As part of the Ambassador programme, each one of us takes part in a dinner exchange. One chance to host someone from a foreign country, and one chance to visit one. My troop hosted Mario from Honduras.
Mario came to our site at around five pm and we had an hour or so until the food would be ready. Our troop site was not the most aesthetically pleasing, and was a bit messy because of how busy our day was. We couldn’t have Mario thinking that this was how the Irish live, so while I distracted him, some members of the troop ran around throwing everyone’s clothes into tents and cleaned up the site.
I have to say that the chefs did a fantastic job on dinner this night. It was by far one of the tastiest meals we have had and I’m sure we impressed our guest. We had chicken and pasta with a tomato bolognese sauce and brownies for dessert.
During dinner conversation flowed. The whole troop made sure to make Mario feel comfortable and welcomed. Everybody introduced themselves and were eager to learn about Honduras. This was the highlight of the evening for me, and made me proud to be part of my troop. Mario himself was very interested about Ireland and asked lots of questions. We learned that he is studying medicine in college we got to explain to each other the differences between our school systems. We also learned that Honduras has a special fruit called rambutan, which is like a grape but pink and spikey.
At the end of the evening, Mario and I exchanged neckerchiefs and I recieved a lovely waggle as a gift. My patrol got on with him so well that we also gave him one of our patrol neckers. In return, he later gave us his home troop necker. Dinner was a success, and we had a lovely evening! These little things are what make the Jamboree so special.
