World Scout Jamboree 2007

1st August 2007

Today saw Scouting around the world celebrate 100 years to the day from the time Baden Powell marked the opening of the first ever Scout camp on Brownsea Island by blowing into a Kudu horn.

The first photo was taken at 5:23 in the morning, however each Scout organisation around the world would celebrate at 8:00am local time, and for the UK, both the Jamboree site at Hylands Park and Brownsea Island itself were to play an important part.

The International Service Team (IST) adults had been asked to assemble at 6:00am in the arena area of the Island Hub, where most of the adults are based.

Thankfully, it was a bright cloudless morning, and although not yet warm, the weather suggested a sunny day with little chance of rain.

The Moon was still high in the sky as the red glow of the early morning light gave way to clear blue, and the various IST members made their way across the large field towards the assembly area.

There was a while to wait before we were eventually moved off at around 6:30, and many took the chance to catch up with friends, or have a read of the Jamboree newspaper which was published every day by the team in the Media Centre, often with a lot of the input from the participants themselves, both news gathering around the site as well as production work back in the office.

Taking a longer route through Hylands Park, the adults stopped and waited near the Tropical hub for Participants from the Ocean hub sub-camps to walk ahead of us, allowing them to get closer to the front.

Once in the arena area you could feel the excitement running through everyone in the build up to the ceremony as the minutes counted down towards 8:00am. I sent a text message to my own Scout Group, just 10 miles away in Maldon, where I knew they were also celebrating Sunrise Day with an event at our own Scout HQ, and I hoped the Scouts assembled there felt as much pride as I did in belonging to such a unique movement.

As the ceremony got under way, for many it was a time for reflection as well as celebration, perhaps thinking of those at home, as well as the journey that had brought all of these people together.

For my part, I was also determined to try and capture as much of the atmosphere as possible, and found myself a number of vantage points I could use in order to take photos. By speaking to a few of the stewards beforehand and explaining what I was doing, I was able to move around quite freely and get access to many of the areas also used by the press and official photographers.

As the ceremony started, there were performances on stage whilst the large screens relayed coverage from the site where the first ever Scout camp took place exactly 100 years ago. Two representatives from each participating country had travelled down to Dorset previously for the ceremony at Brownsea Island, the largest of eight islands in Poole Harbour, and Peter Duncan, Chief Scout of the United Kingdom, opened the ceremony by blowing a kudu horn, the same way Baden Powell had heralded the start of his own camp a century before.

Interestingly, the daughter of one of my Nortel colleagues was one of those on the island as part of the team performing in the ceremony, herself an Explorer Scout with her local district. Whilst the celebrations continued on Brownsea, the arena at Hylands Park was brightened up by a number of coloured ribbons that fanned out from the stage, passed overhead by the Scouts. Viewed from above it was a striking display, and symbolically connected the audience together.

The ceremony continued, and Scouts from across the world came across the stage to give messages about unity, what it meant to be part of such a large single organisation and how Scouting could be a positive model for all sorts of issues. The theme of the Jamboree, “One World, One Promise” highlighted the similarities that brought us all together, and pointed the way forward in overcoming the challenges the world faces today.

There was a solemn silence before exactly 8:00, when everyone made the Scout Sign and, using the international word version, all 40,000 renewed their Scout Promise, on behalf of the 28 million worldwide.

On my honour I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my Country;
To help other people at all times;
To obey the Scout Law.

The event then went back into a party spirit, as we enjoyed different parts of the performance from across the globe, whilst a Scout from every country represented ran from the stage area through the crowd waving their national flag.

A number of large “dove kites” were flying round, echoing the dove image used on the Jamboree logo as a symbol of peace.

The end of the event saw a flock of white doves released, and they dutifully did a full circle lap of the arena before flying off, it was a powerful image.

All the Scouts were encouraged to wave the yellow Sunrise Day scarves they had been given the night before, and it created a dramatic background for two participants, one from Belgium and one from the UK contingent, who were being interviewed live on air for a UK breakfast television programme.

They both interviewed really well, and despite the “manufactured” behind the scenes process of television recording, particularly when on an outside broadcast being run from back in the studio, both managed to come across very naturally and capture the atmosphere and excitement of the day.

Finally, as a large group of multicoloured balloons brought the event to an end, the hosts on stage explained that the yellow Sunrise scarves we’d each been given had a special purpose. Our challenge for the morning was to swap signatures with other people in the audience, and to collect at least 100 names on our scarves before we left the arena. I counted mine when I got back to my tent and found I had exactly 100!

