We've reached the half way mark...

Now that half of the jamboree has almost gone the reality of the experience has started to sink in.

Today Emma Fenech and I were invited to the Head of Contingent reception to meet the King of Sweden and the Jamboree organisers. We met a few personalities in the scouting arena and had a fancy dinner to boot. In his speech the King spoke about the importance of providing a healthy environment for kids to be able to discover the world around them.

The enthusiastic feedback we have from the participants of both troops further sustains the point made by the King.

In the meantime the Maltese Contingent Management Team are dreaming of a smaller scale Jamboree in Malta.

Sometimes dreams are not so far from reality :)

Goodnight.

Regards,
Kevin

Fire Display @ The Bohuslan Subcamp

Troop 2 @ Earth Activity

Video of the Jamboree Opening Ceremony

As promised, here is the video of the opening ceremony. Enjoy

The sun has a strange effect on some people

Regards,
Kevin

The sun decided to join us at the jamboree after all !

Regards,
Kevin

Update from Troop 1...

So the day went like this…

We woke up slightly early today and the patrols went shopping for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Breakfast ranged from cereal to pan cakes, lunch was sandwiches with some fruit and dinner was chicken noodle soup, sausage strogonov, cous cous with beef strips and mash potatoes and salmon.

Today's activity was called 'Earth', this included some exercise with water, oxygen, wind and soil and everyone got a blue bead.

A group of Scouts from Sweden came to visit us and had dinner with us, in exchange a patrol from our troop went to Sweden for dinner.

We had some campsite works in progress, Mark decided to dig a hole back to Gozo and Adam, Matthias 'Juan', Ryan and Jon built our on going project called the 'BBQ set'.

At the moment everyone is under the dining area chatting away about their adventures during the day, one of which is Dru's hair shaving session :)

It's soon quiet time so i'm off, GOODNIGHT!

Post ya later

Timmy

 Andrew and his new hair style 1

Andrew and his new hair style 2

Malcolm with 2 sumo wrestlers :)

THE Troop 1 BBQ set...an ongoing project :)

Andrew and Ryan pose for a photo

Ryan drying the wood...

FINALLY the skies have cleared!!!!! - There was a mass celebration once the sun came out...

The Swede's came for dinner...

Mark's hole...

Matthias 'Juan' starting to build the wood store...

Our BBQ set taking shape...

...still going...

...drying the wood...

...still going...

...nearly done...to be continued....

A bird's eye view :)

An update from Troop 2

What do you really know about yourself? What do you really know about other people? What makes you the same? What makes you different? What kind of person are you now? What kind of person would you like to become? What sort of things impact on how you think and what you believe? Are you the same as everyone else from your village, town or country? Why do we form groups and what makes a group? What do we think of people from other groups? What kind of relationships do you have with other people and why are they important to you?

Troop 2 are today reflecting on these and other issues and the impact they have on our day to day life in the People Module. Through crafts, mimes, drama and theatre Troop 2 has today the opportunity to make their own cultures and find out more about their hopes, dreams and aspirations. The People module also includes a Garden of Reflection for scouts to make the best out of that which they experienced during the morning.

But there's something even more special about today! The troop has been divided into different patrols containing a scout from each country. The language barrier is no barrier at all; through spontaneous translation, these scouts are still managing to communicate! What better way by which to experience the true meaning of People; of differences and similarities?

Until Later,

Simply Scouting!

The morning news from Rinkaby!

The sun is shining, our clothes are finally drying and spirits are up! :) The campsite is full of life: amazing what a little sun can do! ISTs are going about with their jobs, the participants with their activities and the Media Centre is hectic as usual!

Some interesting news from the Jamboree for you readers:

Simply Married!
On 29 July, Helena Lindh and Jonas Bofjäll, a Swedish couple, were wed in a short ceremony up in the Jamboree Tower. The bride was wearing the Swedish scout uniform and welcomed the guests with an anecdote of how she met her groom. In her own words, “ten years ago, I caught eye of Jonas in the food queue of Scout 2001 (1st Swedish National Jamboree, held here at Rinkaby)”. “To get married at the Jamboree felt very personal”, said the groom after the ceremony.
And, to add to this: there will be another wedding at the 22nd WSJ! This time it is an Austrian couple who will be wedded in Vienna Cafe!

