International Jamborees: 2006 Report Korea
2006 - Patrol Jamboree, Korea
9 - 14 August / Countries 32 / South Africans 2
Report by Erin Parenzee
On Monday 7 August Pule Phalatsi (a scout from North West Province) and myself departed for the International Patrol Jamboree hosted by the Korean Scout Association (KSA) in Suncheon, South Korea. Well that was the plan at least. Due to circumstances beyond our control (car trouble?), we ended up missing our flight, and had to take one 24hrs later…. which meant that we would ultimately miss the opening ceremony of the Jamboree. Anyway, so we departed Tuesday 8 August at 12h40, on a 13hr flight to Hong Kong Int. Airport (HKIA). What an experience it is, when coming in to land at HKIA, as it is actually on the sea (like a small island). Well with our change in flight schedule, we were stranded at HKIA, as our connecting flight to Incheon Int. Airport in Korea was not for another 6hrs. A little exploration of the huge HKIA was fun, they have their own mini subway system, lots of lifts, escalators, free internet cafés, restaurants, shops etc…. like a mall of some sort. Well after about an hour of walking around, we checked in and decided to sleep in the departure lounge. On our way again, we were looking at another 4hr flight to Korea.
Once we landed, Mr Cheoung from the KSA and contingents from Moldova and Tunisia, who were waiting app. 2hrs, met us. After introductions all round, we once again embarked on a journey of some length. The weather for 8pm was very bizarre, it was 30C, but it was the humidity that really made it seem worse than it was. Now a 6hr bus ride lay ahead of us, to the small town of JeollaNamdo, Suncheon, Korea, where the jamboree site is situated. With the long bus ride we arrived at the camp at 2am, but instead of coming to a quiet site, it was abuzz with activity. We even had a whole welcoming committee there to meet us, and help us settle in. We received an inflatable pillow, a stretcher, a hand fan, jamboree booklet and rations as we arrived. After a quick shower, Pule and I decided to get some decent sleep. Well it ended up being so good; we only woke up at midday. Since we missed the bus meant to take us to our daily activity, we spent the day exploring the camp and took part in the on-site activities.
The general format of the Jamboree:
All in all 32 nations attended the Jamboree, with each one being hosted by one of the 19 councils (equivalent to our areas) that make up the KSA. The camp was divided into 4 sub camps (yellow, red, blue, violet). We were hosted by the Incheon council, in the red village. Other countries that were in our camp were Thailand and Philippines. Each camp had daily preplanned itineraries as seen in our booklets, which included:
On-site activities:
Mountain biking, challenge valley {an obstacle course}; arts & crafts; overnight survival; a well-being program (debating social, world and youth issues, handicapped awareness, public sanitation) and a scout skills program (pioneering, mapping, 1st Aid, cooking).
Off-site activities:
An aquatic program (swimming, canoeing, rubber rafting, jet skiing); adventure program (hip hop dancing, X-games {BMX, skateboarding, rollerblading}, archery, paintball, rock climbing) and community service.
Tour activities:
Experience of oriental culture, city tour program (visits to temples, folk village, POSCO Gwangyang_the biggest iron foundry in the world and Suncheon bay), ecology investigation (mud flats, reed fields, ecological park) and Green tea fields visit.
Most activities ran from 09h00 to 16h00, meaning that you had to catch a bus, depending where you going. The possession of a ticket was also useful, as this allowed you to participate in the prescribed daily activity. On completion of your activity, the designated activity leader would stamp your book, which eventually would help anyone to receive an Award at the end of the Jamboree (if 10 activities were stamped).
