The final
camp that Sally and I helped with this summer was the National Jamboree. I
first heard of this event back in the early spring and immediately expressed an
interest in going because of my background in scouting. I had attended the
American Jamboree in 2005, and was excited about attending one in another
country.
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| Sally standing next to our smallish tent we spent 9 nights in. |
Sally and I
worked it out with the Khentii scouting executive so that we could attend as
scout leaders. Since this was not a Peace Corps planned event, we were not
required to teach; rather, we just went to support our students from the
schools in Khentii.
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| View of our campsite from uphill |
Mongolian
Scouting is different than traditional Boy Scouts in America. Like most
scouting programs outside of the States, Mongolia is co-ed with boys and girls participating
from ages 10-18. Also unlike most western scouting programs, some of the more
subtle aspects of scouting have not reached Mongolia. For example, the
principle of Leave No Trace is not usually applied.
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| Sally and I with some of the students and a teacher from her school. |
Sally and I
piled into a mekr (15 passenger van)
on July 25, and headed to the site of the Jamboree in the neighboring province
of Тов (pronounced: Tov). This is the same province that Ulaanbaatar the
capital of Mongolia is in. The site of the Jamboree was at a sort of resort
town nestled in a scenic mountainous region about 20 km outside of UB. The camp
site was on the slope of a treeless mountain just outside of the developed
resort area. Our scout troop was really accommodating and provided us with a
small pop-up tent to sleep in. Overall around a thousand scouts came to the
Jamboree, and all 21 aimags/provinces were represented.
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| One of the dance numbers at the opening ceremony |
Activities at the Jamboree were
varied. There were some days spent doing things with campers at the campsite. Other
days were centered around scout patrols participating in a round-robin of
activities and short classes. In the middle of the Jamboree, a day was spent
celebrating Naadam, where the scouts dressed up and competed in wrestling and
best traditional dress.
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| One of our scouts showing me how to start a fire with a battery and a stick of gum |
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| Sally with a patrol that is participating in a group activity. |
The
evenings often contained various dance and talent competitions. There were also
two exciting ceremonies at the beginning and end of the Jamboree, where a
number of Mongolian celebrities and traditional dance groups showed up to
entertain the scouts.
Sally and I
spent most of our time with our students. Sometimes we would join them in their
classes or play games with them. It was also a good opportunity to practice
Mongolian with the kids, and some of the scouts were interested in speaking
English with us. The literal high point of our jamboree experience was an
afternoon where we escaped the camp to climb a nearby mountain.
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| Trees!!! |
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| The valley I am facing has the resort town and Jamboree in it. |
Another
aspect of our time at the Jamboree was interacting with various foreign scouts
that came. There were two international troops: one from Great Britain and one
from Taiwan. The adults in the British troop were hilarious with deep accents
that almost required an interpreter. We also got to make friends with a number
of the scouting representatives from Korea, Singapore, and Australia who were
scoping out the site for the Asian/Pacific Jamboree that will be in Mongolia
next year. There were also a couple of Americans working on the staff who were
world travelers. One of them had served with the PC in Nepal, traveled to over
70 countries, and handled the more difficult aspects of Mongolia like a pro.
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| Traditional Dress on the Naadam Day |
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| Wrestling at Jamboree Naadam |
The final
absolutely mind-blowing coincidence was meeting a Mongolian Jamboree staffer
who had worked at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in the summer of 2010,
which was also a summer that I worked there. I even found myself vaguely
remembering him because I took a number of groups to his activity site where he
taught a class on archeology. At the time, I most likely assumed that his
ethnicity was Native American with no idea of how far he was from home or that
our paths would someday meet on the other side of the world.
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| Two former Philmont Staffers a world away |
Overall the
Jamboree was a lot of fun. It was great to spend time with the children. It
seems that the summer camps of this year have taught Sally and I the importance
of dedicating more of our time focused on interactions with children in our
schools.
After eight
hot days without showers, Sally and I left our troop and traveled into UB for
some much needed R & R. We stayed a couple of nights in a guest house to
wash the stank of the camp off, and then broke into our American savings to
stay in a nice hotel in the city center. It was a luxury to have so many
comforts like air conditioning, television, room service, saunas, etc. The trip to UB marked our summer vacation. We
had originally planned on traveling into western Mongolia, but after three
summer camps in one month we found that we really just wanted to relax in
style.
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| Our troop from Khentii |
~Caleb
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