Last weekend our unit met for the third time for another training weekend. It was a chance for us to undergo many activities whilst strengthening our friendships and making new ones. We arrived on the Friday night (except the people who had their prom that night) and after putting tents up were put in our patrols. From now on we will be in the same patrol every time we meet, including at the actual Jamboree. By changing patrols over the first two weekends we had a chance to get to know quite a few people and voted for who we wanted in our patrol at our second training weekend. We were given a tube of Smarties that we could eat (but we had to keep the tube all weekend) and an origami star. We then had the chance to think about our patrol name. As our unit is called the 'High Flyers', we stuck with the aviation theme and our most popular idea was the 'Trolley Dollies'. We were then given cake and a chance to chat with our patrol before going to bed.
The next morning, one patrol had to be up before 5am in order to make us all breakfast for 6. Luckily I wasn't in the breakfast patrol so I got more of a "lie in", lasting until 5:40. This was to help us get used to early mornings, as our breakfast in Japan could be delivered as early as 4am, and if we don't collect it, we won't get breakfast. Another way our leaders decided to help us prepare was through the contents of our breakfast - a three course meal of miso soup, bacon and scrambled egg and a cold salad made of beansprouts, soy sauce and sesame oil. Although the miso soup and salad didn't appeal to many of us, our breakfast in Japan will be very similar, so it's something we have to get used to. We then went outside to do activities with some IST members who were camping with us.
My patrol's first activity was tag rugby, which didn't go too well due to confusion with the rule that you can't pass forward. In the end, it turned into a girls v boys game in which we were encouraged to tackle the boys to the floor for extra points. Next, we moved onto the courts to do laps whilst touching the floor, jumping and changing direction in response to numbers that the IST members were shouting. There was a punishment of 10 sit ups for anyone who went wrong or walked instead of running. At one point, the whole patrol got a punishment of 10 sit ups, star jumps and 10 press ups. Then we did relay races and a jog around the football pitch. As tiring as it sounds, it was still fun (sort of). To finish off, we had to play catch with water balloons and try not to pop them. This was quite challenging and in the end we ran out of balloons and had to blow more up.
After we'd finished our activities with the IST, we headed back inside for a talk on sex and drugs at the Jamboree. This talk was entirely confidential so I can't talk about what was discussed, but there were some very funny questions and leaflets including '101 ways to show someone you love them without having sex' (my favourite of which was to wash each other's hair :P). Then the unit split in half to do two different activities - first aid training and entertaining each other. In first aid training we learnt about sterilising wounds, different types of plasters, how to bandage sprains, treat burns and scalds and put people into the recovery position. The other patrol entertained us by showing us how to make origami peace cranes and we entertained them with games of 'Word Association' and 'Ninja'.
My patrol made lunch, which basically just involved heating up chicken bites and mini pasties. We were all very hungry after our early breakfast and were eager to eat up. After lunch we had a presentation from two people who attended the last World Scout Jamboree in Sweden in 2011. This got us all really excited for our own trip (apart from Kyra who fell asleep :P). Then we had free time which involved planning our patrol's activities for our trip to London in December, a very interesting game of catch, hockey, plaiting hair and generally chatting with each other.
We then set up the community centre next door to the campsite ready for our fundraising quiz. We all had the chance to invite people to take part for a fee, however, I didn't sell any tickets as I live quite far from the campsite so no one wanted to travel that far. The unit members were also allowed to make teams. Our team name was '5 Guides and It' as our team was made up of five Guides and a Scout. The quiz included rounds on General Knowledge, Sport, Music, Film and TV and Guiding and Scouting. At the end there was a raffle draw and the announcement of the winner of our balloon release (which you can read about at http://kyratojapan2015.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/balloons.html) - ME! I get £50 off my Jamboree fee and the person who bought the balloon gets a £50 pound shopping voucher. The person who found it (in Vosges, France) will also receive something. Then we packed away and started a campfire for the Year 11s to burn our revision on.
Then next morning, many of us woke up at about 5am again despite the fact we could lie in until 9. We had a few hours to entertain ourselves so we started playing a game of catch. In the end, we wrapped some string around the ball we were throwing and created an obstacle course for people to navigate. Eventually this turned into a blindfolded activity and provided a lot of entertainment for us.
There were two activities planned for the day so again, the unit was split in two. First I had team building with a visitor from the RAF. This involved learning about the different skills and qualities that make up a good team, such as cooperation, communication, listening, trust and honesty. Then we had the chance to learn more about Japan through wearing traditional clothing, learning the language and making origami peace cranes. Then we had a very sweet lunch similar to the one on our first training weekend and packed away our tents. Then we had a couple of games of Irish snap (a game that had been played a lot over the course of the weekend) and cleaned up the Scout hut.
Then we had a talk from our leaders about the Jamboree uniform and kit uniforms and we were also told what the purpose of our Smarties tube was - to collect 20p coins in. From now on, we'll have a competition to see who can get the most tubes full by each training weekend. We were also given a paperclip to swap for something as valuable as possible (inspired by One Red Paperclip). So if you want to offer a swap for my paperclip, I'd be very grateful.
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