Category Archives: Jamboree 2011

So far, so good…

Well, in every Jamboree there are things that do not work as they are intended or planned to.

For us I guess there are the weather and the issues with the food houses. The challenges with the IST being not on the job or actually having too few of them are very present as well.

The weather could definitely be better. To be quite honest, I never had such a bad weather in my entire international scouting experience. While it rained once or twice in some camps (World Rover Moot Sweden in 1996 or 2004 in Taiwan) it never did for a longer period of time.
Of course, there is nothing we can do. Apparently we just have bad luck with the summer. Fortunately it does not affect the motivation of the participants too much.

The food houses have a lot of issues at hand with the cashier system, food deliveries and waste water management. I am confident it will be sorted out sooner than later. Hanna, Mats and the Food House Block team are doing a great job here…against all odds!

There are too few ISTs. Too few in every aspect. We would need more! And there are plenty who are here which do not show up properly for work. That is a pity and makes me think if there is some sort of rethinking the whole IST thing necessary.. However, I think this issues is and was present in every Jamboree I attended.

Well, in conclusion:
We have to deal with tons of smaller things and…knock on wood…major issues did not arise so far.
The Head of Section (Hanna and Mats) and all other people involved in the Blocks are doing an amazing job. They will be so tired after the Jamboree, but they do not give up. I really feel honoured to work with them!

Opening Ceremony

One of the biggest moments in every Jamboree is surely the opening ceremony. This is where the magic happens, where the participants, IST, JPT and everyone else to actually open the Jamboree.

I must admit that I had low hopes for this one. Not because of the organisation, but rather because of the weather. It rained a lot before hand.
However, for some divine reason it stopped shortly before the start.

The ceremony opened with a minute of silence for the events in Norway. To my big surprise that worked very well, nearly 40’000 people were completly silence. I thank them very much for that. But it took only seconds after that silence to pick up the great atmosphere and cheering they had before.

The rain and bad weather could do nothing to demotivate them. Ten thousands of people singing, cheering and celebrating. I thought first we will stay a bit in the background, but as the stewards tried to get people to move towards the stage we also followed. Hanna, Pernilla and me ended up between Swedish, Brazilian and Austrian people.

The ceremony was very funny, not too long and very very entertaining. There were the usual speeches (which were fortunately very good and short) and the history of Sweden was presented. We had a blast and judging from what we see, the participants even more.

Only the ending was a tiny little bit surpring…it just said “the end” and the expected big bang was not really there. Also there were no information for the troops to return to their subcamps.

Other than that…great show! Had my fair share of goose bumps :)

The first day…

Retrospective:

Had a good start on the 21st of July…got up in the morning (without rain) in Switzerland, took a full train to Zuerich Airport and checked in. To my big (pleasant) surprise they just asked me to pay 45 CHF for additional luggage (where I was expecting a LOT more as I had more than 5 kg more luggage than allowed).

Then I was actually quite surprised that the plane was actually fully booked. Well, not that it mattered (I was lucky, got an aisle seat), but I hope for them that on my flight back home no one has to sit next to me ;)).

When we arrived the baggage reclaim was delayed which made me a bit nervous as I had to catch a train from Copenhagen to Kristianstad. But not a problem, the booking system for the train ticket worked like a charm for me and I was sitting in the train towards Kirstianstad.

After a short while I met two scouts (IST) from Honduras. As we met I told them where I am from (Switzerland, obvisouly) they started to ask me question about Sweden. After a half hour I clarified again that I am Swiss, not Swedish for that matter…and as I was expecting, they thought first I am Swedish…and surely started to wonder why I could not answer anz questions about Sweden 😉
So yes, that does happen!

I got a pick up from the station (Thanks Sarah for driving and Hanna helping organising) and a short shopping tour at ICA.
After that I could pitch up my tent in the light and without rain, thanks for that too.

So, yes…quite a good start even though the weather did not look promising.

Another flying experience – Cimber Sterling

There I was a couple of weeks ago trying to find a suitable flight from Zuerich to Copenhagen for the Head of Contingent Meeting starting on 1st of April 2011 in Malmö.

While browsing the possible flight using ebookers.ch I found a rather cheap one with reasonable price from Cimber Sterling. Never heard of that airline actually, I sitll booked it. Ebookers told me that it appears to he part of Canadair which seemed surprising, but well…nothing is impossible.

When I checked in yesterday, I was told that I have to pay extra for my backpack. 21 CHF (or 15 Euros) was it.
You can imagine I was rather surprised.
Additionally I had to go to the other end of the airport I actually never was and I had to take the bus…which is not a big issue, but rather unusual for me though.

Good part was, the plane was rather small (so more flight experience) and it was nearly empty. Only about 25 people were flying at this time. So plenty of space left to stretch the legs and put bags.

I hope that the flight back will be as empty as the flight to Copenhagen…I am just a little bit unhappy that I have to pay again for my luggage.

So, in conclusion…I payed basically not much less than taking SAS or Swiss (because if my luggage), but had a rather good flight. Not sure yet if I will take Cimber again because of the luggage price (next meeting is covered by Resia, the flight to the camp will not go over Cimber as I have tons of luggage).

However, its a flight experience more :)