Centenary Camp 12-15/5 2010

Clever scouts by their camp kitchen.

The group's annual camp had a centenary theme, with classical scouting activities. Chief of the Camp was Eva, who sported a lovely, handmade Guide Leader uniform from the early 60ies. The scouts listened tentatively when she told them how scouting had developed in Falkenberg since 1910.

Eva, missing her hat, in the middle of the camp reception area.

We also had an inaugeration ceremony for our latest Gilwell leader, Marcus. Some of our oldest active scouts from the district participated and we were told old memories of among other things a football match in the summer of 1947, where among others the Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and the UN Secretary General Folke Bernadotte played on the Scout's team against one of the leading Swedish football teams of the time. A few months later, they were both dead in plane crashes.

Marcus, our latest Gilwell leader. Well done!

On Thursday evening, after having lowered the flag for the night, the scouts walked quietly in the sweet dusk back to the house for their hot chocolate and were met by the booming voice of B-P, and a pack of Cubs from a century ago, a recording found on The Scouting Pages. This made a big impression on most.

Tom, from 22nd Oxford, and Victor, getting ready for Kim's Game on the trail.

On the Friday we celebrated the centenary with a BBQ buffet, with appr. 80 out of our some 120 members present. The weather was with us, and the sun stayed until the end of the campfire, when the scouts again walked together in the dark, on a light trail, where qoutes and messeges on paper bags, lit from the inside by tealights, expressing the scouting spirit lit their way, together with sweet smelling insense soothing music, jingling chimes, mirrors, candelabers, chinese lanterns...

For once, there is pop at camp! You can't be healthy always, and when there is a party there should be pop, shouldn't there?

On Saturday morning it was time to pack up in the pouring rain. But just as we got together to lower the flag for the last time together and say goodbye, the sun broke through the clouds and we went home dry after all.

Pioneering in the rain.

Back from camp

Sorry, my intention was to keep you posted during camp and upload pictures too, but I got too busy, writing for the camp wall paper, being around for the kids and also participating in the adult and leader program. I wish I could have done more things: I missed out on the discussion groups and the seminars, but managed to pursuade one of our parent helpers to take the teaser seminar for parents, helpers and aspiring leaders. I did go to two Chi Gong classes, in the most beautiful spot you can think of, I got to go out on the sailing boat Mandalay (first time sailing), I had a number of cups of coffee, and roiboos tea in the friendly café, where I got to speak English to Hilary from Tasmania. (The coffee was free if you brought your own cup and bought a cake, so I had a number of yummy muffins, brownies, carrot cakes and mallow cakes too I'm afraid)

View from the Chi Gong class
Mandalay from a distans

We had a lovely camp. The kids were extremely well behaved and did us proud in lots of ways. Petra and Kerstin in our camp kitchen served breakfast, and lunch when the scout got back from their morning activities, and then they did their tasks: One six was responible for chopping firewood (which was an easy task, as many of the younger scouts love to practise with an axe and therefor had done most of the chopping already); another filled the water barrells and saw to it that the hot water tank got topped up, and water for handwashing and washing up was available and three sixes cooked for the others. Everyone got to try all the stations during the week, exept for the Explorers, who did very little cooking, but helped out all over where it was needed.

Lighting the kitchen fires

Recipies can be difficult to read

All in all we were 56 people on our plot. We had taken cubs and scouts from 10 and up. Most stayed for the duration of the week, but we had to let two go home due to sore throats, and two scouts bailed ship for going on holiday, respectively celebrating a loved relative's 80th. As we shared resources and leaders with Varberg's scout group, we were plenty of adults on site, and it felt almost like a holiday.

Relaxing was possible in all weather

The youngest member in the village was Lukas, who is five and came to his first camp with his granddad. The oldest was Torkel, who is Group leader for Varberg. He is 75, and still going strong, and also helped organising the the camp, so he was on site when we arrived, and won't be coming back until Wednesday this coming week.

The kids had a wonderful time, in spite of the first couple of rainy days. The morning activities were meaningful and thought provoking, although some of the leaders thought them to academic for scouting: A great teaser for the new program to be launched this autumn. Some sixes got a talk on journalism and writing for the paper, and then got sent out to do little pieces on a deadline, that were then published in the camp wall paper, or on the blog the next day. Others built sculptures out of refuse, made up a country and then learnt about how easily war breaks out, and the danger of retaliation with out thought, when their "counties" were destroyed by others. This exercise stirred many emotions, but was a great discussion starter.