So, after completing as many of the on-site activities, we found that the weather was a scorching 33C, but coupled with the humidity, it felt much worse. Well I ended up making the fatal error of not carrying enough water, as is recommended, and nearly ended up dehydrated after a simple walk of about 2km (well this was when I found just how important that hand fan can be, no matter how silly it might look!). For obvious reasons the two of us stood out like a sore thumb, so as we walked back to camp, the words of "Where you come from?" greeted us around every corner. Upon our response of South Africa, the answer of "ahh Sous Africa", or ahhh soccer World Cup 2010! or my personal favourite "ahh Saudi Arabia" followed. This was when we discovered that communication in English would be a big, big problem. You literally need an interpreter to help you speak to someone. Well anyway as we finally arrived at camp, we were greeted by the rest of our "patrol" – 8 adult leaders from the Philippines (each patrol should be app 10 members). Well thankfully, they offered to cook – which was soup, rice, vegetables or rice, vegetables, soup, or vegetables, soup, rice, depending which time of day it was. No meat!!! The meal was however very tasty, and now that we had some of Korea's finest foods, we spent lots of time talking, comparing customs, ways of life and general comparisons between countries. Looking at our itinerary for the next day, we were amped, because it indicated we would be doing the X-games…. cool!
Friday 11Aug
After a bright and early wake up, we were a bit saddened to find out that the KSA changed our schedule and wanted us to partake in the tour activity. We would now be visiting one of the Ancient temples, a trip to an ecological park and then to the World famous green tea fields. Admittedly not as cool as the X-games, but hey, on this trip everything eventually turned out to be cool. This was where Pule and I found out just how friendly, humble and genuine the Koreans really are.
Our 1st stop was at a Buddhist temple, and legend has it that because for many years (during the Japanese occupation of Korea) this religion was outlawed, most followers flocked to the mountains to hide. Thus you find most of these temples are situated in relatively hard to reach, mountainous areas, but are open to the public to attend. It is a very interesting and humbling experience to witness these people's dedication and discipline up close. Then as we were on our way out, we were swamped with gifts/souvenirs, to remind us of this wonderful place. We next stopped off at a park to enjoy lunch and explore. We then proceeded to the beautiful green tea gardens. It is unlike anything I ever saw before, and is really a sight to behold. It is HUGE!! It is a major tourist attraction, and there are even parts that require you to ride in a cable car to see more of it. What was quite strange though, was the fact that many people wanted us to pose in pictures with them, even those that were not part of the jamboree and were visiting for the day!!
On our way back to camp, Pule was invited to represent SA in the opening parade of the Int. Yeosu Youth festival, being held not far from the site. At the same time the "area commissioner" (Miss Ok Ran) plus Exec director (Mr Kim) of the Incheon Council, offered to show me round Suncheon. It is like any other town, except lots of bright lights, lots of karaoke bars and lots of shopping malls. We then had dinner, Korean style (with a Japanese twist as I was told), at a local restaurant. This is an experience I will never, ever, ever forget. In a nutshell…. soup, rice, vegetables (of which raw cabbage, dipped in a hot pepper sauce was most popular it is known as Kimchi of which there are 3/4 diff. variations, raw fish (or sashimi) fill the table. The meal seemed to be buffet style, but I felt that as sign of respect, I should try a bit of everything. Let me tell you what comes next is not for the faint-hearted. The meal is essentially divided into three parts – cold (raw) bits, hot (cooked) bits and vegetables, which I only found out after the meal. This is something I will not forget and was really a great experience. The Koreans also enjoy either ice cold water, coke or soju (gin) to accompany their meals. I left there feeling like a million and one dollars. I totally had the best night's sleep, not knowing what lay in store for me the next day. (Incidentally Pule had a ball of a time as he interacted with lots of scouts his age, and even had the privilege of listening to the legendary U2 at the festival…and he returned with a ton of gifts!)
Saturday 12 Aug
As we were guests of the KSA we once again moved from our itinerary. The great thing though was the fact that we would be spending the day at the beach. It was an absolute scorcher, but the sea was crystal clear, the beach was packed. The 3hrs spent on the water seemed to fly by, as the activity leader shouted that it was time for lunch. We were all drinking water as if it were going out of fashion. Luckily, by now we were getting ice cold water…frozen in some cases, but even this could not stand up to the heat as it melted very quickly. Afterwards we embarked on the bus ride to our next stop…the Suncheon Teen Festival, but first we would be the honorary guests of the mayor of Suncheon. On our way there though, there was still time for more drama.
