Culture day was an incredibly unique experience, one you would be hard pressed to find in any other place than the Jamboree. Every country took out their tables and lined them along the road, putting out samples of traditional foods from their countries. For example, the Beach Mheala troop served a full Irish breakfast and potato cakes for lunch while the Australians served Vegemite sandwiches and the Mexicans traditional breakfast tortillas. With the Japanese we learned how to write our names in Kanji and about the Japanese tea ceremony. Finally with the Swedish we learned how to do an interesting crow/frog dance around and a cross that we’re still confused as to what the point off it was.

A highlight of Réitseals day was when she visited the Lebanonese troop for breakfast and was served freshly made nam bread and hummus. The Lebanese played traditional music and marched from site to site. The site’s mood instantly changed when they came in, chanting and singing. Their energy was contagious and inspired everyone to  jump up and joined in.

The highlight for Mark was definitely teaching people from other countries how to hurl and later playing a transnational game of hurling lacrosse where the Irish played with lacrosse sticks and the Americans with hurls. We were all out of our comfort zone. The scores were a bit all over the place so it was hard to keep track and as results no side clearly emerged victorious, although we like to think Ireland won.