It was cooler than I expected in the morning. I turned off my fan around 5 in the morning but never needed to pull anything over me.
Got up at 6:45 and got prepared for breakfast. A few of us joined in the ten-minute walk to the dining hall. When we arrived the queue was ridiculously long, it took 50 minutes to get inside the doors. However, it was a decent breakfast, egg, ham, toast, cornflakes, and soy milk.
We got back to our subcamp and had our first meeting at 9:30. Some information on how things will be working, what we are doing now, and such. Our Subcamp Chief is Korean and doesn’t speak English which makes things a bit trickier. Luckily, we have a Deputy from the UK who has done this before and he seems to know what he’s doing. Also seems to take care of his staff, which is good in these conditions.
During the meeting there were some fighter jets flying over the campsite, some of them quite low. Me and a couple more built and organized the storage area where all our equipment goes. A few things to consider, among the rain that might come sideways.
We ate our packed lunch. No protein but at the time it was sufficient though. I don’t get that hungry in the heat.
After lunch, we built more shade for the participants. Surprisingly effective.
The rest of the afternoon contained more fixing and building, combined with lots of water and rest. The heat is no joke.
Left for dinner at 17, the queue didn’t seem as long as breakfast, but it took about 40 minutes. Rather good, a bit spicy. During dinner, we got a warning through the Jamboree app of imminent heavy rain, 20 mm per hour. Lots of activity on Discord to close up all the tents and dig ditches.
I waited in the dining hall with Moa and a couple of friends for the rain to wear off and for the IST opening ceremony. After a while, I left and checked out the IST hub, and then took a shower. The drain was blocked so the floor was basically flooded by 5 cm. I managed to unblock it and when I was finished the floor at least wasn’t covered in water.
The opening ceremony was pushed 30 minutes because of the rain so it started about 20:30. Some speeches, the Jamboree-song, some introductions.
There has been a lot of criticism of the site itself. Most of the toiles aren’t working, missing soap and paper. Just a few showers are open as well as water posts. Long lines for the dining hall. Too few places to find shade.
The Swedish contingent gathers our feedback and passes it on to the Jamboree organization. They also made clear that they, together with a few other contingents, are talking and demanding improvements. There is a lot of frustration among the ISTs because of the conditions and quite a few are getting treatment because of the heat.
After the IST opening ceremony, I decided to cross the fields on my way back, instead of taking the road around them. Mainly to check the conditions. To my horror, there was quite a lot of water in the fields. At one time I got knee-deep.
When I got back to our subcamp I found that the pegs of my tent had let go, thankfully it sort of stood anyway. I managed to tie it to the pallets using zip ties so I hope it will stand during the night and I’ll have to check more tomorrow. I’ve got some water into the sleeping area, but only the inner part that’s not on a pallet and I’m not using (passed the mattress).
And just as Im sitting in the tent, writing this post, the pegs on the back of the tents let go and the sleeping area almost collapsed. I think I would have been able to sleep anyway, but since I hadn’t gone to bed yet, I stepped out and borrowed a couple of large, half-a-meter ones in iron. That should hold it in place until morning at least, when I can fix a more permanent solution.
The sad part is that I have sort of started to count the days until we leave, and this is even before the participants arrive. The heat is an issue all day and almost all night. As soon as the sun goes down you get surrounded by quite aggressive mosquitoes. Add that with the watery fields and currently lack of satifsactory basic functions, it’s easy to hoping to get away, soon.
But, first I’ll do my best to give the roughly 2200 participants in our subcamp a Jamboree to remember, hopefully with more positive than negative memories 🙂
