Training camp 3

We gathered again for training and this time we did some proper camping. Yay! Out in the cold and the rain. Yes the weather may not have been cheery, but it didn't dampen our spirits as we did loads of fun things together as a unit.

To start the weekend...
We arrived on Friday night and pitched our tents. Then it was chill out time until we were sent to bed. A nice, relaxing start to the weekend. Catching up with what each other has done over the holidays and how our fundraising is going.

We were woken up at 6am, in the cold, and told we were doing some exercise. What??? 6am in the holidays. I don't normally get up until 7 even on school days. Anyway, we did a short run around our campsite and did some exercises like star jumps and quick bursts of sprinting.

WSJ23 - Wiltshire Unit Training Camp 3

So we were awake and sat down to have some breakfast. A bacon roll and cereal (comprised of either cornflakes or frosties). Pioneering was next, and we were given the task of building a horse shaped camp gate out of large pioneering poles. The criteria for the 'White Horse' (which is a symbol associated with Wiltshire) was that 3 people must be able to walk side by side through this camp gateway. It must also be able to be taken down in under 2 minutes (practice in case there is an earthquake when we get to Japan).

We also had a crash course on photography. How to make sure not all your photos are blurry and to get some creative inspiration into them.

Throughout the weekend we made some sushi.

WSJ23 - Wiltshire unit Sushi making

During the weekend we took a Japanese quiz to extend our knowledge on the Japanese culture and history. We also planned a route to go around Tokyo when we are there. This was very interesting, because we decided which monuments and places we wanted to visit, and we had to plan a day trip for the unit, with methods of transport and when/where we were going to eat.

On Saturday evening, we played a wide game which involved being chased, carrying spaghetti back to your base and trying to snap the other team's spaghetti before they got back to their base. Some confusion with the rules, but still a great deal of fun.

Sunday evening brought us a campfire, in which we shared songs, some well known and others not so well known. To our surprise our noisy, raucous of what we called singing, enticed the guides on another part of the campsite, who were also having a campfire, to join us. Though we suspected they didn't have a fire and wanted to use ours.

Monday morning brought around more exercise and some workshops to help us with our interviews and confidence and also how to portray scouting and the unit in a positive light.

After that it was time to go home, pack up, take down the tents and wait to be collected. Although for me it meant heading off for a tennis tournament.

My fund raising is continuing and I'll post an update on how I am doing with my recent activities

 shortly.  In the meantime, if you would like to donate towards my fundraising, please visit My Donate page.

Be Prepared

Jacob

Bowl-eree

We've had the first social with my friends who are going to the Japanese Jamboree.

On the 22nd of February we all went bowling! Beforehand everyone met up to discuss how we have got on with our fundraising and to gather more ideas. The goal of £3500 is gradually getting smaller!!

As we all expected, none of us were professional bowlers but we did manage to get the occasional strike. The aim of the social is to get everyone bonding and making friends throughout the group as we will have to live with them for 3 weeks. There will be many more socials to come as the time gets ever nearer to when we leave for Japan. Socials can range from a movie night at a scout hut or going out to bowling.



23rd World Scout Jamboree Wiltshire Unit Bowl-eree - Strike!!!

While we were bowling our leaders came round and showed us the Wiltshire Unit's badge for the jamboree. In it are tonnes of different symbolic patterns which mean different things to the Japanese, for more details click here

23rd World Scout Jamboree Wiltshire Unit badge

 Also, I would like to thank everyone who has been saving stamps for me as it helps with my fundraising, I already have my first kilo.  If you are going abroad this year,  please think about sending yourself (or me) a postcard as foreign stamps add to the value of the price paid per kilo.

