The 19th World Jamboree was held in a purpose built global village just outside Santiago in Chile, from the 27th December 1998 to the 7th January 1999. The theme of the Jamboree was Building Peace Together. I camped with some 24,000 other Scouts from all over the World on one huge Jamboree camp site. The Jamboree camp site will be split into 24 smaller sub-camps, each containing 1,000 Scouts and their leaders. These sub-camps will be grouped into 3 villages, which will have it’s own supermarket, post office, first aid facilities and laundry. To give an example of the size of the camp site, it took about one hour to walk from one side of the site to the other!
During the Jamboree there was 3 different programmes, they are:
1. Massive activities
2. Free time activities
3. Modules
The massive activities explain themselves. They were the activities that brought together the 24.000 Scouts. There was only be three massive activities, they were the opening ceremony, closing ceremony and the New Year celebration, which was a party I will never forget.
The free time activities consisted of games, exhibitions, traditional Latin American crafts and also hi-tech activities, such as computing and a chance for the Scouts to go on the Internet. We were given two free days to go around these activities, but we needed to make more time of our own to visit the vast amount available to us.
The modules were the parts of the programme which every person experienced. The were:
Whilst I was there I will met, worked and socialised with many people from many different countries around the World. Only an organisation such as Scout Association could manage to plan such an enormous event for so many young people.
After the Jamboree I also be stayed with a family for five days home hospitality either in Brazil, which allowed me to learn and understand even more about another person's country and culture.