Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A Night in the Dark; A Day in the Park,

Nighttime shift again here at headquarters. It's another cold night here at Hylands Park. (See the attached picture. Yes, that's me wrapped in a sleeping bag while on duty.) A brilliant full moon stares down on us as we await the dawn of the new century of scouting.

At 3 a.m. it's another evening of sorting out the jamboree issues of the day. So far tonight:

**Two Indian girls just arrived at camp with their two leaders at 12:30 a.m., and we had to be sure they had sleeping bags and a tent to keep them warm.

**There are thousands and thousands-and more thousands-of neckerchief scarfs being distributed to the sixteen subcamps as we speak. The scarfs will be worn by the scouts at tomorrow morning's sunrise ceremony. Some of the subcamps are not as patient as others, and I have one particular chap at the Atoll subcamp who has called me three times in the last two hours wondering where his 300 missing scarfs are...I think he wants to put a special scarf around my neck.

**The propane at the on-site hospital is apparently not working properly, and I am in the process of getting it back up and running with the help of site operations. There is only cold air blowing out at the present time, and the doctors want to get the situation fixed. There's the phone now....
(---The propane tanks are full, but still no hot air coming out, so there must be some other problem. We may be in for some extra blankets until morning arrives.)

**A scout from nearby Sussex showed up at the entrance gate around 12:45 a.m. and wanted to come and spend the night with his troop located in Wadi subcamp, but he had no credentials, and he will have to watch the ceremonies tomorrow from the news footage.

There have been a number of lesser dramas this evening, and all in all, just like Mark and Chip stated in their earlier entries, the weather has been great during the day. Warm, sunny weather all day today, and the weather forecast is for more of the same for the remainder of this week. We have certainly been fortunate so far. Troop 220 scouts were due to participate in a service project for the local community today under the "Starburst" offsite program. I will have to check up on what their assigned task was, and how they did, when I go over the reports here at headquarters.

Located in the center of Hylands Park is Hyland House, and behind it is a garden that is probably the best kept secret of the Jamboree. The chief gardener for the Chelmsford Borough Council (which owns the Jamboree site, and is on the management team for the entire Jamboree) gave me a tour early this morning.

The gardens are beautiful, and on Saturday Prince William and the Duke of Kent attended the dedication of the One World Garden that is to be the lasting legacy of this jamboree. The attached pictures can only partially convey the beauty of the area. There is even a large Sequoia tree in the midst of this secluded area. And to think that this space is surrounded by over 40,000 scouts, only several hundred yards away.

Well, that's all for now. There's another call on the phone...