Swedish King Goes Camping!
The King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustav, is today out camping with scouts in one of the Camp in Camps. His exact location is still a secret though!

Simply Good
Buddhist Scouts have yesterday launched a campaign on good governance and anti-corruption in scouting.

Scout Help
A talk on the Role of Scouting in Disaster Management will today be held for ISTs in Soring Town Cafe. The speaker is a Japanese scout who was active in coordinating the relief effort by Scouts following the natural disasters in Japan earlier this year.

Until later,

Simply Scouting!

When you are in Malta planning for an international event, you give a lot of thought to the practical aspect of things like flights, insurance and equipment.

When you finally arrive at an event like a jamboree and settle down, you suddenly realise that there is a whole new dimension that catches you by surprise.

On visiting both troops today and living with the ISTs it was quite evident that it was happening with all of them. When you are in a foreign country surrounded by new faces, challenging situations and a new environment you tend to bond together.

Today I saw this with Troop 1 as they decided to build a massive BBQ big enough to cook for their subcamp, with Troop 2 as they scoured the jamboree site to find the best badge to swap, and with the ISTs who braved on with their allocated jobs with a positive attitude like no other.

Tonight I go to bed smiling inwardly because the point of what we have set out to achieve has been made - an experience that cannot be gotten from ANY other organisation.

Today we finished editing a special video feature on the opening ceremony that took place yesterday evening. I will do my best to upload it to the blog sometime tomorrow wifi permitting.

Goodnight.


Regards,
Kevin

We have become Messengers of Peace! How about you?

Two ISTs, Daniela and Deborah successfully completed a course entitled 'Developing Communication Skills in Dialogue' with an emphasis on cultural diversity in dialogue.

This course was offered at the Jamboree by the Saudi Arabian King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue. During the course, the participants were also visited by Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, Minister of Education and Head of the Saudi Arabian Scout Association where a selected number of Young Correspondents had the opportunity to ask questions.

This course was offered as part of the Messengers of Peace initiative of which several Maltese scouts now make part of. Messengers of Peace focuses on spreading a message of peace through projects which directly benefit the community they are aimed at.

Let us hope that these new Messengers of Peace live up to their new role!

Until later,

Simply Scouting!

Troop 2 invites you for.. dinner! (Part 3)

Troop 2 invites you for.. dinner! (Part 2)

Troop 2 invites you for... dinner! (part 1)

Thanks to the culinary skills of Troop 2, after 6 days at the jamboree, this IST managed to eat something that is not potatoes or rice!

Whilst some of Troop 2 prepared the meal, the rest played some frisbee or climbed the watchtower. The Monaco troop sharing the kitchen tent also got to learn some Maltese words - let's just say they would not be able to do much with the words they learnt... :)

Dinner tonight was pasta bolognese with real meat of course, Malta style! For desert we had oatmeal mixed with fresh fruit - a recipe obtained from the Swiss. Scouts share and that was what was done with the Monaco and Pakistan scouts. :)

enjoy these photos!

until later,

Simply Scouting!

Troop2's blog for the first days in Sweden

Troop 2 Maltese Contingent gathers at the airport before departing to the 22nd World Scout Jamboree.

The contingent in front of the plane headed for Munich.

 

We meet with a group of American scouts and decided to take a photo with them.

 The contingent left a tribute note in front of the Norwegian Embassy as to the massacre that has taken place a few days before the jamboree. We also left a Malta Contingnent Badge.

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We took a photo in a grassy area.

The famous Mermaid statue in Copenhagen

The tents were set up in a matter of minutes in the few hours of darkness, right now we probably were asleep...

The troop in front of of the Autumn town gate