Initial Reactions to the Jamboree Experience

The Jamboree was certainly a showcase for what scouting is about, and that is learning. Without a doubt, the Jamboree and the tour that went with it was a new experience for all those involved. The makeup of our troop is the largest reason for it. Our troop's median age was likely thirteen years old, clearly a young and inexperienced group of young men. There were only a handful of boys over fifteen, and not all of them held leadership positions. Our Senior Patrol Leader was only fourteen, and it was clear that he had never led a group of boys like our Troop D224. As a result, the Jamboree was an awful ordeal, but only if you chose for it to be so. It is just as easy to remember the thunder storms and their mud, lack of organization, intense humidity, missed opportunities as it is to remember the patch trading, the camaraderie, the  zip-line, the fireworks, the fantastic infrastructure, and the history that surrounded us. The Jamboree had many let downs, such as the arena shows, and many pleasant surprises, such as the quality of the facilities and staff around us. One example of this is the chapel service on Sunday. For this Scout's Own, many boys left their rain jackets at camp, despite the thunderstorm warnings. Sure enough, before the first prayer, rain was falling. Instead of complaining or leaving, many of us enjoyed the service, singing the hymns, holding hands, and dancing in the rain with scouts from around the world. Scouting is about learning how to manipulate your surroundings in such a way as to make the most practical and moral decisions. Those who expected the Jamboree to satisfy their every desire quickly discovered that they were severely mistaken, (probably after the first day of walking an hour and a half from one side of the camp tot eh other.) However, if you think of it as a learning experience, one where we learned history, culture, leadership, skills, and patch trading, the Jamboree enabled you to teach yourself. Overall there were many successes and many failures, but scouting is about being prepared to make the best of your situation, and our rowdy troop coupled with the state of the art facilities could not have been any better for that. it is up to us, the participants, to decide how we will remember it and more importantly, whether we will allow it to improve us.

Thursday Annapolis/ Leaving