Day Four - First Day of Full Activities

Day Four (for me) was the first real day for most of the participants.  They all should have time to explore the central area which is full of activities.  The scout store is a large tent mostly of clothing items, but includes many pragmatic items as well.

Before the youth arrived, I made my own visit to the store to purchase what I saw was two essential pieces of equipment - better rain-gear and a mat to sit on.  The rain hadn't started yet but was forecast for the next couple days.  This set me back a bit but was just deducted from our event card which I had loaded with 200 dollars.  There is no cash at the Jamboree.  The line of 20 to check out took about an hour.  This was likely due to the newness of items and the computer system.  Language contributed to the slowness.

English is spoken by nearly everyone, but fluency varies a lot.  I can't complain as I speak only enough German to get in trouble.  Most want to speak English as a way to practice.  It is very hard at times to tell if someone is Swedish or English as the Swedes speak with a Brit accent.

My work schedule was blank for this day so I took time to rest and listen to the rain hit my tent.  The job is hard on my feet and I enjoyed the cool breeze and sound.  After a while, it may get annoying but for now it is great.

The big event of the day is the opening ceremony which was attended by most of the 39,000 scouts at the Jamboree.  The first act was the introduction of the countries with two scouts bringing in each flag.  Bear Grylls called the Jamboree to open as he passed off the International flag held by UK since 2007 to the Swedish representative.  There were two musical acts and a corny skit about Swedish history.

The final act of the show was a group who juggled and did acrobatics with fire~- great visuals for such a large group.  Somehow this two hour show was done without a drop of rain.  I don't know how they pulled that off since that was the only two hour period all day without rain.

In closing for this day, please excuse my typing.  The computer system is different, written in Swedish, and the keyboard has letters in different places.  There are also lots of new letters that I keep typing such as äåö.  We are given only thirty minutes at a time and it shuts off after that.  It's a fair system with so many who want access.

Hej!