As a Global Ambassador I got a participant of a Exchange Program. Everyone got a name who they got to invite to a meal in their subcamp. And they will be invited one day to a meal. Monika from Slovakia got my name so she invited me for the 27th of July to the dinner.
We met at 5:30pm at the Stadion, because her subcamp is B and my Subcamp is C so I didn’t know where to go. She picked me up and showed me the way to her campground. While we were walking we talked about the Global Ambassador Program we already did. I talked about my experience at the scuba diving and she told me about her experiences at mount jack. She said that there are a lot of people and you can do great activities.
At her campground I got to know her leader. She was so nice and tried her German skills while we were talking. Monika also learns German in her school and I was surprised how good is actually is. Because they understood me easily and we had a great conversation about the schools, the polity, the jamboree and the friendships between scouts.
We talked especially about stealing at scouts, because in the last days a lot of people have stolen powerbanks and mobile phones from the charging station or even from the plugs right in front of the shower. We three agreed that scouts shouldn’t do it, because we should be a big family and in a family nobody does something which they wouldn’t like done on themselves. Everyone promised to be respectful, helpful and caring about other as they did their scouting promise but such people who are doing these kind of things aren’t good for the community.
After we talked we got ready to eat dinner and because I’m vegan they did a fruit salad.
Before the dinner they sung a song and gave me a bag with some goodies from and information about Slovakia. I was overwhelmed with what effort and kindness they were preparing for me. I gave them the badge of my unit Leibniz as a little gift, because we weren’t allowed to bring some actual Leibniz cookies from Germany.
While the dinner we talked in English and talked about the different languages and habits in our countries. We had a lot of equal traditions and she was surprised what kind of traditions we have in Germany. Like the fire we are doing in our promise Ceremony and the shouting before our meals. We make a rhyme before the dinner specially made for this day and then starts someone shouting a verse and the rest will answer. There are four or sometimes five verses we shout and then we start to eat.
Monika told me that they only sing a song but I find it really nice and I enjoyed it, because the German tradition is so hard and seems kind of aggressive to some people.
After the dinner we talked more about such little things like our comfortable life at home. We both miss our family, the plugs, the electricity, the food, the bed… but we also enjoy the jamboree and took a picture of this experience together.
It was really nice to talk to her and get to know a lot of scouting and living in Slovakia. I can’t wait to meet her again to trade neckerchiefs.
The idea of the Exchange meal is great and I’m looking forward to invite someone for the dinner on the 31th of July!
