World Jamborees: 1999 Report
1998/99 - 19th World Jamboree Picarquin, Chile
27 Dec'98 to 6 Jan'99 / Participants 34 000 / Countries 157 / South Africans 90
Theme: Building Peace Together Report by Clinton Payne of 1st Durbanville
The World Jamboree is the largest event ever in the Scout Movement. It is when Scouts from all around the World come together and join in jamboree. It is the second largest gathering of people from all around the World, second to the Olympic games. This jamboree was attended by 34 000 Scouts, Scouters and members of the service team, which were all accommodated just outside Santiago, at a place specially built for the event called Picarquin. There were people from more than 160 countries present at the global event. The majority of the people came from the countries in South America like: Brasil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and then of course the locals from Chile. There were plenty of Americans, Australians, British and Germans present. We represented Africa in the largest numbers, being 90 odd, and 15 Zimbabweans, of which 5 joined us for the pre-tour.
The pre-tour to the Jamboree provided lots of insight of the continent, some of the most spectacular and breathtaking views in the World, cultural differences and travelling. We visited 6 different countries, but only got to tour 5 of them, being Argentina, Paraguay, Brasil, Bolivia, Peru and Chile. With 90 people all dressed uniformly, it was not difficult to be noticed by all the girls and foreign locals at airports and all about the streets of South America. There is so much to say and so much that we saw, it opens your mind and makes you realise that the world is a stunning place and everything is an unbeatable, permanent experience. We start off at home with our shakedown camp.
Cape Town - South Africa
We had the shakedown camp at the Sandvlei Sea Scout Base, to inspect kit, get neat, short hair and 'uniform' our uniforms. We also got to know each other better and get acquainted with our Western and Eastern Cape Members. We had the camp from 7th December to the morning of the 9th, when we left for the airport after waking up at 04:30. We joined the rest of the Contingent from Gauteng, Durban and surrounding Provinces, as well as the 5 Zimbabweans on the plane. We flew out of Cape Town at 09:00 SA time.
The Pre Jamboree Tour
Buenos Aires – Argentina
We arrived there at 14:30 local time and waited until 19:00 for our next flight to Paraguay. While waiting, we slept, talked to local girls and got a few hundred photos with a group of girls leaving to tour America. Our plane was delayed for an hour and we could not get food at the airport, because we had no money available, so we simply sat and laid around the airport waiting.
Asuncion - Paraguay
We arrived in Paraguay the same day as we left South Africa, so we had been cruising for 24 hours without any sleep. From the airport, we still had to take a few busses to our sleeping place, which was a school and municipal buildings next to each other. The whole Contingent was divided into 2 Troops being the Umkomas and Pongola Troops. I was in the Pongola Troop with Wildebees Patrol. We slept in the school and Umkomas in the municipal buildings. We were in bed by 01:00 (SA 06:00).
The next day 10 December, we spent playing icebreakers within our Troops, and walked around the area. Oh my hat, that place is in bad shape, the roads have pot holes that even 4x4's would be scared of, and the houses are typical to what the T.V. shows with the red half-round roof tiles and walls scratched as if Freddie's been there and done that. Well the next morning we left on luxury busses at 01:00 to tour Brasil and a bordering city of Paraguay called "Ciudad Del Este", meaning City of the East. The local Scouts hosted us there for breakfast before leaving for Brasil. We also viewed the biggest Hydro Electric Scheme in the world between Paraguay and Brasil called the Itaipu Dam, which generates 120 million watts of power. It has 18 turbines of which 9 belong to Paraguay and 9 Belong to Brasil. Each turbine pumps about 700 000 meters cubed a second through the turbine which is 10 meters in diameter – extremely mind boggling powerful if you ask me.
Iguacu - Brasil
We only toured Brasil for that day, but what we saw was such a spectacular marvel of nature, that it truly took your breath away. The place I'm talking about is the Cataracta Falls on the Parana River. It truly is one of the most beautiful sights of nature in the world. Afterwards we went to a place called the 3 frontiers, where the river divides Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay. We came back into Paraguay that evening and arrived at the school at 24:00.
Back in Paraguay
On 12 December, we had a tour of the city centre, which was guided by the local Scouts. We went on buses and that's where you actually realise how bad the roads are. The city was quite developed and had lots of street vendors and shops. We had lunch on a little island where we swam and ate lunch. On the way back we spotted a Mac Donald's and all of us went mad - pretty amazing what effect it had on us. The next day was Sunday 13 December and it was hot. We went on a train to an outside town, which was famous for its pottery. We spent all day looking, buying, eating and swimming until the train came back to take us home. That evening we went to McD's and had a farewell party. We departed the next day for La Paz and took these buses which had a mind blowing ear blasting sound system to the airport, and we partied all the way.
La Paz and Lake Titicaca - Bolivia
We flew out from Paraguay and stayed in transit at Santa Cruz for 5 hours at 250 feet. The short flight was quite a stunner, because we landed in the highest airport in the world which brought an altitude difference of 11 000 feet above sea level. The landing was nice with views of snow capped mountains and we were soon to suffer the consequences. You step outside and you are met with a headache. A few people got really sick and actually got sick all over the airport. The hotel we stayed in was 5 star so we made full use of the facilities such as hot water, comfy beds, coco tea, McD's and Cartoon Network! The next morning we left for Lake Titicaca - the highest large lake in the world. We went on 2 luxury catamarans and I had an unbeatable buffet breakfast on the sun deck. We stopped at an island called "Island of the Sun", where we encountered our fist sightings of ruins from ancient Inca times. The tour ended in Copacabana, still part of Bolivia, where we walked around and waited to be cleared at the border.