Understanding what's behind the billboard headlines

The scouts also got to try forum theatre, "the theatre of the poor", acting out dilemmas that they had come up with on the theme "oppression". Some acted out school situations and bullying, whilst some of the older scouts thought of political tyranny. Every day scouts were bussed into the nearest town to collect money for charity, and in the end got almost 10 000 SEK together for the "Grand day out foundation", a charity that help fulfil seriously ill children's wishes.

The rock band Marilyn entertained the last evening. The singer admitted to being very impressed by scouting and having had to abandon a lot of prejudice after being booked for the gig.

In the afternoon the scouts had a wonderful smorgasbord to choose from: Making friendship bracelets, soap football, organised water fights, canooing, sailing, swiming for the younger ones and also viking jewlery, and black smith forging for the older. On top of that, there was a range of activity bags to be borrowed from the Information tent: Giant Chinese sticks, ludo, butterfly exploration packs, water experiment packs, rock climbing, absailing, obsticle course, etc, etc. The Adventure scouts went on a 12k hike one evening, and the Challenger scouts were on a midnight adventure game, where they were to save us all from environmental terrorists. (Don't ask me! I haven't the faintest, but it sounded exiting and went on until 5 in the morning.)

Two of our Challengers. Not the English woggle on Victor's necker

In the evenings we were all nicely tired out and the kids went to bed without to much ado, except for after the great camp fire when spirits were high coming back, and most nights they were accually asleep by midnight, except for the Challengers, who sneaked back from their disco/speed dating/kareoke/whatnot in the woods.

All in all, a wonderful experience, and I like to thank the organizers, the leaders and all of the kids for a wonderful week. And thanks also to all you parents who trust us with your children.

At camp again - Agema Kragenäs Sweden

It's difficult to see, but the top sign accually says "No camping"

On 1st of August 1400 scouts from the western part of Sweden got together on the meadows of North Bohuslän, close to the Norwiegan border. Arrival day was good. The scouts from Falkenberg had travelled by bus for 3,5 hours. We found our camp site, a seemingly well drained peace of the field, just by the fresh water taps, but miles from the toilets. Work commenced imediately: The kitchen got going, cooking supper, the tents went up (three tipis, three gilwell, 1 troup tent, 3 tunnels) and the kids worked really hard. We tumbled into bed at about nine in the evening, completely shattered all of us.

On Sunday building was continued. We got the seats, and the roof for that, two kitchens for the kids to cook on, washing and washing up area and other, a bit more ornamental constructions. The weather was fair, although rain had been promised between 8 and 9pm, just when the opening was planned, so we all prepared by putting our rain gear on.

The stage had a beautiful setting, with the sea and the rocky little archepelago islands behind it. The organizers welcomed us to a camp for both body and soul, and urged us to us to think, and think of others during camp, and when we get home. The rain didn't start until 10pm. But then it kept raining...

Today, activities started. Our scouts had media training: One group went to work for the camp wall paper, and the other learnt about press, and what is news and how to see the story behind the news piece. The Challengers scouts were challenged by writing forum plays and act them out in large groups. The leaders felt a bit obsolete for a change, and had time to relax. With no younger Cubs on site, Marie and I had time to enjoy.

Unfortunately, the weather has had a turn for the worst and it's now continuously raining. The weather report says rain tomorrow as well, but on Wednesday it'll be 26 degrees centigrade and sunny! But the sailing boats are in the sea anyway, and there is plenty to do. We try our best to stay as dry as possible, cover in the tuch shop or in the café, or brave the rain, doing archery, playing games or just walking. It's too wet to build. The staff are doing their best to keep us entertained and happy in the mud. I've been promised to use the computer if I promise to blog for the camp blog too. I hope to be able to make the same arrangement tomorrow. And I hope it has then stopped raining.

District Cub Camp 2009

It seemed to have everything against it - 3 out of 7 groups pulled out and we only had a third of our Cubs down to go. The weather forcast was abominable. As Eva and I sat in the car down to the district camp site on Friday afternoon, we were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into...

Pitching the tipi


Chinese sticks in the rain

The first 20 hours were very, very wet. The rain was wet, the ground was wet the firewood was wet, the kids got wet through their rain gear, we got wet through our rain gear... We realised how spoilt we are, having our own hut in the woods, with facilities to dry gear and kids off, running water and water closets, when the kids almost refused to go to the privies.

Kubb, the viking game, works in any weather.
Brave Cubs

Our 10 kids became 7, when two boys got too wet and cold (one had forgotten to pack rain clothes though...) and one of the girls felt too far away from home for her liking, and they wanted to go home.

The Saturday held fun, slightly icky, and difficult tasks to solve. The aim was to win keys to help the Queen retreive her treasure.

Fishing for keys in all sorts of wierd stuff.