Tuesday 31st July

Tuesday was an early start as I was working a breakfast shift in the Island Hub restaurant, helping serve breakfast for over 10,000 hungry IST members. Registration was at 5:00, where we signed in and received our Sodexho events polo shirts to change into, a cap to keep our hair out of the way (more important for some than others!) and for those doing the “running” like I did usually, an apron and some tea towels to protect your hands. All of these items were handed back in at the end of each shift ready to be washed for the following day, and one small corner of the kitchen area was partitioned off and had a bank of washing machines & tumble dryers that seemed to be constantly running.

A few feet away from this end were the large boiling cookers, where the vegetables & potatoes were cooked, followed by similar units used for soup, although these had a large tap on the front for pouring the soup out into containers for carrying. Level with these, next to a set of food preparation tables, were a series of more recognisable stoves which were used solely to prepare the more one-off vegetarian and special diet meals.

Further along the kitchen against the wall were the steam regenerators, used to keep food piping hot, such as the fried rice once it had finished cooking, and particular care had to be taken with these as the contents were a noticeable 20°C hotter than the normal storage oven which were normally kept at around 80-85°C. Next along were similar looking dry ovens used for items like pies & pasties. In the middle of the kitchen level with the steamers and ovens were two rows of cookers back to back, effectively like large fixed saucepans. These were used for cooking dishes like rice, and the various stews and main dishes that were offered. Finally, past another set of food prep tables, was the frying area where the chips, fish, hash browns and other fried food was cooked.

Along the opposite side of the kitchen were two rows of walk in fridges & freezers, each bigger than most people’s bedroom, and each marked on the door with the specific food it contained, e.g. meat, dairy, etc. They were a very good place to savour a refreshing few seconds when the sun was beating down on the roof and the temperature inside the kitchen was even hotter than normal, and you’d be grateful that something from the chilled area needed replenishing.

In between the two large rows of fridges, as well as the main walkway from the kitchen out to the two restaurants, was a large floor area used to store large stackable, bulky items, like boxes of fruit and catering packs of cereals, crisps etc. Either side of this walkway, backed up against the side of the fridges, were rows of ovens used to keep the food at a safe temperature, ready to re-stock the ovens out in the restaurant behind each of the serving counters. My role, usually as a kitchen runner, was to take the food from the kitchen out to the serving counter ovens, and to keep these stocked as necessary, according to demand. In each restaurant there would also be a number of restaurant runners who would then look after a group of serving counters and make sure that the front counters were stocked, so that those on each counter could focus on serving food without holding up the queue. Each restaurant would server 5,000 people twice a day, so the planning that went into making sure the queue stayed as short as possible was considerable, and although the people waiting were hungry from their day’s activities, I think they could see we were working well as a team to keep them fed.

Today I had been helping out on the “Cold Buffet” table, making sure we had stocks of bread rolls, butter, fruit and cold meats etc for the breakfast. I had been on slightly lighter duties since yesterday, when I’d slipped whilst pushing a food trolley and sliced through part of my hand below the thumb. After a dressing applied by one of the chefs, I’d made my way across to the first aid post outside the restaurant area where I’d been assessed as needing further treatment. I was sat in one of the ambulances and driven to the on-site medical centre. After initial assessment by an A&E nurse, it was agreed by the doctor that although no long term damage had been done, I needed something to hold the wound together, although instead of stitches they used a form of superglue. This seemed to work really well, although I was aware I wouldn’t be able to carry heavy food trays around the kitchen for a few days. A huge personal thanks to everyone who looked after me, I was really made to feel at ease and in capable hands.

After finishing the breakfast shift around midday, I spent most of the rest of the day in the Media Centre on site, working to get hold of the video footage of the daily news broadcasts, to be posted in a later blog entry. By now, I’d managed to get hold of the first two days of coverage, although using a professional quality image resolution, the file sizes were massive. I already had a WiFi access card for the Jamboree site, but there was no way the wireless network would support this amount of data being transmitted, and the only way to get the video posted was to upload it onto a website in North America. The team in the Media Centre were fantastic, and went out of their way to help explore all the possible ways to transport these files, even speaking to the satellite broadcast team based in the SatLink van outside, although unfortunately they could only connect directly to TV stations worldwide, and couldn’t access the Internet. In the end I was given the two news bulletins on DVD and decided to travel off site to the nearest Nortel location, Harlow 20 miles away, so that I could send the files over the internal network. It was going to be a late night…