Puno and Cusco - Peru
We took a while to get through the border into Peru, because security took a large number of coffee breaks while we were waiting in line. We eventually cleared the border and stayed in Puno overnight before leaving the next morning by train for Cusco. The train ride literally "rocked" all the way, we couldn't even write on the train the way it bounced along. We passed the 11 hours on the train by playing cards, cards and more cards in the form of cheat and poker. On arrival in Cusco we went to our hotel, got our rooms and went to sleep. Cusco is known as the Ancient Capital of the Inca Empire, and all we saw proved that point.
Next day Thursday 17 December - we had the morning at leisure where we met Peru Scouts. In the afternoon we had a guided walking tour of the city and learnt a lot about the history of the Incas and the Spanish invasion, which made the Incas fall apart. That same day, my wallet got pick-pocketed from me and man was I fuming. Next day we went horse riding for half a day and saw incredible amounts of ruins, which make it hard to believe that humans actually made what we saw without machines nor the wheel - the place was called "Sacsywaman" which means zigzag, which was the formation of the walls.
Pongola Troop went on the Inca trail for 2 days, which was spectacular to hike. The surroundings are so green and the mountains give way into these deep valleys and mountains reaching over 5 000m. Our highest point was at about 2 700m, which was amazing, because at this base camp I viewed over the valley and mountains for an hour. I then went with a few friends to ruins which were close to base camp called "Whinyay-Winya", and watched the sunset like ever imagined and never before.
The next day we hiked the last stretch and ended in famous ruins called Machupicchu, where we toured the place and spent the day there – these Incas must have been an amazing and crazy race. We went out every night as well, when we were in the city, and there they invite you with open arms to come "partay" in their "crib". The next day we went river rafting, which was very enjoyable, accept for the fact that we had the wind against us and almost died of the cold. Our last day there was a tour of a famous market town called Pisac and more ruins in the sacred valley, which gave insane postcard pics. We flew out the next day to Lima where we waited for our connecting flight to Santiago.
Santiago - Chile
Wednesday 23 December - we had a welcoming ceremony and got divided to go stay with our host family at their homes. On Thursday, we had a free day with our families, where my fellow hosted Scout family and I joined another host family for a day at the beach, and had a "bar-be-que" at a holiday house of theirs. I have now surfed the Pacific Ocean and none of my friends have! The beach was called Santa Dominga and the waves were 3 foot and the water not too cold. Christmas Friday was very filling, because we went to a small water park in the morning with the local Scouts and ate a buffet. We then went to the South African Ambassador's Residence and had a braai and socialized in Afrikaans with his nice daughter and a few of his delegates. We then went home and had Christmas dinner with our host families and opened presents after midnight. The next day 26/12, we left Santiago for Picarquin and the Jamboree.
The World Jamboree, Picarquin – Chile
Well we left in 3 busses from Santiago filled with psyched out SA Scouts armed with SA Flags and tons of "gees" (Spirit). There were huge convoys of busses filled with Scouts from around the World entering the Jamboree site and we were escorted by lots of guides on bikes. When we got our site, we were separated from Umkomas Troop, who were on the other side of the campsite. We were in the Tiahuanaco Village in the Diaguitas Sub-camp, and shared our Sub-camp with Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Thailand, Bolivia, America, Germany, Israel, Canada, Sweden and Great Britain. Each Patrol got a box with equipment and 2 tents, so we set about setting up camp. The Aussies were next to us and the British across from them, so there were a lot of sheep noises and boasting about rugby teams and cricket.
The Opening Ceremony was a day later than planned so we had 2 days of exploring and acquainting with the World. There were lots and lots of girls, which made it so much better. There are girls in Scouting all around the World accept in South Africa and maybe one or two other countries, so trying to get real friendly was a mission to be accomplished.
The Opening Ceremony was on Monday the 28th in the evening, and seeing all the 34 000 people gathered together in one place was surely a sight to behold, with flags going mad and the sound of everyone singing the Jamboree Song. The jamboree was declared open by the President of Chile, President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. We got to bed late that night, but awoke early the next morning to do our activity for the day.
Each time people had to go to an activity off site, there were 280 busses to transport the people. The activities they had there were Community Service, a Commando Course, the Global Development Village, Educational Day out, where afterwards we went to a central area and had heaps of fun in an amphitheater, an overnight hike and a Sub-camp day, which was spent playing games from around the world against countries in the Sub-camp.
We played rugby against Australia, England and Argentina, after being challenged, and defended our countries record by defeating Australia with 10-0, England by 30-0 and 35-5 in two different games and Argentina by 30-15 in a seven aside. We also played cricket and whipped the rear end of theAustralians and British. I got a really pretty Swedish girlfriend and made everyone jealous.
The new year's party was unforgettable and we spent all night and morning, partying and being crazy.
The closing ceremony was very enjoyable and everyone went mad again in singing the songs. Among these fun filled night activities were campfires and fiestas. We, the South Africans, had uniform dress and stuck out in good ways for our country. In my opinion, us South Africans have one of the best uniforms in the world.
The jamboree (Sunday 27 January 1988 to Tuesday 6 January 1999) was an experience of a life and anyone who can attend it in Taiwan in 2003 must, and you won't be disappointed at all, so start saving and go enjoy Scouting at its maximum! I will be giving a presentation on the jamboree in the near future and any families interested will be welcome. I trust you enjoyed reading this, but try LIVING it, it's insane and really an experience to have. I must say thanks to my dad for paying for it, after all without him it would not have been possible. Go for it – you have one life, so live it!
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