The bus we were riding in broke down along the road, which turned out to be great, since we then had time to really interact with the rest of the people on the bus. We took pictures, made jokes, exchanged ideas, and after what seemed like 5mins, but turned out to actually be an hour, the driver just turned the switch and the bus was ready to go. So we were once again on our way, we finally arrived to meet the mayor. After the impressive "press conference" like meeting with the mayor, we were off to the Teen Festival. We could not stay long, so we did not really get a feel for the festival. The main aim of the festival is to entertain the youngsters while they are on holiday, with things like face painting, arts and crafts, karaoke, dancing etc the main features. The great thing of this festival though was the fact that it was run by teens for teens. Well it was over so quickly, and before we knew it we were on our way back to the campsite. It was hard to believe, but it was our last night on site, so Pule and I decided to go and visit some of the people we met over last few days, try and swap more things and general socialising. When we returned back to our camp, we had a small "party" with the locals in our camp and ended up going to bed quite late.
Sunday 13 Aug
This morning we decided it's best to start the day off properly and attend a church service. It was presented in Korean, so we were pretty lost most of the time, but luckily there was translation for the most part of the service (the service was run by an American priest who has been in Korea for the past 30 years).
As soon as the service was over, we were off to the X-games activity…. finally. This was really exciting, as you could do any number of things for as long as you wanted. Well not to be outdone, we decided to do every single thing…. BMX, tri-ski, skateboarding, rollerblading, pogo stick jumping, archery and watch the hip hop dancers in action (and try some moves too!!). The ones we could not get around to were graffiti and block building (where you use wooden blocks and try and build shapes as high as possible), but this was due to the pouring rain again. During our lunch break, we where treated to an amazing show featuring top Asian rollerbladers, BMXers and a DJ. The one part of the entertainment featured a number of people laying on their backs and the bikers and the rollerbladers jumping over them, and the number of people increasing with each successful jump. Somehow I knew they were going to call me to be a "volunteer", and I ended up being the last person called in a 6person human chain. It was actually quite scary, as you see that wheel landing just next to you on the ground…. glad I survived that!! As the day started passing by, we started realising that when we reach camp, we have to start packing up and prepare ourselves for the closing ceremony.
As we arrived back at camp, all contingent leaders were invited to an official closing with all the dignitaries from the KSA and Asian region. It was really a fancy do, with all the trimmings. There was a presentation of gifts from the KSA to all the contingents, and those who had gifts presented them to the KSA, as signs of gratitude all around. There was lots of food and then also a mass exchange of ideas and contact details. As this ended we made our way to the area where the final closing ceremony would take place.
Closing ceremony
It seems that the KSA pulled out all the stops to produce a well-constructed closing ceremony, full of patriotism, passion, creativity, flair and talent. There was even a slot where scouts, with talent, could entertain us with whatever they have. The show was wrapped up by the best-selling Korean group and solo acts, which were actually also best selling in the whole of Asia. All in all there was never a dull moment during this ceremony, and it made the two hours seem very short indeed. As we posed with the many contingents that were leaving immediately, you actually feel a bit sad as you start saying goodbye, even though you do not know these people well. That night the camp actually looked deserted, but those who were leaving the next morning all seemed to get together and socialise whole night. And this is when it hits you that the Jamboree is over and that you could possibly never see these people again……
In Conclusion
As we were flying home and I reflected on the time that went by, one thing stuck with me… I have to do this again. I learnt so much about humility and friendship and how a little effort to use it goes a long way. The KSA really planned this jamboree well and hats off to them as it was no small jamboree. It ran well, all foreign contingents were made to feel very welcome and at no time did we feel unsafe. On a scale of 0-10, they would get 10/10!! It was really a pleasure for me to represent my country and lay down foundations from which we can work to go and explore the EAST.
Recommendations
With all the interaction we had, I think that we as the SASA should make an effort to link up with the Asian bloc, as these people really want to see more of us on their side of the world and vice versa. The people are very hospitable and are willing to offer home hospitality and cultural tours in an effort to show the world their country. All it requires is dedicated liaising between us and any of the Asian countries.