Be prepared,

Jacob

Training weekend #1

Last weekend everyone who is going to Japan from Wiltshire went to Potterne for an indoor camp. When we arrived we set up our sleeping area and then played some icebreakers, in which we got to know each other a bit better. After we had played several of these games we made some chocolate cakes in oranges??? We hollowed out our oranges and put the batter into them, covered them with tin foil and put them into the oven. When we got to eat them they were surprisingly tasty, and very messy as the oranges were soggy. Eewww! Everyone was given hot chocolate and told that we, as a unit, are going to try and make 1000 paper cranes. The Japanese believe that if you make 1000 of these paper cranes before you die, you will be granted a wish. (Personally I think that our wish should be for someone to give us 100,000 pounds for our trip!)

Origami Cranes

The next day we were put into 3 teams according to the colour on our woggles; blue, pink and a weird shade of orange. I was in the orange team. For the first half of the day we were team building with exercises in our teams. These included building a big catapult with bamboo canes and rubber bands which we used these fire paper balls across the length of the hall. Once we had done these activities we were told that there was going to be a Japanese cooking challenge. We had to make a Japanese styled meal. We had a range of vegetables and meats to chose from and the 3 teams all made similar kinds of stir fry. Once that had happened we were given some guidance on what will be expected of us in our fundraising efforts, and some tips for what to do and we had a unit photo taken.

23rd World Scout Jamboree - Japan 2015 - Wiltshire Unit

The wide game for this evening was a game that I have never played before. It involved fighter planes (people with an 'F' marked on their hands) and bombers (people with 'B's' marked on their hands). Our mission was to seek and destroy the other teams hangers (a section of the ground marked by rope). To do this a bomber must get inside another teams hanger with a bomb (piece of paper) without being caught by a fighter. If you get caught by a fighter then you lose your life and have to go back to your hanger to get another one. Only fighters can attack other planes and bombers can't attack. If 2 fighters came together then you played a quick game of top trumps with one card whoever lost, lost their life. As well as attacking you also had to defend your own base so it was down to your strategy in how many bombers and fighters you had.

On the final day we had some more seminars on what to expect for fundraising and how to do it, then our parents arrived for a Q and A session. In this everyone was told what will happen in Japan. After, we were separated into fundraising groups, people living near to each other. In these groups we are expected to come up with fundraising ideas and to execute them in the real world to make the money needed to go to this educational and amazing trip.

More details on the fund raising ideas as we develop them.  Thank you to everyone who is collecting stamps for me as it all adds up.  Donations can be made on mydonate page.

Be prepared,


Jacob

Getting Started

Yeah! I've been selected for the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015.

Wiltshire is being represented by a unit of 27 scouts and explorers, selected from a short list of 100, and I am one of them.

23rd World Scout Jamboree

The selection process started with a camp at Youlbury over a weekend. We were put into groups of about 15 and went to different workshops throughout the camp. The workshops included juggling, litter picking, camp fire sketches and many more fun activities. After we had finished several workshops we had lunch. Afterwards our groups changed into groups of 5, which were to be the groups we slept in. Each group had a tent, brought along by one of the members, and we constructed it in the field.

We had several more workshops afterwards and we finished the day by everybody joining in a wide game. (A wide game is basically a game that is played over a wide area. Simple.) In this wide game we had to hunt for hidden leaders and get a word from them. Once you found all of the words you had to rearrange them into a sentence.

Throughout the weekend we were marked by 14 external observers who marked us on our enthusiasm, teamwork, tenacity, cheerfulness and enjoyment.  These scores were averaged and the top 27 were chosen!

Let the fundraising begin!

We now have to raise £3500 each for the upcoming event, which includes a contribution towards a solidarity unit from a country that would not be able to afford to send their scouts. we have started with a bag pack at Tesco before Christmas and raised £1400 as a unit.  We are now looking for more ideas to raise funds.

Can you help me?
You can a make a donation to my fund raising by visiting our online giving page on My Donate

We are collecting postage stamps to sell in bulk, please collect any stamps and pass them to me when you see me.

Details of more fund raising events will follow on here.

Be prepared!!

Jacob