BALLOONS!!!

Time has flown by and in two weeks I will be taking part in the 2nd training camp on my journey to Japan. Since February, we have been given another fundraising task:

Every member's persuasion skills were put to the test when we were told we had to sell as many balloons as possible. On St George's Day the unit will be releasing balloons, the owner of the balloon that travels the furthest will win £50 in high street vouchers and the member of the unit that sold that balloon will also receive £50 off their jamboree total. 

Today I sold my 105th balloon and am still selling! My original target was about 50 balloons however I took it every where I went and that target was easily smashed. Teachers, neighbours, friends and many other people from my local rowing and rugby clubs contributed. 

If you would like to buy a balloon, please contact me, thank you. 

Training camp #1

Training Camp #1

On the wet Friday evening I arrived at the campsite in Lincoln for the first of the  training camps. On arrival, everyone collected their Neckers and a complementary spork from the last world Jamboree. After pitching tents in the dark with the wind whistling around us it was time for some team building activities as well as a practice involving us and our kit rushing through the fire door as quick as we could pretending it was the bullet train! We were also split into our patrols for the weekend with a patrol leader and patrol seconder (assistant patrol leader to the Scouts!) in each.

Bed time was around 11ish and slowly but surely everyone was tucked up in their sleeping bags trying to sleep. The campsite isn't sheltered very well so the wind rushed through the campsite knocking many tents and even collapsing one.

In the morning tents were repaired and re pegged, then breakfast needed to be cooked in a cooking tent. Unfortunately it was too windy to use an event shelter so a mess tent was pitched. An hour later breakfast was plated up and eaten, then the mornings activities could begin. First we were congratulated on making it on to the unit, second given a presentation on the outline of our three week trip to Japan. We would spend 2 full days at Tokyo followed by 12 days at the world scout jamboree ending with 3 days in with a Japanese family. An inspirational talk then followed from Robin Wright who is the county commissioner for Lincolnshire.

There were four main activities that day, each taking place with the leaders. Kev had us considering the the layout of the campsite and what to pack in the one metre cubed crate we can use to transport kit for the Jamboree itself, Ali led a session on personal hygiene as well as food hygiene , George did emblem and name designing and Steven discussed what the units code of conduct should be like and what should be included. For lunch, each patrol was  given ingredients for a basic Japanese noodle recipe and expected to cook for them and their assigned leader.

After an action packed morning, creativity was the theme of the afternoon with a bin bag fashion show with four rounds: beachwear, winter wear, casual wear and special occasion wear. The best part about the whole thing was that Ali, George, Kev and Steven were the models! First up beach wear, mankinis and bikinis becoming the hot topic, pun intended! Winter wear and casual wear soon followed with some very daring outfits claiming to be a part of the Disney princess range. Special occasion wear brought smart suits and a very pretty Cinderella dress to the catwalk.

The evening bought meat touchers and bucket boys to shame as we all enjoyed a barbecue with sides and condiments as well as heated battles of speed, a card game. A campfire followed with many sketches, songs and of course, smores. A quiet night gave everyone some well needed sleep and a fresh start to the morning. Eggy bread and alphabet spaghetti set everyone up for the walk to a day of fundraising, bag packing in Morrisons.

In Japan, the meals will all be tailored to our needs in a hot country so the leaders decided we needed a preview of the type of lunches we would be having: cake, fruit and more cake. After a long hard morning of bag packing everyone enjoyed a lunch before working the last few hours to raise all the money we could. The grand total of the bag pack was £1421.10.

After walking back to camp and cleaning and taking down the tents the goodbyes came. We were all sad to go but very excited for the next training camp in April as well as the next few fundraising days and camps. Overall the camp was great and everyone loved it!

Brainstorming ideas for fundraising

One important element in the time before the trip is to get us to value the experience by helping to fund raise most of the costs ourselves, the target is the £2770 charge for each of us to raise.

Ever since I got my letter I have been wondering about what my main fundraising idea will be. A great idea that my dad came up with was a bake sale at the local rugby club. Every Sunday the boys train and most weekends there is a match. Also a few times a year huge gymnastics competitions are held in the indoor hall. Hopefully I will receive permission to hold a bake sale here on a weekend when there is a few matches plus a gymnastics competition.

On Friday I am going to meet the rest of my unit and everyone who's going in our first camp. I am very excited to see Melissa and everyone I met last time 

Receiving the news

I know it seems an age since I wrote about the selection camp but it took so long to just sink in I just didn't do any updates! I will now start to blog thick and fast.

The Friday following the selection camp, I came in from school to find a letter on the doorstep addressed to me. I studied the outside closely before turning it over and slowly breaking away the seal. I pulled out the paper enclosed. Quickly reading through the first page, I found the words I had been waiting for: "Congratulations, you have been selected to go to Japan!"
I read that over three times and it still hadn't sunk in. The rest of the night I was sat thinking and wondering how I had been chosen and whether I was dreaming or not. It sank in the next day when I started squealing and jumping repeatedly in a circle. 

The countdown had started!

The start of my journey...

On the weekend commencing 23^rd November around 90 Scouts and I took part in a camp to see if we could be the chosen ones, selected to go to Japan in 2015 for 3 weeks; a once in a life time opportunity to attend the World Scout Jamboree.

After the setup of camp and the collection of numbers and passports, the first challenge began: to eat lunch, jacket potatoes and a host of fillings with chop sticks. I will admit I can use chop sticks but not very well so this proved rather difficult.

Not defeated it was onto the next challenge, make a peace crane? The peace crane is a symbol of good fortune and longevity in Japan. This time I was a duo, Melissa was now my team mate to create this distinctly tricky piece of origami, 9 pages of instructions with detailed pictures and captions was our test. This test did not go well!

The next challenges became increasingly harder. Next up was Take your Pick, Melissa and I met up again but this time sporting blindfolds. We tasted a number of different foods and had to guess between Japanese or English. To our surprise we found that Japanese food is very tasty, Melissa said, “It was lovely, I never knew Japanese food could taste so good!”

For dinner we were separated into more groups and this was for our campfire skits and dinner. Each group were given £30 and go to Sainsbury’s to buy the ingredients for our dinner. For our meal, we decided pasta bolognaise would be a good meal to have as it was quick, easy and only had a few ingredients. The group split up, Jack’s team trekked to Sainsbury’s while my team and I stayed at camp boiling water on trangia’s and stoves for our pasta. After our delicious meal it was time for the camp fire. Songs, sketches and jokes later the camp was quiet. However, it didn’t last long.

Everyone woke up to the smell of bacon and sausages which were kindly cooked for us. After that we had Scouts own, a time for reflection. We saw a video showing the details of what we could be in for and all the pictures of the last jamboree that took place in Sweden in 2011.

Before we went home we completed the last few activities. In mad hatters, we learnt what to do at a Japanese tea party. Taking off shoes and bowing to the host are two rules that everyone must follow when going to a Japanese tea party, it’s a tradition. We also learnt a lot about Japanese culture and the lives people live there.

Lunch was soup and leftovers and a walk down a hill ended the excellent camp. Melissa and I said one good bye and swapped contact details.  If I get selected to be a part of this excellent camp I will take the opportunity with both hands and fundraise as much as possible with the help of the others selected. Even if I don’t get selected, it was a great experience in itself and will never be disappointed.