The consistant rain didn't prevent the Cubs in our neighbouring group to wake up at 4.30 and almost waking the whole camp up with their "cheerful" shouting, before their leaders took them for a long walk before breakfast in the rain 3 hours later.

Söndrum's new camp kitchen. (Worked beautifully with DRY firewood)

7 hours later, the ones that did stay got their reward when the sun came out. But then the wind picked up, but luckily not enough to prevent the Cubs to take the cannoes out for an hour or so. Some even ventured a swim in the freezing river! We supervised from a dry spot beneath a tree, well away.

They did go in the water, I promise!

The water level had risen almost 40 cm from the rain! The wind made the waves choppy and difficult, but everyone got to get out for a little while on the water.

Not even the parafin could get the camp fire going properly, but the Cubs enjoyed the singing and the entertainment, then had a cup of cocoa before tumbling into their now slightly drier tents. Only one, not ours, girl had to get picked up during the early hours of the morning as she got sick.

We slept quite well during the night, even if the wind didn't die down. The Cubs practised juggling and had a play, got packed up, and had hot dogs before the parents came to get them at 1pm. All that remained seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

Then we drove back and hung the tipis up to dry in the scout hut, went home to have a shower and a nap and started planning the next camp! It IS fun to be a Scout leader! (Almost always)

As the term is ending, the Cubs are now on summer holidays, and my role in scouting is changing this will be the last entry for this blog as you know it. It will be back though, most likely as general scouting blog, reporting from all age groups, possibly focusing on the new program, training and activities.

Group Camp 2009 - Nils Holgersson's wonderful travels

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (Orig. Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige) is a famous work of fiction by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, published in two parts in 1906 and 1907. The background for publication was a commission from the National Teachers Association in 1902 to write a geography reader for the public schools.
"She devoted three years to Nature study and to familiarizing herself with animal and bird life. She has sought out hitherto unpublished folklore and legends of the different provinces. These she has ingeniously woven into her story." (From translator Velma Swanston Howard's introduction.)
Selma Lagerlöf, like many leading Swedish intellectuals of her time, was a friend of Swedish spelling reform. When published in 1906, this book was one of the first to adopt the new spelling mandated by a government resolution on April 7, 1906.

The book is about a young lad, Nils Holgersson, whose "chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief". He takes great delight in hurting the animals in his family farm. Nils captures an elf in a net and the elf turns Nils into an elf too, which leaves him shrunken and able to talk with animals, who are thrilled to see the boy reduced to their size and are angry and hungry for revenge. In an attemped to stop one of the farm geese from joining his wild fellows on their migration north, Nils takes off on the back of the goose. The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually take him on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden observing in passing their natural characteristics and economic resources. At the same time the characters and situations he encounters make him grow: Nils needs to prove to the geese that he is a useful companion, despite their initial misgivings. When he proves that he has changed his ways, he gets turned back into a boy. (Text adapted from www.vikipedia.org)

More pictures with captions at Picasa

Wild Kids

For a couple of years Swedish public service tv has been airing this children's show, were kids of the same age as our older Cubs are sent out into the forrest, divided into two teams and fight eachother in various competitions. It is very popular, and the host is also the editor of the leading children's magazine, the century old Kamratposten (Roughly: Friend's messageboard). But instead of people being voted out of the competition, as is the normal way of doing it in various reality TV shows, the teams gain new members for every won competition.

One of the "trofees" this year is a scout, and a brilliant spokesperson for the organisation. As it happened the guide that took the winning team on a safari adventuri in Africa is also a scout! Now scouts in Sweden are using Wild Kids as a mean to recruit new kids.

The Temperence scouts' symbol

The Temperence Scouts in Varberg, the next town north, contacted our vice Group Master a few days ago, and told him that they had arranged a Wild Kids Camp in our town, but as they haven't got a group in Falkenberg, could they refer the children to us, if they wanted to join scout on a more regular basis. And of course they can! So to properly introduce ourselves, and to check out what they were doing, Markus and I went along to find 30 Wild Kids trying to find the long forgotten treasure of the two rival families Lionhead and Bearclaw.

The Bears and the Lions, trying to find the hidden treasure

We were also pleased to see, that some of the children there were old friends: Some who gave up scouting because of lack of time or because their friends dropped out. Hopefully it means that they might come back to the group.

Parents, tied up and padlocked, waiting for their children to solve one last piece of the adventure.

The activities were great! I just hope that we can continue to inspire the kids through the term. The new national program will help, when it gets released in the autumn. And some more leader activities to inspire them!

