Hey Blog! As part of my Jamboree journey, there are certain activities the unit needs to complete. These are the camps and unit days, which are spread throughout the year and a half to go before we\u2019re off to Poland. Because of the long pause, which I am now rectifying (five days in already! See, I can do this), I have two such events to tell you of \u2013 the two night camp at local Scout site Drum Hill, in March, and the day in Derby in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The camp was fun. We had everything from balloon tying (great fun) to bridge building (even more fun) to cooking dinner (still fun) to archery (also fun!). Everyone had been asked to bring cake to share, with the result of us all having far more cake than was good for us, but hey, it\u2019s a Scout camp, you can\u2019t go wrong with a bit more cake! We got to choose our unit uniform and badge, with final designs to be voted on at the next event, and chose our nickname: Derbyshire Dragons! Not sure why dragons, because there aren\u2019t any in Derbyshire that I\u2019m aware of (if you do<\/em> happen to live locally and have a pet dragon or know where one is to be found, please let me know and I will correct this bit), but the idea was seriously cool. Who wouldn\u2019t want a massive dragon on the back of their hoodie, with flames on the head and wings on the arms?! This won out against dragonflies<\/em> (which there are plenty of around), dodos, donkeys, and dinosaurs. In addition to all this, there were teambuilding challenges, practical tests, and lots of time to talk to the other 39 people who are going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next camp will be later this summer, but I\u2019ve already had another meeting with the group, because there was a day in June. This involved a morning walking around town, taking pictures with creative licence to fit a number of prompts: climbing a mountain, underwater adventure, and hole in one to name just three. Bonus points were for more elaborate attempts, or thinking outside the box. It was really good fun, and talking to strangers on the street was good practice for life in general and also for Poland, where there will be several thousand of them speaking all sorts of different languages. Also, every photo had to be with the dragon mascot each team was given. My team somehow won, on bonus points, after racking our brains for creative ideas and occasionally stealing one from another group that were going round. Then we had to make our way to a park, for lunch, and immediately afterwards, paddlesports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell boating will always have an important place in Scouting for me \u2013 it was what I did in my first ever Cubs session, eight years ago. I\u2019ve only done it a couple of times. It is still amazing fun, though, and helped solidify my love of water (that\u2019s actually such a bad ironic joke, as well as a paradox). Returning to the same stretch of water, in the same craft, was wonderful. We went further than ever before, I think because there were more of us, and almost made it through the rapids. On the return, we were able to souse the other boat\u2019s crew by splashing them with paddles and tipping bailers on them, and rotated being figureheads on the prow, swimming to the stern and coming back forward. I also helped keep time so we all paddled together and kept going straight, and we all joined in shouting \u201cone, two\u201d in such a loud and bloodthirsty voice those on the other boat apparently got scared. The downside of such brilliant boating was we all had to go and have a shower before going back to the park to do a final decision on the badges. In the end, we have gone for one with a green dragon with yellow spines, curled around a British and Polish flag, on a field of blue. The unit hoodies are purple, and will feature that dragon on the back that we were so thrilled about before, just a little smaller. And without the flames. Still, I think we\u2019ve got a fantastic group and a fantastic dress code, almost ready to show up in Poland. Just a little more learning on Duolingo to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have also been selling my wood turning to raise funds. The next instalment, in September, is currently a major focus. Besides all the other focuses that need my attention. I hope I can manage it, but I think I need some more opportunities and ideas to fundraise before then. Hmmm. Well, I\u2019ll think about that later, but for now, do widzenia (goodbye!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey Blog! As part of my Jamboree journey, there are certain activities the unit needs to complete. These are the camps and unit days, which are spread throughout the year and a half to go before we\u2019re off to Poland. Because of the long pause, which I am now rectifying (five days in already! 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