- 24th World Scout Jamboree - https://www.2019wsj.org -

Participating in a jamboree as a small country can be scary

Hi, my name is Gerli. I’m 15-years old and live in Estonia. This blog is from a perspective of a person, who’s winters are usually cold with snow and summers warm and sunny. My summers are usually around 20°c-27°c so coming here was both hell and heaven for me at the same time. “Why hell?” you may ask. Well, the temperature in West Virginia has reached up to 37°c during the time I have been here and that is pretty unusual for a girl from a rather Nordic country. “Then why heaven?”  There’s a very simple answer to that. Firstly the people around me and secondly the nature. 

I arrived in the middle of the night and didn’t know where I was supposed to meet with the other global ambassadors in the morning. I texted every ambassador who’s contact I had and almost everyone answered on a me within a half hour period. Note that it was around 5am. So I got to my meating and was kinda scared because I was afraid than since I’m from such a small country nobody would really hear me and talk to me. Fortunately that though vanished immediately when I sat down and met the eight other global ambassadors who made me feel so at home in a place so far from Estonia. We talked about our countries and how we were all late to the very first meeting or didn’t get to attend that at all (I hadn’t arrived in the camp yet). As it turned out we all had something in common. For example I thought my country with only 9 participants was too small for anyone to notice but then I met Ismael who was one on two participants from Guyana and had already made friends with I think everyone he had met. This place really is a place where you can meet new people, learn how your differences bring you together and how easy it is to make new connections. During my stay here I will also try to tackle topics like “what should you do to make your jamboree experience more exciting”, “most useful camping equipment” and “why should you participate in upcoming jamborees”. This was my first day at camp and I look forward to writing here again.


My first 8 ambassador friends