Planning the summer

On Monday Tracker scout leaders from the district met to plan the District Tracker Scout Camp. It will be held at the district camp site Hjörnered, in Laholm and the theme will be an old TV-show, where the participants in small groups solved tasks, like digging for clues in grimy pots, climbing high walls and solving riddlesto win keys. The program sounds VERY exciting!

We met at Sönderum scout hut. I've never been there before. It is a lovely 70ies building, inspired by log cabins, with a large room with a high ceiling, and big windows out towards the surrounding residential area and far away I think that I could glimps the sea.

On both sides of the hall is smaller rooms and it was in one of these we met. Söndrum had put up a wonderful sandwich table, with lovely breads, cheese and salami, that helped made the discussion constructive.

From Falkenberg's point of view we came with the suggestion not to arrange the camp this year, as two out of the district's 6 active groups has declined coming, and as we have lots of activities on in May, we had only managed to get about 5 out of 35 interested in going. Then we got the news that a third group had pulled out! Perhaps we could do something else instead, like going to a nearby district's camp?

But as it turned out, Laholm and Söndrum had a good number of kids that had already commited to going, so we decided it was worth it for them. And this week, we've had a few more of our kids contacting us, wanting to go. So, it's on, and it's going to be brilliant!

Water

It's the last day of the mid-term holiday today. The sun is shining and melting all the snow that fell last night. About 20 Cubs and Scouts came to the pool for a play, and to give a little to the Scout funds. We read the Thinking Day message and before the kids and some of the leaders hit the water we talked a little about how lucky we are to not have to worry about malaria when we go on hikes, and that we have clean and cheap health care.

Kerstin, a scout leader

After playing about for 90 minutes, I read a letter from a little girl in Ethiopia, who told about the lack of drinking water and school toilets. The letter is part of the UNICEF campaigne for helping children i Ethiopia, and this week the Cubs and Scouts are going to start selling the UNICEF drop of water-pin, to collect for this charity.

All in all, we had a lovely time!





Afterwards some of us leaders met up to plan for this summer's big camp: Agema, that will be held the first week in August. We hope to take at least 30 scouts. It will be held at Kragenäs, 250 km up the coast, and the program promises lots of good fun!

2008 Group Camp

Every year the Falkenberg Scout Group goes to Tranabo over the Ascension Day weekend. The Scouts, Explorer and Network scouts arrive already on Wedensday evening, as the Thursday is a national holiday. On Thursday morning the Juniors (10-12) arrive and then on Friday morning the Cubs (the Miniors) finally descend on the Tranabo forest. When the Cubs invade you know it! The theme of this years camp was water, but the Thursday's rain had dried fairly well before the Cubs were dropped of by their parents and left in the care of two sea monsters, one crazy fisherman, a diver and the little mermaid.

Well installed in the old military tents, the cubs commenced cooking their lunch on Trangias, with the help of the leaders, helpers and parent-helpers. We were lucky to have two dads joining us on this camp too, a new one and one that we apperantly didn't manage to scare off on the last sleepover. They were great!

On the lunch menu was a pasta dish with a ham sauce, raw carrots and cucumber. All the sixes were happily chopping away, and soon enough chomping away at the results. The Cubs were happy to share their food with the leaders and helpers, and believe you me when I say that they'd done a beautiful job of preparing the food. It was absolutely lovely, and the pride in the children's faces when we praised their cooking skills!

We had our friend Tom from Oxford with us. We accually have three Cubs whose mother tongue is English, but being inquisitive and curious the others weren't stopped by any language barriers either, and Tom was a very popular leader at camp.

After lunch an adventure trail was laid out for all at camp to enjoy। The sixes were mixed with older scouts and among other things the cubs and scouts got to try Ph-measuring, building a pressure driven PET-bottle rocket, panning for gold, target shooting with water guns, getting an egg to float, and shooting off waterfilled baloons with a catapult made out of bamboo sticks. The local paper came and did a piece on the camp.

When the trail was finished it was time to start cooking again! This time the Cubs cooked us a Sausage Stroganof with rice, served with tomatoes and cucumber. Again it was delicious!

In the evening there was a camp fire, where classical songs were sung, jokes said and some traditionally bad acting staged. After Kumbaya everyone walked back to the house for rosehip soup and a bun before bedtime.

The sky was filled with stars and the warm day was followed by a cold night, and some of the Cubs was a bit cold during the night, even if they had put extra night clothes on. But all survived 'til morning and at breakfast it was already warm enough to sit outside with our porridge, sandwiches and the left-over rosehip soup.

After an obsticle course and the packing up of all the equipment, it was time to lower the Swedish flag and the Union Jack that had been flying over camp. We summed up the camp and thanked eachother for making it the best camp ever. Then we sang the scout song and walked back to the road where the parents picked their tired, but happy, children up again.