire Unit and the New England Unit who are quite close to each other in Autumn. We then made friends with some other Americans who we played cards with for a while until we realized that we were going to be late back. We rushed back to the campsite where Kathryn and Rosie were waiting for us and told us not to worry.
We quickly got changed into t-shirts which had a suit and tie printed on the front and went, with the leaders to the main arena. We waited there for about an hour until the ceremony began. At the beginning, some people skydived down to the jamboree site in front of 60,000 people - all the jamboree participants + all the camp in camp hosts. We then watched videos about the choosing of the camp in camp sites, along with songs (including the jamboree song) and a repeating of the big plop - breaking the previous record set at the opening ceremony with another 20, 000 people.
When the ceremony had finished we went back to the campsite where we cooked chicken as there had not been time for dinner earlier (falafel's for veggie). After that, we stayed up quite late, and then me and Kate spent about and hour cleaning up after the mess everyone had left as they did every night after they'd gone to bed. Nutt (Avon IST) and Matt (Kathryn's friend) both visited while we were cleaning.
At about half twelve, we signed in and went to bed.
This was probably my favourite day of the Jamboree!
Kathryn, our unit leader who sadly was unable to come to the Jamboree, BUT WAS ABLE TO COME FOR THIS DAY!!! sent an email round every day about what our unit had been doing from what Kev and other leaders/IST had texted her - AND HER OWN EXPERIENCE!!!. You can find what she said about this day below:
"Hi everyone
I am now back home after having a really fantastic time on WSJ with the Unit - I was made to feel so very welcome by everyone and did not want to leave. The young people were just lovely to me and they are managing so very well. I felt so very proud to have been part of their journey and so pleased that all that training paid off.
I am now back home after having a really fantastic time on WSJ with the Unit - I was made to feel so very welcome by everyone and did not want to leave. The young people were just lovely to me and they are managing so very well. I felt so very proud to have been part of their journey and so pleased that all that training paid off.
I do not really know where to start with the emails as could email you pages and pages of information - I have seen so much in just a few days on camp. Your young people are having a fantastic time, they are a little tired at times as there is so much going on all the time that there is not much time to just sit and relax.
The unit have been reading my emails as well and have been enjoying hearing about what is going on at camp.
So Thursday
We woke up early and enjoyed a good breakfast, the food is a little odd at times as there is not a huge choice in the supermarket but the unit does always manage a good breakast of cereal and also cooked food. All rather civilised , the milk is kept in a bucket of water with a tea towel over the top so does not last very long. The Swedish are mad about re cycling and there is really no where to throw rubbish away. Each unit is provided with lots and lots of different recycling bags and every day these have to be taken to the recycling point which is about 20 mins walk away. Saving the planet but definately wearing the kids out.
In the morning the Unit had some free time and so lots of them went off to visit friends, some just went swapping and some stayed on site just relaxing. I met with Matt Edmonds who was one of my Explorer Scouts in Solar a year or so ago, he had gone to WSJ as a project manager and was doing lots of repair and maintenance work. Matt is on site for a whole month and I was delighted to see him and made him a cup of tea as a welcome. Lucy also had a day off and so we all went for an explore of the site, Matt showed me around occasionally getting lost as the site is so large that it is very hard to get your bearings. I was very keen to see as much of the site as possible and poor Matt and Lucy had to chase around with me.
At lunch Matt took me to the IST dining hall where they serve 8000 people for every meal, we ate there amongst so many people in lots of different Scout uniforms and surrounded by all the Scouts in the World. In the afternoon it was the cultural day, the sun was shining and there was a great atmosphere on camp. Avonasaurus cut up the fruit cake and started making the tea to share with all the people that passed, in turn they went off around the camp and ate food and drinks from other countries. There were lots of people in national dress, young ladies in Kimono's , Chinese dragons and far too much to be able to say here. It was a really lovely afternoon and made me so very proud to be a Scout, it was so hard at times to appreciate that all the people around you are Scouts and do what we do week in and week out. The World did feel so very small that day.
At 5 O'clock I asked the young people to come with me to the main square and have a photo taken with a Unit that I have had some involvement with from Hanover. There is a strong link between Avon and Hanover and it was just great to meet with the group, nearly all of Avon came with me in unform and I was so pleased that most of them were kind enough to join me and I was very grateful to them. I have been emailing the leader for a few years about his WSJ journey and was great to get the photo that we both had talked about for so long.
In the evening there was a main arena event and I was super happy that I was able to see one, for about an hour 50,000 scouts gathered together, walking there was an experience in itself, Scouts everywhere chatting away in every language of the World. I can not express how amazing it was to be part of that evening and I will remember it forever. I stood there and as far as the eye could see there were Scouts having fun and just all being together. At that moment all of the hard work that I have put in over the last two and a half years was worth it. There was Euro pop music and some trick cycling and some people parachuting into the arena. The group had a fab time and we danced the night away with our bowler hats on and our printed T shirts and Tom K in the Dino outfit. Amazing and awe inspiring.
What a few weeks your young people have had.
Kathryn
WSJ Bristol"
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